Jack Harkness leaned against the front wing of the SUV and stared into the distance, trying to make out details on the building lurking just too far away (almost as if it was waiting for them). He could hear the occasional outburst of Japanese that presumably included expletives intermixed with frustrated sighs and annoyed mumbles.

Ianto was standing alone, arms folded across his chest, gazing blankly at the sandy ground. Occasionally he looked up, then gave the bumper of his car an irritated look as his attention was always drawn to the pieces of greenery that had been trapped when he had swerved to avoid a rather large pothole and had run over the sizeable weed . Finally coming to the conclusion that this wasn't really doing a lot of good because he couldn't get to it to remove it and clean it off, he glanced back towards the SUV.

Jack as usual seemed to be casually taking in the view without a care in the world, no sign of frustration just the hint of vague amusement, as if fate had bowled him yet another curve ball and he was contemplating the best way to return it and hit fate squarely in the crotch.

"Any luck Tosh?" Jack asked, slowly straightening up and moving towards the open door of the SUV, he knew what her answer was going to be, but there wasn't much else to say and it was better than standing in silence.

Toshiko sighed and shook her head. "Not really. nothings working properly, when I say properly I mean it's picking up interference from... well something probably that field we came through, either that or the SUV coming through it fried something, hard to say until I get the chance to take things apart and check."

"Not exactly an ideal place to do that," he replied, sand got everywhere at the best of times.

"No and if it gets as hot as it suggests it might... maybe we could make use of that building? Find a cool spot clear of sand?" Toshiko pushed the keyboard away and swung her legs around preparing to get out.

"Think we should hang around a bit longer, I'm guessing we could end up with a plus one before much longer and it's better if we can all stick together as much as possible," Jack said, offering his hand to help.

Ianto wandered closer to the forcefield, his fingers itching to clean up the bumper of his car, he sighed and turned his back, then walked purposefully towards the others. "How long do you think we've been stuck here?" He asked, he'd made several attempts to try and keep some sense of passing time, but was now well aware that he had no idea if they had been here for an hour or several.

Jack shrugged, "The sun doesn't seem to have changed position and nothing that shows the time is still working, so it's hard to say."

Ianto nodded, resigned to the fact that not knowing the time was probably the least of their worries right now! Glancing towards his car, he suddenly stopped and retraced his steps. "Car's coming," he said, then added, "It's Owen."

"You still with me Gwen?" Owen demanded, slowly bumping his way down the track. "Gwen?" silence.

Parking behind Ianto's car, he turned off the ignition and then threw the now useless headset onto the top of the dashboard. Grabbing his rucksack, he got out to take a closer look around.

Trying his phone briefly (just to be sure it wasn't working) he dumped it into his bag then slung it across his shoulder.

"Come out , come out, wherever you are," he murmured, slowly walking around the other car, at the same time checking the ground and looking for signs of a struggle (there were none).

He could see where the SUV had been parked and then moved forward, but the tracks seemed to stop suddenly. Narrowing his eyes he turned around again, taking a closer look at the car, but there seemed nothing particularly unusual about it, it was just another parked car. Bending down he picked up a handful of small stones, walking beside the tracks he stopped just before they disappeared, then threw one of the pebbles as hard as he could directly in front of him.

Ianto stood silently watching Owen as he walked around, trying to work out what had happened. He saw him pick up something from the ground, and guessed what he was going to do. "Think maybe we should move out of the way, looks like he's going to... OW!" A pebble his him hard on the back of the leg.

On the other side of the forcefield Owen was trying to gauge if there was something he couldn't see where the tracks seemed to end. He threw two more stones in rapid succession, then stopped.

Ianto yelled again as he was hit on the ankle bone and then on the back.

Jack sighed, "Well he can't see you can he?" he said, stating the obvious, although the expression on the other man's face suggested that he was convinced that he could!

Not satisfied, Owen then tried a slow underarm throw forwards, watching the pebble intently, but he couldn't make his mind up if it was disintegrating or disappearing. What he needed was a piece of branch that he could hold out and see what happened, he turned around, searching for something suitable. Oddly there was nothing, then he spotted the bumper on Ianto's car and the trapped weed- that would probably do it. Concentrating on keeping it as intact as possible, he struggled to release it.

"Jack?" Toshiko suddenly said, her gaze fixed on the ground. "Am I imagining things or ..." walking forwards, she stopped beside rutted tracks in the ground, then looked back at him. "The forcefield, it's moving!"

Jack stared at the ground, then towards Owen, who had finally succeeded in releasing the weed from the bumper and was turning back towards where he thought the forcefield was.

It wasn't exactly the strongest looking weed he'd ever seen, but he could hold it out in front of him and still hopefully keep a reasonable distance in case he was in danger of getting fried.

The sound of Toshiko's voice made him look up suddenly. "Where the hell did you ..." it was at that point that he realised he was standing beside the SUV. "Oh bloody wonderful!" he grumbled.

"Something like that," Jack replied, "And then we were four."

Owen sighed and pressed the weed against Ianto's chest. "Don't say I never give you anything," he murmured, walking past him and peering into the distance. "What's that over there?"

Ianto dropped the weed, brushed off his jacket then turned towards him."I would say thanks for cleaning up my car, but I don't think I'll bother." Pushing his hands into his trouser pockets he shrugged. "A building?" he suggested, a sarcastic tone in his voice.

"No shit Sherlock! I would never have known if you hadn't told me." Owen sighed, just what he needed, stuck in Never never land with the genie of the coffee machine!

"Gwen is staying back at base whatever happens, I take it?" Jack enquired, not in the mood for waiting until the small spat between the two men disintegrated into a full blown argument.

"Yeah, that's what we agreed," Owen replied, not bothering to add the obvious unless she decided to come anyway.

"Good. I think it's time we moved off." Jack nodded towards what looked like a disused road. "Presuming of course..."

The words were barely out of his mouth when the sound of the engine starting up made them all turn towards the SUV. "Seems fine," Ianto smiled cheerfully at them through the windscreen.

"Shall we?" Jack grinned and turned to Owen.

"If he's driving, I'll go in the back if its all the same to you," he replied, giving Ianto an annoyed look as he passed.

He quickly responded back with, "Tosh will like that."

"Tosh will like what?" She enquired, swinging open the door, curious about a conversation that she had apparently missed out on..

"Nothing," mumbled Owen, yanking open the other door and glaring at Jack. "Some people have a weird sense of humour... if you can call it that1"

Jack smirked back, then opened the passenger door. "Forward James, and don't spare the horses."

The SUV moved sedately off in the direction of the road.

To be continued...