A/N; Longest chapter yet folks! May be higher rated due to language. Between my housemates and the builders who have conspired to torture me sleep is out of the question, and this is the result. Enjoy my suffering, I deserve it for leaving it so long to update.

Now with added plot.

Never put all your electrical Rift-monitoring devices in one out-of-place SUV.

Somehow it lacked the ring of, 'eggs in a basket.'

Ianto looked around the car park to make sure no one had seen the mass of equipment in the boot. At least that's what he told himself, but the fact was the malfunction had occurred inside the car and so he was secretly expecting a member of a rescue service to turn up uncalled, and was irrationally disappointed when they didn't.

If there was any such thing as a Rift Monitor Rescue Service, he supposed, he was it. He was the cavalry.

As if fearing his frustration simply wasn't enough for dramatic effect it started to rain, and in the five seconds it took him to notice this fact it had run through the spectrum from drizzle to ark-building weather. He groaned to himself as he slammed the car shut and ran for the church's shelter, thoroughly irritated with this day already. Inside the place was deserted, and he was all too aware that the authority provided to him by his suit was null and void in this situation where everyone was in formal dress, as was the aid of the headsets which they'd decided would look too conspicuous. By all accounts, he was just another guest.

He found his phone and dialled for Jack, feeling slightly phased by how out-of-context that was. He didn't usually use his phone to contact Jack for anything Torchwood related. It blurred the remarkably thin boundaries of their established relationship, and it was just plain impractical to be screwing around with network providers when your work was as important as theirs was. Besides which Jack was notoriously useless at answering, usually too occupied with whatever he was doing. Which was why Ianto was pleasantly surprised when he picked up almost immediately.

'Ianto.'

'Jack, we have a bit of a situation.'

'Where are you?'

'I'm in the church.'

'I'll be right there.'

Jack hung up before Ianto had a chance to warn him about the rain, but it wasn't like he would turn up looking disheveled. He was just made of Teflon that way.

Ianto looked around. The church was suitably impressive, old and ornate, and he found himself wandering through to the back rooms without really thinking – it was just his training to scout out any new locations. It wasn't until he heard raised voices that he thought maybe he should have stayed where he was; he'd walked through a corridor and out of all the rooms lining it he'd managed to stumble on to the one containing Rhys, Gwen, and what sounded like a blazing row between them.

'..any excuse to put this off! If you don't want it Gwen you should just say rather than hiding behind bloody Torchwood!'

'I am not! Hiding! You're the one who brought my job into this!'

'Oh your job is it?!'

Ianto started to back away, feeling even more like he was intruding now that Torchwood had been dragged into the argument, but it was too late – a few muffled obscenities later Rhys stormed out of the room looking furious, and narrowly avoided walking straight into him. Ianto froze, and on realising just how suspicious he looked settled for mustering a polite smile. Rhys for his part was dignified enough not to call attention to the fact that Ianto had clearly been in the middle of backing away from the door, simply rolling his eyes and choosing to storm in the other direction. Ianto breathed a silent sigh of relief that at least his presence hadn't been revealed to Gwen.

He was interrupted by the sudden ringing of his phone, amplified in the wide corridor, simultaneously causing him to leap about an inch into the air and alerting Gwen that someone was outside the door.

He looked at his phone. Jack Calling.

Of course.

He tried to be quiet.

'Yes?'

'What? Ianto I can't hear you. Where are you?'

Ianto raised his voice.

'Sorry, I'm in one of the side corridors, just stay there I'll come to you.'

Gwen's voice echoed from behind the door. 'Ianto?'

Shit.

'Yes?'

'Ianto?'

'Jack?'

'What?'

This was ridiculous, he didn't even know who was speaking anymore.

'Jack, stay there.'

'Ianto I can't hear you, I'm coming to find you.'

Jack hung up, and Ianto ran his hands through his hair.

Well that couldn't have gone any better.

'Ianto?'

Oh yes, Gwen.

'Hello.'

'Is everything okay?'

His voice sounded more terse than he intended. 'Yes everything's fine Gwen, not to worry.'

'Are you sure? You don't need my help?'

'No, no you've uh.. You've got a wedding to get ready for!'

He hoped the tone of optimism would disguise the fact he'd overheard her fight with Rhys.

She sounded disillusioned. 'Yeah, you're right.'

There seemed to be no natural ending to their exchange, and he bit his lip and looked up, searching desperately for something reassuring and yet non intrusive to say in this awkward moment.

'..Would you like some coffee?'

'Oo yes please love.'

'Right just a minute.'

He turned his back to the door and for a second they both stood frowning on either side of it as they realised that he didn't work here, and had no idea where the coffee-making facilities were. Then he set off with a slight shrug, figuring he was bound to find them eventually. His mother had always said, 'In any situation find the kettle first, the rest will sort itself out', and he swore he'd developed a sixth sense for it as a result.

He tried to no avail to get hold of Jack again, so caught up in his attempts he didn't even realise he'd stumbled into a kitchenette until he was halfway through boiling the kettle. He resigned himself to stay put, if Jack was looking for him he was best off staying in one place.

He leaned against the counter. It was the first still moment he'd had today that wasn't spent in traffic.

In an odd way he felt quite content to be doing this, he could almost pretend he was back in the hub. It wasn't that he couldn't handle being outside of it; in fact he'd spent so much time there in the last year that he was glad of an excuse to leave. This wasn't a field mission though, nor was it a day off. It was some surreal place in between, where Jack was still in charge of the team but Gwen was, in a fashion, in charge of him. It made Ianto uncertain, and he was pretty sure Jack felt the same way.

Torchwood wasn't supposed to breed routine, but now it was broken they all felt its absence.

Speaking of broken, they were going to have to figure out what to do now the rift monitors were out of commission. He didn't even know what had happened, lightning had struck what must have been less than a mile away and he would think that must have fried the equipment if he didn't know Tosh had set them to be protected from electrical surges. He checked his pocket, thinking maybe the portable device he carried was unaffected. He held it in front of his face but no such luck; it was going absolutely nuts, as if there was an alien convention taking place mere feet from him.

Sighing he lowered it, and jolted slightly as it cleared his vision to reveal Gwen standing in the doorway. She looked like she was halfway through getting ready, which she probably was, and she was regarding him strangely. He guessed the fight with Rhys had really shaken her up.

'Gwen, I was just bringing this to you,' he finished making the coffee as he spoke.

She walked stiffly towards him, mimicking his mild expression. He frowned, and a second later so did she. That was weird, was he missing something?

'..Is everything okay?'

She stared at him, and then, very slowly, she repeated the words back with the exact same inflection, a look on her face as if she'd never heard them before.

'..Is everything okay?'

She cocked her head, and now he was well and truly creeped out. He reached out to touch her arm, trying to make her snap out of whatever bizarre trance she was in, but again she copied him, faster this time, meeting his hand mid-air. He looked from his hand to her face and found her eyes were moving back and forth subtly, as if she was reading something. He tried to take his hand back, but she held it in place.

'Gwen–'

He pulled back harder, but couldn't get free. This wasn't right, she shouldn't be strong enough to hold him. He was suddenly desperate, moving his other arm to help pull the trapped one back when he saw what was happening, and it took him a second to understand what he was seeing– electric blue currents were running silently from Gwen's hand into his.

What the fuck?!

'Gwen!'

Genuinely scared now he tried again to shake her off but she stayed firm, all the while her eyes out of focus. Seeing she wasn't going to listen he clutched blindly at the counter searching for anything to help him, grabbing the first object he found frantically and swinging it with a great deal of effort; it was the kettle. It connected with Gwen's arm sending her stumbling sideways, breaking her hold on him, and he flung his arm up to shield himself from the boiling water that spilled out, feeling some soak in through his jacket.

He stood with one hand on the counter, the other weighed down by the still dripping kettle, breathing heavily as he tried to piece together what had just happened. Gwen had been thrown into the counter, and she was leaning against it facing away from him, giving no reaction to the fact he'd just hit her.

He stayed at a distance, then asked after her shakily.

'Gwen?'

Still nothing.

Without letting go of his newfound weapon, he moved towards her carefully, then with the speed of someone removing a plaster he spun her around.

Water had splashed on her exposed arm, the skin searing white, and before he could even register his guilt that he'd done that to her the skin began to change, morphing into brick red where the water had touched it and then vivid purple spreading out rapidly in every direction from the burn. In seconds it covered her arm, and she turned to survey it, confusion showing in her expression. Wordlessly she looked up at Ianto, who stared back at her, horrified, as the colour spread from under her collar up into her face.

He continued to stare, entranced, as all the visible skin that had changed colour began to change texture too, becoming papery and following the spread from the burn. 'What the–'

He was cut off mid-sentence as his words seemed to wake her out of her reverie and without warning she lunged at him – automatically he shot to the side and the Rift monitor fell, crashing to the floor, almost drowned out by cursing words that didn't sound human.

Purple skin, blue currents, inhuman strength..

She turned. The monitor flashed wildly.

She went for him again.

That's not Gwen.

He ducked to his side, and moving so fast he wasn't sure what was happening he caught her in the head with the kettle as she passed. For an agonising moment she stood stock still, her skin completely changed now, and then she fell to the floor, no longer resembling Gwen or any other human.

The Rift monitor continued to sound urgently from the floor.

Ianto crept slowly forwards, nudging the creature with his foot. It didn't move. His wits began to trickle back and he snapped into Torchwood mode, eyes darting around to make sure no one had seen. He closed the curtains and looked quickly through the kitchen, finding some frayed twine at the back of one of the cupboards. He tied the creatures arms behind its back, keeping as much distance between them as possible while handling it. Satisfied he'd done as much as he could he finally silenced the monitor, and left the room. Then just as quickly he ducked back in to grab the mug of coffee.

He walked out again closing the door behind him, a little wide-eyed and with no idea where he was headed. Jack, he thought, and went to try calling him before realising both hands were still clutching the mug. Just then a surprised voice called his name and the coffee was taken from his hand – he followed it up to see Jack stood in front of him, thanking him for the drink. In different circumstances Ianto might have been concerned by the fact that there was apparently no context in which Jack didn't expect to find him holding coffee, but as it was he just pointed with his newly freed hand to the kitchen.

Jack opened the door, and immediately got serious as he surveyed the darkened scene. Ianto joined him in the doorway. 'It looked like Gwen.'

Jack frowned, then mirroring Ianto's earlier reaction Torchwood mode took over.

'We need to secure this room. What happened?'

Ianto shook his head. 'It looked like Gwen, it attacked me but, water seems to hurt it. Made it change into..' he gestured at the still creature.

Jack raised his eyebrows. 'Water?'

Ianto nodded, still a little shaken. 'I hit it.'

'With what?'

'A kettle.'

Jack looked at Ianto.

Ianto looked at Jack.

Jack handed him back the mug and immediately made a call, soon instructing Owen to collect some gear from the SUV and to send Tosh over too. Ianto quickly thought to interject about the Rift-monitoring equipment, and Jack acknowledged his aggravation by throwing his hand up in an, 'of course', type of motion as he relayed the message. He began to pace and as he continued to hand out orders Ianto stood in silence once again, looking into the kitchen with a kind of disbelief at the sprawled alien before him.

Jack finished off and maneuvered round him, pointedly pulling the door shut so no one could see in. The last thing Ianto's eyes fell on was the kettle.

Bloody Hell, he thought as he stared at the closed door.

My mother was right.

A/N; You're probably sick of me thanking you for reading, but you have my thanks anyway, so Ha. Further thanks to everyone whose taken time to review, hope you'll consider doing so for this chapter!