They arrived to find Finn already waiting for them. He seemed a bit more sure of himself than before, though he was still eager to ensure he didn't mess up in front of the Captain. Now that she knew that most of the crew only knew Jack by reputation and rumour, the engineering officer's behaviour made a lot more sense to Tosh.

"Good to go, Officer O'Neill?" asked Jack.

"Yes Captain. It's a bit bulkier than when it arrived," he said apologetically to Toshiko, "but it will work. The coordinates will return you to the same time and place you left, so it'll be like you were never gone." The device was indeed bulkier, having been taped to something black, roughly the size of a shoebox, with wires running from one to the other. Toshiko quickly deduced that it was the new power source.

"Jack," she said. "We never did figure out why it brought me here in the first place." She glanced between the Captain and the younger man. "Were there coordinates set, or was it coincidental? I'd hate to think what would have happened if I'd ended up somewhere random."

"I think I can answer that," said Finn. "There weren't any coordinates set for the location, so it should have kept you in the same place, and moved only in time. But if the place where you had been no longer exists, it may have picked something -or someone -nearby to lock onto. I assume the Captain was nearby when it happened?" He looked between them and they nodded. He smiled, relieved to have been right. "Right, so it probably locked onto the Captain as a default destination."

"Wait, the hub no longer exists?" asked Tosh in alarm. "What happened?"

Jack frowned. "We were attacked. A bomb.. the hub was destroyed, completely." He saw Tosh's face. "Don't worry, everyone got out. No one died in there." Except me, he thought, but Tosh didn't need to know that. Nor the two officers behind him. "And anyway," he continued, "that was after your time. Nothing for you to worry about."

Tosh nodded, appeased. "So how do I activate this thing?" Finn stepped forward and pointed at two buttons.

"Hold this one to allow the power through, and this one to activate it. That's all there is to it."

"So simple," Tosh mused.

"It was once a child's toy," grinned Finn. Tosh smiled, then looked at Jack.

"So, this is it, then?"

Jack looked round at his two crew. "Can you give us a minute?"

"Of course," said Alexis, and indicated to Finn that he should move back to the doorway with her. Jack grabbed Tosh in a tight hug.

"I'm going to miss you," he said, in a voice quiet but filled with emotion. "This is the last time I'll ever see any of you from those days. Unless someone had an adventure they didn't tell me about," he smiled with a hint of humour, "but I don't think that's likely. Here, take this." He gave a note to her and she tucked it securely into her top. "Give it to me after the others have left. And don't tell them where you've been, remember."

Tosh smiled. "I won't. But promise me something in return."

"What's that?"

"Don't just exist. Live. If you have to be here, then at least live. When you enjoy life, those around you enjoy life, so you'll be doing everyone a favour."

Jack's face fell. "Tosh, you don't know what you're asking."

"I think I have a small idea, Jack. And I know it must hurt, a lot. But if you don't, you're cutting yourself off from all that makes us human. Already you have people like that poor man over there who are terrified of your very name. I'm worried about what you might become if you continue this way."

Jack nodded, though still looking miserable. "I'll think about it. I'll do my best." Tosh couldn't expect much more than that. She reached up and kissed him on the cheek.

"We all love you Jack, and we always will." She stepped back, and nodded to Finn and Alexis in the background. "Take care of him for me."

She pressed the two buttons Finn had shown her, and disappeared in a flash of white light.

Jack didn't move. A minute later, Alexis touched him on the arm, and was surprised to see a tear streak down his face.

"Come back to your quarters, Captain. Novak can handle the bridge for a while." He nodded and allowed himself to be led from the room.

And later, when their crewmates wanted to know the gossip, Alexis and Finn refused to speak about the matter.

There was a flash of bright, white light, and pain ripped through Toshiko's head, again. A moment later she hit the ground heavily, again. She groaned.

"Tosh?"

"Toshiko?"

Jack and Owen came running over immediately, joined a moment later by Suzie. Toshiko could feel Owen rolling her onto her back and looking for any signs of injury.

"Where does it hurt Tosh?" he asked.

"Whoa Tosh, what on earth did you do to the device?" asked Suzie. "What is this black thing?"

"Don't touch it!" said Jack, then turned to Ianto who was coming up behind him. "Ianto, containment box." Ianto nodded and quickly moved away.

Tosh was relieved to find the pain was much less than it had been the first time. Her head was pounding but she wasn't dizzy and her vision was only a little blurry. She sat up and pushed Owen away.

"I'm fine, just.. headache," she said. Owen huffed.

"I'll be the judge of that. You might have concussion. Come down to my office and let me check it out."

Ianto had returned with the containment box, and Suzie carefully -wearing gloves -placed the whole altered device in it. Tosh nearly laughed and told them it was safe to handle, but realised she wouldn't be able to tell them how she knew without explaining everything. And she'd promised Jack.

A short while later, Owen had given her painkillers and declared her healthy. She made her way up from the autopsy bay to Jack's office.

"Jack, I need to speak to you."

He looked up at her with concern.

"What about? Are you alright?"

She nodded. "It's about earlier, with the device. It was more than just a bright light, it was a teleport. I met you in the future."

Jack's eyebrows raised in surprise, then lowered again as he realised the implications. "How far in the future?" he asked.

"More than 300 years."

"Right." Jack stood and went to the doorway of his office. "Alright people, it's looking quiet for the rest of today, go home and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Really Jack?" asked Suzie. "It's only four o'clock, I could get some more done on-"

"Go home, Suzie." Suzie looked annoyed, but grabbed her bags. "I don't know what it is with her lately," said Jack thoughtfully. "She's almost obsessing over that glove.." he turned back to Toshiko as the other three vanished through the cog door.

"Actually, you had an interesting reaction when I mentioned Suzie," said Toshiko thoughtfully.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, surprised, kind of like.. she wasn't one of the people you thought I would mention. I wondered if maybe she's the first one of us to.. you know.. go."

Jack nodded. "Maybe. We all know Torchwood employees don't have a long life expectancy."

"Except you."

"Yes, well, that's a bit different. How much did I tell you?"

"That you're immortal, but otherwise human."

"Ah." There was a pause."OK, tell me the basics of what happened, but try to avoid details about myself. It's not good to know too much about your own future."

Toshiko nodded. "You were in space, on a ship, along with the rest of the ship's crew. One of the engineers was able to reverse the coordinates on the device to send me home again, but the power supply was ruined and he had to rig up a new one -thus the black box now attached to it." Jack nodded. "It took a few hours to be fixed, so I got to chat with you a bit, and when you had to, uh, work, one of the other crew members got me some food and took me on a tour of the ship." Jack was impressed. He must be a ranking officer if he could permit a stranger to be toured around the ship. He realised Toshiko was still talking, going on in wonder about the technological systems. He smiled. Of course she would have loved that.

"But I couldn't understand any of it, it was all in an alien language apparently," she finished, a little disappointed. "So I didn't really learn anything at all."

"Was there anything else?" he asked. "Anything I should know?"

"Yes.. well, no." Toshiko was torn. She wanted to warn him that the hub gets destroyed, and ask why he had singled out Ianto when asking how everyone was earlier, and ask him how old he really was. But she knew better. Mentioning the hub's destruction or that Ianto seems to become important to him might change the future. Then she remembered the letter.

"Here, you gave me this to give to you." She pulled it out and held it for Jack to take. He looked at it warily.

"I don't know if.."

"The future you only wrote this because he said he remembered receiving it."

"Oh," said Jack. "In that case.." He took the letter and opened it.

Dear younger me,

I've written this in the script of our home colony, partially to avoid prying eyes and partially so you can trust the sender. Since in both our times, the Boeshane Peninsula colony does not yet exist, it narrows down the number of options rather reliably.

I have looked forward to this day, to Toshiko's visit, ever since she first returned from it and informed me what had happened. And it has been as wonderful and as heartbreaking to see her as I expected. So many years, so many memories.

Obviously I had to tell her about not being able to die. I won't tell you what to do about it now that she's back in her own time -trust your instincts, because I already know which choice you'll make, and I can assure you, it turns out fine.

Trust yourself.

Jack knew which choice he'd make, and knowing his older, hopefully wiser self still approved, made it that much easier. He looked up at Tosh.

"How's your head feeling now?"

"It's still a little sore. I'm mostly just feeling tired now though. The stuff they gave me on the ship is probably still helping too." Jack nodded -there was the opening he'd been looking for.

"I've written here that you should be put to bed as soon as possible, and not left alone for the first night. Something about the drugs they gave you earlier. I'll get you a sleeping tablet and you can sleep here tonight."

"Ok," said Tosh.

Jack went and got them each a glass of water whilst Tosh sat down on the couch and waited. He pulled a pill out of his pocket and dissolved it in one of the glasses. He took them back to his office and gave Tosh the tainted one, along with a tablet. She swallowed it, then finished the glass.

"Jack," she said after a minute. "I'm going to repeat something I said to you in the future, in the hopes that it will sink in better if you hear it twice."

Jack looked at her with a combination of curiosity and confusion.

"Don't just exist. Live. If you have to be here, then at least live. When you enjoy life, those around you enjoy life, so you'll be doing everyone a favour. And I know it must hurt, a lot. But if you don't, you're cutting yourself off from all that makes us human." Jack frowned. What did he become in the future, to need to be told that? Tosh was getting drowsy now. "And Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"We all love you Jack, and we always will." Toshiko snuggled down into the couch a bit as she fell asleep. Jack sat down on the edge of the couch and kissed her forehead.

"Forgive me, Tosh," he whispered to the sleeping woman. "I'm not ready to have you know my secrets just yet."