Due

"So much for discovering what happened to her, then," Ianto said ruefully, approaching Jack who was standing in front of one of the computer terminals.

It had been a while since Stella had woken-up, she had been moved to the interrogation room, and Jack had been watching her ever since. He continued to stare as Ianto spoke; saying nothing himself, but accepted the cup of coffee he was offered.

"Still, at least she knows who she is. That's something, isn't it?" Ianto prompted. Jack looked at him.

"Yeah," he replied bluntly. "I suppose it is. It doesn't help us much, though. Keep a look-out for anything unusual in the area; perhaps more of the team came through one of the other Rift openings, under the radar."

"You don't trust her?"

"No, I trust her, as much as I trust you and Gwen. If we just knew why her memory's been wiped for almost the entire 3 years she's been away."

"Maybe she did it to herself?" Ianto thought out loud. Jack turned to look at him and frowned, then looked back at the computer screen, thinking.

"Do you want some coffee?"

Stella looked up in the direction that the voice was coming from, and met the smiling face of the dark-haired woman she had seen when she had woken.

"Oh, um...thanks..."

"Gwen," she prompted, walking down the steps into the interrogation room, a mug of coffee in each hand. "Jack said you took milk, no sugar, right?" she asked.

"He remembered," Stella replied, taking the coffee from Gwen, who sat down opposite her. They each drank their coffee in silence for a while, smiling at each other awkwardly.

"Good coffee," Stella said.

"Ianto's special Torchwood blend; it's a closely guarded secret," Gwen told her jokingly. Stella smiled, but then frowned, and set her mug down on the table in front of her.

"Are you ok?" Gwen asked.

"Torchwood Four...my friends are dead, and I can't remember them. I've lost the last 3 years of my life, the Institute has been destroyed; I have nothing to come back to. The world has moved on and I've been left behind with nothing to look back on and nothing to drive me forwards."

Gwen put her hand across the table.

"You'll remember, I'm sure you will," she told her warmly. "I've been retconned and my memory came back. All it takes is one specific image or person or whatever to trigger it, and you're clever enough to do it. Jack has faith in you."

Stella glanced up at her.

"You've read my file."

"I ..." Gwen began, but was interrupted by Stella.

"I'm not accusing; it's what I would do," she told her. "After all, you know nothing about me." Gwen smiled, though she couldn't help thinking Stella had meant more by that. Stella seemed to have an unknowable face, the type where it was difficult to gauge what someone could be thinking, or feeling. Useful for interrogating people, not useful when you were trying to interrogate them.

Gwen was interrupted in her study of Stella by the sound of footsteps descending the stairs to her right. She looked up to see Jack had finally made an appearance. Gwen got up, letting the Captain use her chair, and made an excuse about reports that needed writing-up as she left.

Jack sat without speaking, opposite Stella. She watched him sit, leant back in her chair, picking absent-mindedly at a scratch on her hand, and then spoke.

"You thought I was dead," she told him.

"Standard procedure," Jack told her simply. "Six months, and any missing or unaccounted-for Torchwood personnel are automatically listed as deceased."

"I know what 'standard procedure' is, Jack, and that wasn't what I meant. You thought I was dead. Didn't you?"

"I told you, you shouldn't have gone through the Rift, it wasn't safe. No-one ever came back alive before you."

"You didn't want me here. I was working under orders from the Institute – you weren't my commanding officer, Jack, and you..." She cut off quickly, not wanting to bring-up old arguments that had never led anywhere the first time. Collecting herself, she looked back at the Captain. "You could have had hope," Stella finished simply, unable to look at him. She was alone in the world, Jack knew. Torchwood Three was all she had left now. He could see - he knew - all the pain behind those eyes that no-one her age should have to bear, and knowing that everyone on this side of the Rift had given up on her and the rest of her team and thought her dead and gone these past few years only added to it. It dug into his soul to see it, though on the surface he let nothing slip; kept the cool, calm aura about him so Stella wouldn't see it in his own eyes.

"Jack," Ianto appeared at the top of the stairs, papers in his hand. "We're picking up reports of a 'strange creature' just outside Cardiff. It corresponds with one of those Rift openings."

"Dead, alive?"

Ianto shook his head.

"The reports don't say."

"Right, Gwen, you're with me," Jack said, rising from the table. Stella looked up at him expectantly, but Jack shook his head.

"Before you ask; no, you can't come. No 'buts'," he added, seeing that she was about to protest. Once he walked out of the interrogation room, he called Ianto over to him.

"I want you to reinstate Stella," he told him. A flicker crossed Ianto's face.

"You trust her?"

"Are you questioning my judgement?" Jack bounced back, but said it with a grin on his face to show he wasn't angry, then continued. "I don't think she's got anything to hide. Reinstate her; find her somewhere she can live; sort her accounts out. The usual. She's got 3 years of back-pay due..." he finished, following Gwen out to the SUV.

Stella sat where she had been left, her cup of coffee growing cold in front of her, feeling simultaneously helpless and fuming at Jack.

A noise caught her attention and she looked up. It was Ianto.

"Fancy a trip?"