AN: Sorry for the delay in updating, it was due to an unfortunate incident involving so drunken idiots, me and my laptop and a wall. Suffice to say my screen took less time to fix then my side did to heal (thanks to my stepdad for that quick save) but it meant I couldn't get this out as planned. Again sorry and hope you enjoy

Ianto and Ashley started by heading to Magnus's office where Will and Gwen were still monitoring their computer program since there was nothing else for them to do.

"Thanks love." Gwen said as Ianto handed her mug to her. She took a sip, "You brought the good stuff."

"I thought we might need it." Ianto told her as he handed Will his.

"Any news?" Ashley asked.

"Not yet." Will told her, Gwen would have been inclined to try and hide the truth from her but Will knew better than to even try. "We've traced several murders over the last few months that fit the profile and the computer is monitoring all the police networks, if something comes in you'll be the first to know." Then seeking to distract her a little he added, "And the Torchwood network is scary. Seriously I thought what we had here with hacking into the local police network was scary but this is something else. That Tosh has created backdoors and monitoring programs in most of the police computer systems on earth

"I told you she was good." Ianto said as he left, Ashley following behind him but she seemed a little happier that they were doing something to track her father. They walked into the main lab and were surprised at the amount of activity, Helen and Owen were working on something or other while Tosh and Henry were surrounded by more computer components than either Ashley or Ianto had ever seen in one place.

Ianto cleared his throat causing Tosh to look up, her face split into a wide grin when she spotted them, "Henry, coffee's here."

Henry's head shot up like lightening and caused Ashley to laugh, he reminded her of a dog that had just heard someone call dinner.

"Thank you darling." Helen said as Ashley set her tea tray down next to where her mother was working while Tosh and Henry took their coffees from Ianto's tray and Owen just looked on mournfully Ianto took the final coffee from the tray and the set the tray on the floor, leaning against the side of the work bench.

"How's it going?" Ashley asked anxiously.

"We have a working theory." Helen told her. "Owen and I are working on a way to remove the parasite and Henry and Tosh are working on a way to contain it."

"We're making a virtual world where it can kill and destroy to it's hearts content." Henry said.

"The idea is that if it thinks that our virtual world is the real world then it'll never try to escape."Tosh explained

"Now the only problem is capturing John." Helen said, she didn't want to tell her daughter exactly what method they would be using to remove the parasite. "He's proved remarkably resistant to tazers and sedatives, possibly as a side effect of the creature."

"The universal sedative that we use." Ianto suggested, "We've never yet found anything that it can't sedate, even pterodactyls"

"Good idea Ianto," Owen agreed, "Only it takes a few seconds to kick in, he could teleport in that time and I know Ashley could track him but I'd really prefer he didn't teleport while a sedative is affecting him, he might end up somewhere he didn't intend to."

"What about a small EM device?" Tosh suggested. "If we put the sedative in a dart then we can also attach a small EM generator, it'll stop him teleporting for the few seconds it'll take him to fall unconscious Then we deactivate the EM field and Ashley can teleport him back here."

"Can we keep her too boss?" Henry asked, "That's brilliant and I've got just the thing." He disappeared back to his workspace just off the main lab and after a few minuets he returned with a small device. "I started working on this after Druitt showed up the first time but by the time I'd made it work he was on our side so I tossed it in a box in case we ever needed it."

"This is perfect." Tosh said taking it from him, "It's small enough that it can be attached to the dart, what's the range?"

"Not much." Henry admitted, "About six feet at most, because it's so small."

"It doesn't need to be strong." Helen said, "Well done Henry."

"So that's capture taken care of." Owen said, "Now we just need to finish removal and containment." With that said everyone returned to their tasks and Ianto took his turn to distract Ashley by asking her to show him around the Sanctuary. He was intrigued by many of the residents, though he disliked the Nubbins, they reminded him far too much of a furby which had been all the rage when he was still in high school and had annoyed him no end.

Ashley knew that everyone was trying to keep her distracted and while she appreciated the effort it was pointless. She couldn't stop thinking about her father, in those final minutes before he teleported into the lab.

Growing up she'd always felt she was missing out on something without a father. Every Father's day when her school class would make cards the teacher would ask her why she wasn't, then they'd suggest that she send it to an uncle or grandfather instead. Most seemed at a loss for what to do when she told them she didn't have those either, one had even called her mother, thinking that Ashley was just been difficult.

Eventually, by the time she was eight, they'd stopped pushing and while the other kids made their cards they allowed Ashley to draw. Her teachers always thought that Ashley had a fantastic imagination with the pictures she drew and later the stories she wrote. What they never knew was that she was just drawing and writing what she saw everyday.

It was the little things she'd missed most growing up with just her mother. When her class were asked what their fathers did for a living she was the odd one out again. She was always the odd child, the one who's mother did something most of the teachers couldn't pronounce and who's father had died before she was even born. She'd hated that, been different.

But at the same time she'd liked it. Her mother was also her best friend, though she now had Kate as well, and they'd never argued like the other girls said they did with their parents. She'd seen more of the world by the time she was fifteen then most of her peers would in their lifetimes. Every summer she'd spend a month in London with Uncle James and Uncle Jack would usually visit her several times though he never allowed her to join him in Cardiff. The rest of the summer would be spent travelling to the other Sanctuaries, familiarising herself with each of them, making her ready for the future that was already laid out before her.

Her mother had never pushed or forced her into working for the Sanctuary but for Ashley there had never been any choice. Though her mother hadn't intended it, Ashley didn't know any other life and couldn't imagine doing something else. The Sanctuary was her life and her family just as it was for her mother.

Now though she'd had a glimpse of what her real family could have been. Seeing her parents she could imagine what they would have been like when they met. Her mother never knew that she'd found the picture of John Druitt that she kept in the back of a draw. He looked so different that when she'd seen him in the flesh for the first time she hadn't recognised him. I wasn't until he'd kidnapped her while her mother was in Rome that she'd connected him to the picture.

Her mother had never hidden from Ashley that she had kept her embryo in stasis for almost a century, as soon as she had been old enough to understand Helen had even shown her the device that she and James had devised to keep Ashley safe. And she'd explained why, though Ashley would later learn it wasn't the whole truth. Helen had told her that she was conceived out of wedlock, that her father had been her fiancé but he was killed before they could marry. The pain of his loss coupled with the attitudes of the time had caused Helen to freeze Ashley until times changed enough for them both to avoid the stigma of illegitimacy.

Now she'd had a glimpse of what that life could have been like, a mother and father who loved each other and her. If it wasn't for that creature she would have grown up in her mother's time but she would still have worked within the Sanctuary. She might even have had siblings, she'd wanted that growing up even having Henry there wasn't quite the same.

Just seeing them had given her a glimpse of the life she could have in the now, her father was free of the rage that had consumed him and her mother clearly still loved him. That was lost now. Stolen in a moment of self-sacrifice that said more about who her father truly was than anything else could have. Since Tesla's shock had sent the creature dormant for a time she knew that he hated what he had done, who he had become. Becoming that monster again was far harder for him than dying to save them would have been.

Been within the building had allowed the creature to strengthen itself, that had been evident in the way he had snarled at the when he first came to. He'd fought the creature back but Ashley knew that he wouldn't be able to hold it at bay for long, it thirsted for blood and it would not be denied All John Druitt could do was see that the monster wasn't fed with the blood of those he loved.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Ashley had almost forgotten the Welsh man walking beside her.

"Not worth it." Ashley said, "Just thinking about my father and what could have been."

"That's never a good game to play with yourself." Ianto told her, "What happened has happened and all we can change is the future. Why don't you tell me about him? It might help."

"You know about him." Ashley said.

"I know about the Ripper and the man they suspected." Ianto told her, "I do not know about your father."

Ashley steered him into tone of the many parlours and sitting rooms that were dotted around the Sanctuary. They both sat down in a pair of chairs by one of the windows. "I like to pretend I can't remember much while I was with the Cabal but I can, I can remember ever attack on the Sanctuaries. In London he was waiting in the library, there were two others with me, we tried to kill him. He still has faint scars from my nails." She took a deep breath, "He stabbed me with one of his short swords, it didn't kill me because of the vampire healing but I could see in his eyes that he didn't want to hurt me. The shock of it pushed the Cabal control away for a moment and I was free for a second. I think stabbing me hurt him more than it did me."

"Druitt loves you Ashley." Ianto said confidently, "Even with the parasite in him he loves you. Never doubt that. Somewhere in there is the man who is your father, we know he's survived all this time as host to the creature. That is a credit to him, there are few who could hold out for long without loosing themselves to the evil within."

"You speak from experience, don't you?" Ashley asked, when Ianto nodded she continued, "Who did you loose?"

"My girlfriend." Ianto said, "Her name was Lisa, we both worked at Canary Wharf. During the battle she was partly converted into a Cyberman. But only partly. I got her out of the Tower and to Cardiff. I stalked Jack until he gave me a job and then hid her in the basement. I tried to save her. But unlike your father Lisa couldn't holdout against the evil of the cyber programming, once I managed to free her from the conversion unit I'd used to keep her alive she tried to kill us all and restart the invasion."

"What happened?"

"The team killed her." Ianto shook his head, "No I can't call it killing, euthanased her. It wasn't Lisa anymore and it never could be but I couldn't kill her."

"I don't think I can kill him either, not now I know it's not his fault."

"Then don't try." Ianto advised, "You can use the dart gun. Just don't hate Jack if he has to kill him."

"I won't, did you? After Lisa?"

"I swore to watch him suffer and die." Ianto admitted, "In the heat of the moment, but later once I'd calmed down I realised that he had only done what I couldn't."

"I'll try not to hate him, I know it'll be a last resort." Ashley assured him as little as she wanted her uncle to kill her father she knew that it would probably be what he wanted rather than risking hurting her or her mother again.

"Do you know what really annoys Jack?" Ianto said changing the topic.

"What?" Ashley asked.

"Talk in another language, preferably one he doesn't speak." Ianto grinned, "It always drives him crazy, it doesn't matter what you're saying but he'll be convinced it's about him."

"That sounds about right." Ashley agreed.

"Tosh and I do it all the time." Ianto told her, "Even muttering under your breath in another language will get him worried."

"You do it with Welsh?"

"Well that does seem to have a slightly different effect on Jack." Ianto gave Ashley a smirk that made her giggle since she was left in no doubt what that effect was, "But Tosh and I use Japanese."

"Is that why Uncle James liked to mutter in Latin when he was annoyed with Jack?"

"Probably." Ianto said, "I even did it with Kingonese on day, I just memorised some from an episode and muttered it when ever I picked up his paperwork for filing, he ended up asking Tosh what he'd done this time. The rest of the team could hardly keep a straight face."

Ashley laughed, "Teach me some stuff."

"Alright, I assume James Watson taught you Latin."

"Some and so did mom."

"Alright then, we'll start with Welsh and the other Gaelic languages since Jack can't tell the difference" Ianto told her, "Cach."

"Cach." Ashley repeated, "What does it mean?"

"Shit. Thought I think Jack's picking up on that one." Ianto admitted. Then he rattled off a long phrase.

"And that?" Ashley asked.

"It's actually Irish and is a line from a song, but if you sound annoyed enough it really doesn't matter." Ianto told her. Ashley smiled and tried to repeat the line. It took her a few tries before she got it and then they moved on to another line. After she got a few in the Celtic languages, they moved on to Russian, and through some of the other obscure languages of the world, real and fictional. Ianto certainly succeeded in distracting Ashley better than anyone else did since the next thing either of them realised the Big Guy was calling them to dinner.

They pulled two tables together to provide enough space for everyone to eat together. Well everyone who could eat, Owen still sat with them to be social but he didn't have a plate in front of him. They made small talk over the main course and the chocolate cake that the Big Guy pulled out of the fridge.

When they had finished eating and were settled with tea and coffee Helen decided to bring everyone up to speed on what they were doing. "First of all I'd like to thank the Torchwood staff for such prompt and timely help, and also for the equipment loan."

"Oh come on." Jack said, "It wasn't like it was doing anything but sitting on shelf in the Archive."

"As I was saying." Helen otherwise ignored Jack's interruption. "Thanks to the Torchwood team we've made some good progress today. Dr Harper and I think we have developed a method of removing the parasite, it will need some tweaking once the containment system is finished but I'm confident it will work." She turned her attention to Henry and Tosh. "How is the containment system coming?"

"Pretty good boss." Henry said, "It will take another day or so to build the three units, but honestly it's the programming that's really going to take time."

"How long?" Helen asked.

"On my own? A month." Before Helen could object he continued, "With Tosh's help, a week. She's had a lot more practice at this sort of freaky hacking and programming than I have."

"We have to make sure that we get it right." Tosh told the table, backing Henry up. "It has to be as close to perfect as we can make it. We can't risk the parasite getting loose and infecting either the building or a host." Everyone ignored Ashley's shudder of revulsion at the idea."

"I understand." Helen assured them both, "But please work as fast as you can." The two computer techs nodded, "How are we coming with tracking John down?"

Will and Gwen looked at each other. "Not as good as you in the lab apparently." Will admitted, "The hard part is that Druitt has no bank account or credit card, at least that I know of." He glanced to Helen shook her head, as far as she knew John had no bank account either. "So we haven't been able to track his movements that way."

"We hacked into various police databases using Tosh's back-door programs." Gwen said, "We've found several murders over the last few months that could be Druitt's. We have the computer program set to alert us if there's another possible incident." Gwen tried to phrase it as delicately as possible. "Will said that Ashley would be able to teleport there and then trace Druitt's teleport."

Ashley nodded, "I can, but we never tested it in the field."

"You'll have that chance now." Helen told her. "I hope Jack, that you and your team will be able to stay for a week. It will put me in you debt."

"Shouldn't be a problem." Jack assured her, "I'll make some calls and get a friend of mine in UNIT to keep an eye on Cardiff for a week or two." Jack looked over at Gwen, "You might want to call your husband."

"Please, feel free to us the phone in my office." Helen told her, "Whenever you like."

"Thank you."

"And you aren't in my debt." Jack told her firmly, "What's a favour between old friends? Hell we're practically family, you know I'd do anything for my god-daughter." He grinned at Ashley fondly.

"Plus I think everyone would be a lot happier if Jack the Ripper, or at least the parasite that made him go nuts, was locked up." Owen put in.