Jack picked up the phone and saw the name of the person who was calling. The Doctor. The one person in the universe who might be able to give him an explanation for what was happening right now. Jack put the phone to his ear and although he knew that this was the voice he needed to hear right now, it wasn't the voice that he longed for.

"Jack." Jack couldn't speak, that voice, the voice that had said his name, that was a welsh voice, and boy did he know that accent. "Jack speak to me." Said the voice, but Jack was too choked up to talk, tears streamed down his face. 'You're imagining,' he told himself 'stop being stupid and concentrate.'

"Jack…" the other voice said again. "Jack it's me," a sob could be heard on the other end of the line "it's Ianto."

"Ianto." Jack breathed not quite yet daring to believe this to be true.

"Yes Jack, it's me. I don't know what happened and I know this is probably killing you right now and I'm sorry but it is me, I'm back Jack." Jack could hear the smile in Ianto's voice at those last words. Then there was a pause before Ianto said "Oh yeah sure, here you go." And Jack heard the slight rustle as the phone was passed over to someone.

"Erm, hello?" said the voice on the other end.

"Captain Jack Harkness speaking," said Jack, all business now. "Who is this?"

"Jack, it's me. It's the Doctor. New voice, new face, yeah I got bashed up a bit but I'm BACK. The new me, it's me!"

"Doctor?" Jack was slightly taken aback. This new version of his old friend was so young, so… energetic and overly excited.

"Yep, that's me." The Doctor replied. The Doctor quickly pressed a few buttons so that the phone call was projected around the control room before laying the receiver carefully on one side of the console. "Now…" he said, changing his mood from excited to serious in a heartbeat. "I think we need to talk about your friend Ianto. When he died, what did you do with him. My stupid brain has finally worked out the reason why he may not remember what happened to him after he died." Both Jack and Ianto flinched at these words. "Sorry." Said the Doctor nonchalantly and without any emotion. "I do need to know though Jack so that we can sort him out."

"Well…" Jack began, slightly embarrassed at what he had done with Ianto's body.

"Jack." Prompted the Doctor impatiently.

"Ok, well here's the thing. I put him in a tank that contained the same gel that was in the jar that held your hand." It came out in a rush but the Doctor was used to listening to babble seeing as he did a lot of it himself.

"Ah, really?" The Doctor spewed out, getting excited again. "What was this tank made of? And where did you get the excess fluid from?" he asked, frowning a little.

"As to your first question I have absolutely no clue, it was something that came through the rift a while ago when I was at the hub by myself. When I went to collect it there was this fading light nearby and it spoke to me. It told me that it had crashed to earth in its ship and although the ship was indestructible the creature itself was dying. There was nothing I could do, the light just went out after that but I took the tank back to the hub and filled it with the liquid, yes Doctor I'm getting to that bit. Basically a while ago an alien kind of smashed the jar containing your hand." Jack gave a little cough of embarrassment and Ianto looked sheepishly at the Doctor. "Once I had sorted that out, I swabbed some of the stuff off my hands and put it in a test tube. Apparently, if it is not contained in a certain type of material it multiplies."

"It's alive…" whispered the Doctor in fascination and awe.

"So it would seem." Jack agreed, continuing with his story. " Anyway I let it multiply and kept pouring it into the tank when the few test tubes I had were full, it didn't multiply inside the tank you see. Eventually the tank was full and when Ianto died." Jack paused here to take a deep breath. "I put his body in the tank to preserve it." The Doctor quickly glanced at Ianto, who had tears running down his pale cheeks.

"Ah, well that would be why Ianto is now… well… not dead."

This time it was Ianto who spoke. "And why's that Doctor?'

"Well, that gel, I know what it is now, it's like bacteria. It's alive. And it can multiply from a single cell. But it has an extremely low level telepathic field. That is to say, it's all connected. Basically a while ago a biological metacrisis occurred between me and Donna. And that caused my DNA to be imprinted into those little buggers. I guess that when I regenerated, Ianto sort of did as well."

This caused Jack to go into full scale panic mode. "So he's regenerated! He's changed and he's a time lord now? Jesus Christ I fucking hate you Torchwood!" He screamed around the hub.

"Jack calm down. I'm still me don't worry. Still the same face and the same mind and the same… feelings." Jack breathed a sigh of relief.

"There's just one thing…" said the Dcotor.

"What's that?" Ianto asked.

"You're not… well you're not human anymore. You're part Time Lord. Not in the way that Donna was, but you will regenerate when you die. You won't change, you'll just recover."

"Like Jack?" Ianto asked excitedly.

"No." Jack moaned suddenly, causing the other too to stare at the phone lying on the console. "No, no, no, no, no." Ianto's face fell. He had known all along. Ever since he had met Jack he had known that he never really wanted Ianto forever. He might have stayed to see Ianto live out his pitiful little life, but what was that to an immortal? Jack never intended to spend the rest of forever with Ianto, deep down Ianto knew that he had always known this.

"I don't want you to live forever Ianto." Said Jack. His harsh words cut Ianto like a knife. "Just get him home to me Doctor," he said finally before he hung up the phone. Jack Harkness lent back against the desk, put his head in his hands and cried. He wept for his poor, beautiful Ianto who didn't yet know that forever was an awfully long time.

Hello my amazing readers :) I know it seems like this could finish here but I promise I'm not going to leave you hanging because that will be cruel. I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can but I don't think 4 chapters in one day is too shabby ;) reviews welcome.