They were thankful for a relatively quiet rift. Mickey was left to his task, mostly undisturbed. As the day wore on, Mickey glanced at the clock more and more. Sure Fish's wedding was in a week but there was a more immediate deadline. Even though Torchwood was a busy job with long hours, Fish and Henry made the most of their time, together and apart. Henry would often ring Fish, knowing that he couldn't answer, just so he could leave a loving message that Fish could listen to later. The couple would often send texts and messages back and forth throughout the day. Fish's silence was likely already troubling Henry. Time was running out. Henry had no idea that Fish had been crouched under his worktable picking up the same fucking tools for the past nine hours.

Ianto had ordered dinner for the team an hour ago. Mickey had been picking at his food while examining the lego piece. The half eaten slice of stone cold pizza was on a plate next to the dark grey outer casing that Mickey had only just managed to remove. The interior of the lego piece made no sense to Ianto. There was no conventional circuitry or wires. There were no moving parts he could see. It didn't make Ianto feel any better that Mickey seemed to have no better idea about it than he did. As the minutes ticked away, Mickey cast more and more glances at Fish's mobile which had been vibrating at ever shortening intervals. He rubbed at his eyes, sighing as Ianto put down the mug of coffee next to him.

"You've got to tell Henry something, mate," Mickey said, speaking to Ianto in a low voice. He waved at Fish's mobile. "That's been going mad for the past half hour."

"You don't have anything yet?" Ianto asked.

"Not yet," Mickey said, sadly. "I've seen a device with guts like this before but never in anything I've tried to figure out. I have no bloody idea how Fish accidentally activated it."

"Fuck," Ianto muttered. "Jack didn't want to tell Henry. He doesn't want to worry him."

"Look, mate, I know how Henry gets but keeping him the dark? It's making it worse," Mickey said. They both looked at Fish's mobile which was ringing… again. "He must be losing his bloody mind."

Ianto nodded. "Keep working. I'll talk to Jack."

He walked away as Mickey turned back to Fish's worktable. Without knocking, he walked straight into Jack's office. The older man was watching the CCTV footage of Fish for what was probably the thousandth time.

"Anything?" Ianto asked.

Jack shook his head and rubbed his eyes. "Nothing. I've watched every angle. It just went off by itself. Bam."

Every one of them had watched and rewatched the same video clips, trying to glean something from Fish's actions before the time lock began. It had been fruitless. All he'd done was moved the bloody thing from one spot to another.

"We need to talk to Henry," Ianto said.

Jack looked at his watch. "I didn't realise it was so late." He leaned back in his chair, scrubbing at his face.

"Do you want me to tell him?" Ianto offered.

Jack shook his head. After scrubbing at his face one more time, he let his hands fall to the desk with a thud. "No, I should be doing it." He let out a sigh. "Can you gimme a minute, Yan?"

"Sure, Jack," Ianto said, stepping back and out of the office. He shut the door behind him. He walked towards Fish and Mickey. The screwdriver that had begun its fall so many hours ago was on the table. "Jack's ringing Henry."

"Ouch," Mickey said with a wince. He rubbed at his eye with the back of his hand. "This alien tech isn't really my thing."

"You work in UNIT's technologies department," Ianto said, with a small laugh.

"Sussing this stuff out is R and D's job. I work in the compatibilities division. I get our technology to emulate or interface with what's alien." Mickey rubbed at his eyes again. "What a bloody piece of irony, isn't it? Technician ensnared by tech that we need the technician to suss out."

Ianto tried to be optimistic. "You've only been at it a day, mate. Maybe you should go home? Get some rest? Look at it with fresh eyes in the morning?"

"I'm fine. All the pick-me-up I needed," he said as he drank from the coffee mug. He put it back down and set to working again.

Ianto had wanted to argue. He wanted to tell Mickey that Fish wasn't exactly going anywhere fast and that all this would still be here in the morning but he didn't. He saw the determined look in Mickey's eyes so he just nodded and turned to the situation at hand.

"Do we know how much slower he's experiencing time?"

Mickey shook his head. "I've been focusing on the device rather than the ratio since he's obviously moving so much slower. I only got a rough guess." He picked up the screwdriver. It was the very same one that was frozen in the time lock with Fish.

"Is that safe?" Ianto asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Yeah, watch this," Mickey said, with a small laugh. He held the screwdriver over Ianto's head and dropped it.

Ianto ducked to avoid the metal tool but it didn't fall. It stayed suspended in the air. He took a step to the side, moving out from underneath it, not taking his eyes off it. "Well, that's something you don't see every day."

"It's still inside the time dilation even though I can interact with it." Mickey said. He opened his laptop. "I set up a high speed camera. Did some calculations. I had to make a few assumptions though."

"Such as?"

Mickey tapped the calculations on his screen. "Like the only thing different about the screwdriver is time. I'm assuming it's experiencing gravity, air resistance and other physical forces the same as it did before."

"Big assumption," Ianto said.

"Yeah, but I think it's sound," he said. He hit a few keys and Ianto watched as more calculations moved across the screen. "So I dropped it from a set height, recorded it with the high speed camera. I crunched the numbers and came up with a rough idea. It's looking like for every second or so the screwdriver and Fish experience, we experience four hours, thirty minutes and change."

"Well, his hand's on the edge of the table now," Ianto said, waving at Fish. His movements weren't noticeable if you stared straight at him. It was easier to notice changes over periods of time. It was more like someone taking time lapse photographs of weight loss or watching a child grow up when you only saw them once a year. "He'll probably move to pick up that other screwdriver up next."

"Exactly. What takes us a couple seconds is gonna take him all night." He let out a small chuckle. "Sorry, I don't mean to laugh. It's funny, but it's not funny, you know?"

Ianto nodded. "I know what you mean. I have this childish this urge to tie his laces together or move that screwdriver."

At that, Mickey let out a roaring laugh. He immediately sobered. "No, not a nice thing to do at all."

"Not at all," Ianto agreed. He cleared his throat, sobering. "If we moved that screwdriver, would he notice?"

"To him, it would look like it vanished into thin air," Mickey said with a shrug.

"We should probably work on a way to communicate with him," Ianto said, running his fingers through his hair. He hooked his finger into his tie and loosened it. "Maybe a slowed recording or ultra-low frequency noises…"

"Probably no need to go that high tech, mate. A note'd be fine," Mickey said, shrugging. "Leave it taped to the table. He'll see it eventually… probably tomorrow at this rate."

At that moment, a pressure blossomed between Ianto's temples. He turned and walked towards the cogwheel door as fast as he could. It was barely in time. No sooner had Ianto sensed Henry's presence than the proximity alarms went off. He'd only just made it to the cogwheel door when it rolled aside to reveal an overwrought Henry Fitzroy.

"Where is he, Ianto?" Henry asked.

"Henry, there's been an incident-"

He didn't get to finish. Henry's mind had already leapt to the worst case scenario and he tried to bolt for the autopsy bay.

Ianto grabbed Henry's arm, stopping him. "Henry, wait!"

"Unhand me!" he snarled.

Jack had come out of his office in a run. He helped Ianto restrain Fish's panicked fiancé.

"Henry, wait, you've gotta listen!" Jack shouted.

"Henry! Calm down!" Ianto begged.

The Englishman continued to struggle against the two other immortals. Martha saw the commotion and immediately ran back into the autopsy bay to retrieve a syringe. She managed to plunge the needle into Henry's arm, avoiding Jack and Ianto. The effect was almost immediate. Henry shook his head and slumped down. He was still awake but looked dazed.

Ianto cast Jack an angry look. He took him by the arm, dragging him aside. "What the fuck did you tell him, Jack?"

"He didn't give me a chance to tell him anything!" Jack said, defensive. "All I said was that there'd been an accident with Fish-"

"Excellent choice of words," Ianto hissed over him.

"-then he hung up on me! You're the one who said we should give him access codes!" He whirled on Martha. "What did you give him?"

"It's just a light sedative," she replied.

"That's light?" Jack cried.

"He's still conscious isn't he?" she shouted back. Her hands were on her hips and she was giving Jack a scowl.

Jack knelt down after giving Martha an eye roll worthy of Ianto. "Henry?"

"Is he… Is he…?" he stammered.

"He's alive, Henry," Jack said, firmly. "He's alive."

The relief that washed over Henry's face was profound. His eyes began to well with tears of gratitude. He asked, "Why is he here and not in hospital?"

"It's not that kind of accident," Jack said. He helped Henry to his feet and led him to the tattered sofa. He slowly and clearly explained what had happened, making sure that Henry was lucid enough to understand through Martha's sedative. Henry had withstood all sorts of strange goings on since he'd become involved with Torchwood's technician but sometimes Ianto wondered if they didn't stretch the sixteenth century man's sanity to its limits.

Henry stood up, looking a little unsteady and said, "Take me to him."

"You understand you can't touch him, right?" Jack said, as delicately as he could. "He can't hear us. He can't see us."

Henry closed his eyes and repeated, "Take me to him."

Jack turned on his heel and walked towards Fish's worktable. At first, Henry didn't see anything wrong. Fish looked completely normal, bent under his table to pick something up.

"Joe?"

"He can't hear us," Ianto said, repeating what Jack had said earlier. "He can't see us either."

Unconsciously reaching for the person he loved, Henry bent down to put a hand on Fish's back. Ianto anticipated the movement and took Henry's arm, stopping him. Henry was so upset that all their explanations were going in one ear and out the other. Martha's sedative probably wasn't helping either.

With his hand firmly on Henry's arm, Ianto said, "You can't touch him. Lifting him up would be like him driving his car into a brick wall without a seatbelt."

"Is he aware?"

"He doesn't know anything's wrong yet. Time's passing for him but it's going slower than it is for us," Jack said, patiently. "He still thinks everything's fine."

"How long does he believe has passed?"

"A second for him is about four and a half hours for us," Mickey said. He did some rough calculations in his head. "He's been in the time dilation eight hours so we reckon he's experienced maybe two seconds."

Henry swallowed hard around the lump in his throat.

"I'm working on it, Henry," Mickey said, soothingly. He reached up and put his hand on Henry's shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

Knowing exactly how much sedative she'd injected into Henry's arm, Martha said, delicately, "Maybe you should lie down and rest."

"With all due respect, Martha, I'm not going anywhere," he replied. He pulled over one of the desk chairs and sat down. "I hope I will not be in your way, Mickey."