When he blinked the darkness away, Ianto remembered dreaming. He dreamt of the pterodactyl that was responsible for getting him a job. He dreamt of the way he'd been lying on top of Jack and how embarrassed he'd felt. In the dream, the pterodactyl was talking to him. It was nonsense and Ianto couldn't remember it, but that's what made him certain that it was a dream and not just a memory. He sat up and stared around, confused. You don't dream when you're dead, do you? At least, he didn't remember any dreams the last time he'd died. As he looked around, he thought that maybe he was still stuck in a dream. That perhaps he was not quite dead yet and this was just his brain trying to hold on to life.

Jack was in the middle of the warehouse, struggling against the mousy looking man and a group of ten weevils.

Ianto watched in horror as one of the aliens clamped its jaws down on Jack's neck and ripped out a huge chunk of flesh. Blood splattered everywhere and Jack fell to the ground.

Then three people crashed into the building, holding large canisters of weevil repellent. They sprayed the stuff everywhere and the weevils shuffled away. They backed into a dark corner and stayed there, groaning as the stuff was sprayed at them. Out came the guns then and the weevils scattered.

"Don't run!" the nasally voiced Ned shouted. "Help me!"

The weevils refused to listen. Whatever he'd done to gain their allegiance before, it was no longer working.

Ianto pushed against the wall and scrambled to his feet. He ran to Jack's side.

The raw flesh at Jack's neck was visibly repairing itself, the flesh growing back and the skin knitting together. In just over ten minutes, Jack's neck was whole again.

"Why aren't you dead yet?" Ned spat, dull brown hair flopping in front of his eyes as Alan grabbed his wrists and yanked his arms behind his back.

"Maybe you're a lousy shot," Jack gasped from on the ground as his eyes flew open.

Ianto frowned and ran his hands over his back as best he could with the cuffs getting in the way. He twisted his head around to see his fingers come away red with blood. Ianto's back exploded as the pain came back all at once.

Jack sat up and wriggled around so that he could inspect Ianto's wound. He gently lifted up the back of Ianto's shirt, peeling it away and prodding at the bloodied, red skin around the wound. The bullet was buried in deep and the muscle it had torn its way through was red and jagged. As Jack watched, the wound stopped bleeding and the little bullet seemed to be wiggling. "What the….?"

"What?" Ianto asked trying to twist around.

"Stay still… Alan come look at this!" Jack called out.

Alan, who had been trying to find out what Ned was, looked up from his beeping device and, pushing his glasses up his nose, came over to the others.

Lis shouted something about having to do all the hard work and squished Ned into the ground with her foot.

Alan crouched down beside Jack and peered at Ianto over the top of his glasses. "That's impossible…" he muttered and pulled apart the raw skin to get a better look.

Ianto yelped and tried to swat away the doctor's cold hands.

The bullet was working its way out. The muscle and skin were forcing it to move.

Ianto winced as Alan dug his fingers in and pulled out the tiny piece of metal.

"You should be dead," he said and watched curiously as Ianto's back repaired itself.

"I thought I was," Ianto hiccupped.

Ned growled. It was the only sound he could make with his face pressed against the floor like that.

"We have guns Neddy," Danii hissed back. "Keep making a fuss and I might introduce you to some of them."

"But he was supposed to be mortal!" Ned wailed. "I made him mortal! Why isn't he dying?!"

"Maybe you can't control life and death as well as you thought," Jack mumbled.

"It's completely healed," said Alan, clearly astonished. "I'll have to do some tests to be sure, but I'd say you're going to be pretty hard to kill Mr Jones."

Ianto wondered for a moment whether the tests would involve shooting him in different places, but soon shook the thought from his head and turned to Jack. "Do you want me to be mortal again?"

Jack shrugged.

"Why?" Ianto asked, but Jack stayed silent. "Everyone I love is dead or thinks I'm dead. I can't exactly walk back into my sister's life… there's nothing for me to lose."

Jack looked down at the blood on his hands. "There is everything for you to lose Ianto… Do you think I chose to be like this?"

Ianto turned around. "Jack…"

"I would become mortal in a heartbeat, but I can't. I'm stuck like this."

"But… Aren't you glad that…. I mean… If I'm immortal then I won't die," Ianto blushed.

"Of course I'm glad about that!" Jack said, shaking his head. "I just… I know how you'll feel… and I don't want you to feel like that."

Ianto rolled his eyes. "I'm not you," he said simply. "Besides, we'll have each other."

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth and Jack tried to think up another reason for his worry. In truth, he was trying his hardest not to be happy about this. He didn't want to get his hopes up. This could have been a once off. Maybe next time he would die…

Lis and Danii came over then, dragging Ned in between them. They dumped him on the floor by Ianto.

"Go on," Lis said, not letting go of the man's hand.

"What's he doing?" Ianto asked, preparing to run away.

"Alien boy here is going to tell us what happened to Ianto," Danii said, bobbing down and whispering something in Ned's ear.

Ned looked at Ianto. He held out a hand, but did not touch him. He closed his eyes and for a moment, was completely still. Then he sat back on his knees and looked at his hands. "You're still immortal… I didn't fix you," he said, sounding genuinely sad.

Jack stared at Ianto curiously.

"I can change you back!" Ned ripped free of the girls' grip and launched himself at Ianto.

"Stay away!" Ianto shouted and leaped back. "Keep him away from me!"

Jack hesitated. He looked at Ianto and back to Ned who was being yanked back by Alan.

Ianto knew that Jack was thinking about letting him go. "Jack, please don't let him touch me… Every time he brought me back… every time he did something, I felt as though part of me was being ripped away… I don't want to die again," he whispered. "It was so dark and so cold and being wrenched back into life hurt so much," his voice broke.

Jack stood. He grabbed the back of Ned's shirt and hauled him away from Ianto. He held his hand back and opened it as a gun was placed in it. As he held it to Ned's head, he leaned forward. "Tell me the truth or I swear to God, I will pull this trigger."

Ned's eyes widened and he nodded.

"Is he going to stay like this? Is this immortality going to last forever?" he spoke slowly and clearly, his finger hovering over the trigger threateningly.

Ned looked around Jack to where Ianto stood, wiping the tears from his eyes and neatening out his suit. He looked back to Jack and swallowed the lump in his throat. "As far as I can tell, this is a permanent thing," he said, nasally voice cracking.

Jack nodded slowly and pushed Ned back, lowering the gun and letting it slip from his hand. He turned and couldn't help but smile.

Captain Jack Harkness sat on the bench, looking out at the endless waters before him. He loved this planet. He had seen other worlds, many of them, but he would always return here. To Earth. Earth was his home.

"So, do we know why he was resurrecting people?" Ianto's came from behind him and he sighed. Ianto was his now.

"He wanted to know how to get into Torchwood," Jack twisted around and smiled as he took the cup of coffee from Ianto's hands. "Apparently we had some technology that he was interested in."

Ianto nodded and leaned against the side of the bench.

They sipped at their coffees in silence, glancing at each other every now and then, but hastily looking away if the other caught them watching.

"So, Ianto Jones," Jack said, smiling as he stared off into the distance. "You've got forever. What are you going to do with it?"

Ianto's mouth quirked up at the side and he stared at Jack out of the corner of his eye. "I can think of a few things…"

Jack grinned and slipped off of the bench. "I'll meet you in my office in ten," he said and started to walk off.

"That's ten minutes," Ianto dug the stopwatch out of his pocket and smiled down at it fondly, pushing the button on the top, "and counting."