An interesting thing about a big concrete room with metal accents is it's capacity to allow sound to travel and echo. Gwen's scream bounced around the room for several seconds after Jack clamped a hand over her mouth, unable to make a sound himself. Ianto stood beside them, frozen. Peyton gave a little yelp and said, "Holy shit!"

"Can you lot hear us now?" Owen asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Hear you, see you, touch you," Sage said, strolling back over to her desk to put the bundle of herbs back into a bowl. After a moment, she looked up and stated, "Not unhinged either."

Then the floodgate opened and Jack, Gwen and Ianto rushed forward enveloping Owen and Tosh in exuberant hugs and kisses. Tears flowed freely until Jack planted a big kiss on Owen, causing them medic to good naturedly bellow, "Oi! Lips off!"

This made Gwen and Tosh, who were cuddled in Ianto's arms giggle. The giggles were contagious and soon all five of them were howling with laughter. Peyton disappeared into the med bay, but returned a moment later with a bit of tech in his hand, aimed at the still giggling mass.

After a moment, he gave the small device a shake, looked at it again, then mumbled, "What in the world?"

Heads turned to regard him and Jack asked, "What is it?"

"Well," the Scotsman began, then shook the tool again, "This only reads the three of you there…."

Again silence filled the room until Owen spoke up. "This is the guy you got to replace me?"

No one giggled this time.

With a sigh, Sage said, "Well, I couldn't very well re-corporealize you two with the stuff I have on hand here. No. Right now your energy signatures are simply in phase with ours, which is why everyone can see you, and as long as you remain with in the crystal boundary I set up your energy is focused, creating a sort of field round you so you seem solid."

"Excuse me," Tosh said politely, though she looked rather distressed. "Do you mean to say we're still…ghosts?"

Sage looked up at her. "No. Not like any ghosts I've ever met. This rift has a very strange effect on magics and the like. I have no idea how to deal with it. Let me do some research and I may be able to do more." With that she hauled one of her giant tomes up onto her desk and began pouring through it.

Ianto looked from Sage to Jack. "We deal with magic now?"

"Aliens weren't strange enough?" Tosh added.

Jack just smiled and gave her another hug.

TORCHWOOD3TORCHWOOD3TORCHWOOD3TORCHWOOD3TORCHWOOD3

Two hours later, one of the computers sounded an alarm. On reflex, Tosh slid into a seat and said, "Weevils by Saint Mary's Church. Several of them. There are wounded."

She turned and found Jack, Ianto and Gwen smiling at her. "Good to have you back Tosh," Gwen told her happily.

"Tosh, Owen, keep an eye on things here," Jack said quickly. "Ianto, Gwen, Peyton, Sage. With me."

"How do I kill them?" Sage asked simply, finally looking up from her books.

Gwen scowled at her. "We don't want to kill them! We capture them and put them in the cells."

"Oh," she replied, placing a long, nasty blade back in it's sheath with a look that was obviously supposed to be innocent.

Jack motioned for everyone to get moving down to the SUV.

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