Jack couldn't sleep, he laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling above. The rift had opened, it had begun. He couldn't stand being in his small room any longer. He got up and headed into the Hub. His eyes were drawn to Danya's sleeping form on the couch. She looked so peaceful and unburdened when she slept, for now. Before his very eyes he saw her face contort in fear and pain.

"No!" she cried out in her sleep. "Mum! Dad!" he watched as tears fell down her cheeks. He rushed over to her, cradling her in his arms.

"Dany, Dany, wake up! It's just a nightmare, shhh."

The girl didn't awaken, but clutched his arms and cuddled closer to him. He rocked her slowly back and forth like he would a small child, murmuring soothing words into her ear. He lifted up the sleeve of her tee shirt to inspect the bullet wound. He wasn't surprised to see that it was nearly healed. He smiled down at her, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"Jack? What are you doing?" she asked, registering her surroundings, the fact she was in Jack's arms and that his lips were currently in contact with her forehead.

"You cried out," he said simply. "You were having a nightmare."

"Really?" she asked in mortified embarrassment. "Well, I'm okay now."

"You sure?" Jack asked. "I can stay here. It's not a problem. You seemed pretty upset."

Dany nodded. "I'm fine. You need to sleep Jack; we're going to have lots to deal with in the morning."

Jack nodded and stood up, tucking the blanket around her.

"Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

He nodded. "Get some sleep, Danya."

Dany nodded and drifted off again, her forehead tingling with the remnants of Jack's kiss.

Dany awoke the next morning to the sounds of everyone arriving. She stretched and retreated down to her room to get clothes on and to shower. Anticipating the day ahead, she dressed for functionality more than fashion. She washed all the blood from the day before off, inspecting the site of her bullet wound, pleased at the rate it was healing. She stood under the cascade of steaming water for a while, just letting the water flow over her body. She wished she could stay there forever and not face what was to come today. She smiled wryly. Unfortunately she couldn't escape this. She shut off the water and wrapped herself in a towel, heading back into her room and finding the clothes she had laid out. She slipped into the skinny jeans and pulled the long-sleeved black shirt on over her head. She tied her hair back into a high ponytail and did the laces on her black Converse sneakers.

Dany took a deep breath. "Time to face the music," she said as she mounted the stairs back into the Hub. When she got up there, she saw Owen and Tosh headed out the door.

"What's going on?" she asked Ianto.

"Different parts of time and space are converging on Cardiff. There's been a breakout of plague."

"Plague?" Dany shivered. She had narrowly avoided that a couple times.

Ianto nodded. "Tosh and Owen are going to go try and contain it. I'm about to go collect one of the loose Weevils, care to join me?"

Dany nodded. "Let's go."

They returned a bit later, a weevil in tow. Dany helped Ianto get it into the vault, but was confused when it began cowering in the corner.

"What's wrong with it?" Ianto asked.

"I don't know," Dany said, moving closer to the glass. "But I don't like it. Give me a minute?"

Ianto nodded and retreated back a bit. Dany opened up her mind so she could pick up on the slight telepathic field that connected the Weevils. It was just as she suspected.

"It's the rift energy. It's causing them to freak out. I was afraid this would happen."

"That's not good."

"Nothing's good right now, Ianto," she said honestly. I wish Dad was here, he'd know what to do.

The pair headed back up to the Hub just in time to watch Owen grab his things and storm out. Dany didn't even ask what happened. The tension in the room spoke volumes.

"Gwen and I are going to go find this Bilis character."

Everyone nodded. There was too much going on today to even bother arguing. Dany's phone vibrated in the back pocket of her jeans. It was a text message. Despite everything going on, she read it.

New message from: Ian

Hey, just wanted to check on you, everything's kinda bonkers right now. Have you been watching the telly?

Dany resisted the urge to laugh. She quickly typed back.

Yeah, it's crazy. I'm sure there's some logical explanation for it.

She sent up a quick hope that Ian would make it out of this okay. Dany slipped her phone back into her pocket and moved over to one of the computers. There were a ton of breaks in the rift. She started typing in information, trying to figure out exactly what was coming out of the rift.

Before she knew it, Jack and Gwen were dragging in a knocked out guy.

"Who's this?" Dany asked as they brought him down into the vault.

"Rhys. He's Gwen's boyfriend. She got a vision, so we brought him here for his own safety."

"Oh, okay." Dany shrugged and headed back to her computer. She was halfway through pinpointing the next outbreak of rift activity when everything went dark.

"What is going on? Tosh?!" Jack called out in the darkness. "I don't know!" she called back. The light from Dany's sonic screwdriver cut through the darkness.

"It's not us, Jack!" she called. She changed a setting on the side and the color of the light changed, after a few moments, the lights flickered back on. Gwen rushed down to the vaults. Dany didn't have to hear her scream of anguish to know what she found down there.

They got Rhys onto the autopsy table. Jack was standing next to Gwen, trying to get the blood off her hands. She wasn't letting go of Rhys' hand. Everyone was standing around, trying to figure out what to say.

"We can bring him back," Gwen said, finally coming to. "The Ressurection Gauntlet!"

"Destroyed. There's nothing we can do, Gwen," Jack said calmly.

"Then what is the fucking point of you?!" she screamed, flying at Jack, he just held her and let her cry and hit him. Dany was just standing there, watching all this.

"What'd I miss?" Owen asked.

"Oh look who decided to return," Dany said wryly.

"Now's not the time, Dany. I'm going to open the Rift."

Owen pulled out a gun.

"It's not going to fix anything!" Dany shouted as everyone went to go help Owen. Jack tried to physically stop them and got punched in the face for his trouble.

Dany couldn't watch. She turned away. This always seemed to happen. Silly humans. Then she heard the gunshot. She turned to see Jack on the ground, shot in the head. She ran over to him.

"Jack!" She closed her eyes. This was going to be huge. She could practically hear space and time ripping apart as Gwen opened the rift. Jack's eyes opened and he stood up.

"What have you done?" He asked, fully knowing the answer. "Dany, what can we do?"

She shook her head. "I don't know, Jack. This was never supposed to happen." Then it hit her. "Abbadon," she said, not believing it even as she said it.

Everyone rushed outside, just in time to see Bilis summon the creature.

"Stay out of it's shadow!" Danya cried to the others. She watched in horror as people just died in front of her very eyes.

"Dany, I need to get somewhere open," Jack said. "C'mon."

Dany nodded and headed to the Torchwood SUV.

"When I get out there, you need to leave."

"What are you going to do?" Dany asked.

"This thing feeds on life, and I've got plenty to spare." Jack answered stoically.

Danya just nodded. She wasn't going to leave him. No matter what he told her, she would stay with him. It wasn't like she didn't have a few extra lifetimes either.

They reached an open space just outside the city. Jack jumped out of the SUV and headed toward the center of the clearing. Dany stayed back, but didn't leave. She watched as Jack faced off against the stuff of her nightmares and winced as she heard his screams. Just because he could live forever didn't mean he couldn't feel pain.

Finally, the creature collapsed into oblivion. Dany smiled, then realized that Jack wasn't moving.

"No, Jack. Jack, wake up. Please?"

When the man didn't give any response, she squared her shoulders and slung the bigger man across her shoulders. Thank Gallifrey this regeneration has upper body strength, she thought as she put Jack's body in the back of the SUV and drove back to the Hub.

When she returned, the others helped her get Jack inside. Owen checked for vitals, and finding none, got Jack into a body bag. After everyone had paid their respects, they retreated back up to the Hub to comfort each other, except Dany. She didn't leave his side. Jack hadn't ever given up on her dad, and Danya Song was not going to give up on him. She stayed there, holding onto his hand. He would come back, he just had to.

Danya didn't eat or sleep in her vigil. Needless to say, the others started getting concerned.

"Dany, it's been two days," Toshiko said, coming down the stairs. "You need to eat."

"I'm not leaving him," she said, the determination showed through the exhaustion and pain in her eyes. Tosh nodded and returned upstairs. "You know," she said to Jack. "You were my hero growing up. Dad always told me stories about you, don't you dare die on me, Jack Harkness." The tears she had been holding back finally burst forth. She finally allowed herself to cry over her lost hero. As much as she didn't want to admit it, He wasn't coming back. "Goodbye, Jack," she said tearfully, placing a soft kiss on his cold lips.

She turned and was about to head back upstairs when she heard movement.

"You can't honestly leave me hanging like that," Jack said, his smirk playing on his lips. Dany grinned and ran to him, helping him get off the drawer and practically jumping into his arms, smiling impishly before crashing her lips onto his.

"Now that's what I call a welcome," Jack said, letting go of her.

"You are such a dog, Jack Harkness," she said, with a grin. "Now let's go find your clothes. I'm sure you don't want your triumphant return to be in a hospital gown."

Jack nodded. They found his clothes; he redressed himself, with only a few innuendoes aimed at the teenage Time Lord and the two returned to the Hub hand in hand. Danya smiled like a kid at Christmas as everyone's faces lit up. She gave everyone their moments with Jack, noting that she and Ianto had similar reactions to Jack's return. She went over to where she had left her sonic screwdriver and noticed that Jack's normally-dormant severed hand was being strangely active.

"Jack!" she cried out. "The hand!"

Jack ran over, the look on his face indescribable. "That's my Doctor detector. Your dad. Dany, come with me."

Dany shook her head. "It's your Doctor, not my Dad. Not yet. He can't know I exist."

Jack nodded. "Paradox?" he asked.

Dany nodded. "Nasty business. Best to just not tell him."

Jack nodded, giving Dany a hug and kissing her on the forehead. "Look after these guys, and try not to regenerate until I get back, okay?"

"I'll do my best, Captain." She said, giving him a salute. "Now go! The TARDIS doesn't ever stay in one place for long!"

And he went.

"Where's he off to?" The others were wondering. Dany didn't say anything. It wasn't her place. She smiled and reached for her phone. She was going to give Ian a call and see about rescheduling that date, now that space and time wasn't about to rip itself to shreds at that very moment.

A/N: Well, here's the next chapter! A bit longer than usual, but I hope everyone liked it. Reviews are always much appreciated.

Author Question: Would you like a chapter that tells how the team copes without Jack, or should I jump right back in with the show timeline and Jack's return? Review or PM me and let me know!