This chapter is set the evening Beth was shot in the episode Sleeper, it becomes obvious but the first couple of paragraphs may be a bit confusing otherwise without knowing that.

"Alright everyone, I think we should just go home," Jack sighed. It had been two weeks since he had returned to Cardiff and things had been going well. Him and Ianto had gone from strength to strength, they had gone a few more dates since the night in the park and their relationship was better than it had been before Jack had left. In fact the whole team seemed to be doing much better.

Gwen was practically shaking with excitement about her upcoming wedding and there was always a bridal magazine to be found somewhere in the hub. He had found out about Toshiko's new relationship a few days after it had begun along with Ianto and despite some good natured ribbing from the others she seemed to be happy and Jack was pleased for her. For too long she had been on her own and he was glad she had found someone. The only person who was exactly the same was Owen. He was just as snarky as ever, and more often than not started the day with a killer hangover and reeking of sex.

Jack would be more concerned over his behaviour if it was anything out of the ordinary, ever since he had begun working at Torchwood, Owen would turn up after a busy night out with only a few hours sleep in him. But with a cup of Ianto's coffee and Owen's own special hangover cure that he had formulated a few years back, he was soon back to his usual cheery self and always got the job done.

Jack had thought he'd finished with that side of life a few months back, but maybe with the tiny extra bit of freedom that came with gaining another member of staff (or getting back) and therefore having slightly less duties, he had taken advantage of his free nights.

"Are you sure Jack?" Tosh asked, looking away from where Gwen was sat on the worn out sofa, tears still streaming down her face.

He gave a small smile and nodded. "Yeah, you have a date with Danny boy tonight don't you?"

"I could cancel, I'm sure he wouldn't mind," Tosh said immediately.

"Don't you dare Tosh. You go home, have a shower and meet up with him. And then if the moods right you can always bring him back to yours," Jack openly laughed as Tosh flushed beet red, turning to log off and collect her stuff.
"I'll see you tomorrow," she said, ignoring Jack's wolf whistle as the cog wheel door shut behind her.

Looking up to the balcony where they'd shot Beth down, he saw Ianto on his hands and knees scrubbing furiously, although he paused when he felt Jack's eyes on him. "I better do it now, otherwise it'll only stain,"

"All right Ianto, but when you've finished go home. I've stolen you away enough recently, and I'm sure your family would like to see you on occasion. Same goes for both of you," he said, turning to Gwen and Owen, the former still on the ratty little couch whilst the latter was in the autopsy bay, Beth ready to be autopsied. "Gwen, a word before you go," He needed to make sure she was okay with what had happened, after they had shot Beth down she had barely said a word, and Jack needed to put her mind at ease, as well as he could anyway, considering the circumstances.

When the pair left the office about half an hour later, Ianto had long gone but Owen was still fiddling away in the autopsy bay. "I told you to go home Owen," Jack said sternly as Gwen collected her coat.

Rolling his eyes, Owen started disinfecting some needed equipment for the autopsy. "Haven't got anything better to do with my night mate, might as well. Don't think I'd be able to sleep anyway, so thought I might as well start on Beth." At this he lowered his voice. Gwen had grown close to the sleeper agent in the short time they had known each other and Owen knew she was upset by her untimely death.

"All right, just make sure you get home at a decent time, I don't need you being completely sleep-deprived. I'm going out for a bit, but I should be back by two or three, and believe me when I say that I will tie you to a bed if you haven't got some shut-eye when I get back."

"Sounds kinky captain," Owen teased. "Now get on with ya, everyone knows you're just going to see fangs and try to sweet talk the family, because you can't handle the fact that there are people out there who don't like you,"

"Shut up Owen!" Jack called as he and Gwen left the hub.

Chuckling, Owen picked up the saw, pressed record on his small tape recorder and set to work, hoping that this time, Beth wouldn't break all his equipment.

TWTWTWTWTW

Tosh was a terrible person. Like a truly awful person. In the last two weeks she had gone on six dates with Danny. Now that wasn't the reason she was a terrible person, in reality the fact that she had managed to go out with Danny so many times in just two weeks, whilst working for a place like Torchwood was pretty damn amazing. No, the reason she was such a terrible person was because she didn't actually enjoy the dates.
Danny was a lovely person sure, he had a respectable job, was a doted upon son and he even donated blood for God's sake. However there was a major problem with Danny that she had picked up on her second date. Danny was incredibly and inconceivably dull. Tosh didn't know exactly what it was about him, but she could never focus on him when he was telling her something 'interesting' for more than a few minutes before her mind started wondering. And as time went on, she just kept on picking out more and more faults in the poor man. She guessed it had started at the end of her first date, the catalyst one would probably say for this whole sorry mess.

Two Weeks Ago – 00:04am

"I had a lovely time Toshiko," Danny said, draining the remains of his pint. "I hope we can do this sometime again."

"That'd be lovely. I'd like that." She smiled, checking her purse to make sure she had enough money for a taxi back to her place. She wasn't lying though, the bar they'd chosen to go to had a lovely atmosphere. It was neither too full nor too empty and the background chatter from the people and the TV as well as the constant music from the jukebox made sure that there was never an awkward moment between the pair. The two had had a few drinks, not enough to get drunk (they both had work the next day) but enough to feel slightly tipsy and lighten the mood, they even managed to play a couple games of pool (Tosh won both with ease).

They were two of the few people left in the bar at midnight, the jukebox long since been switched off, so it was rather easy to hear the discussion show being played on the TV.

"-And I'm just saying Anthony, that you have to look at the facts and what has happened over the last few years. Those people on the roofs on Christmas day, the ghosts which turned into metal men, those things in the sky. After seeing all that, how can you say that aliens don't exist?"
Tosh never heard the rest of that particular argument as it was interrupted by an amused snort from Danny.

"Are you ok?" She asked, wondering whether he had choked on the remainders of his drink.

"I'm fine Toshiko really. Did you hear what they were saying on that show just now?"

"Aliens right?"

"Yeah aliens, some people really are mental, that guy just now really sounded convinced that aliens are real. Poor sod."

"So you don't think that there's life on other planets then?" Tosh asked, already dreading the answer.

"Pfft, of course I don't, it's just loonies and the government trying to cover things up. There's no such thing as aliens for God's sake. You don't believe in them do you?"

To this day Tosh still wasn't sure why she said what she said. If she was to guess, it was probably because she was scared of losing him. Danny was the best thing to happen to her in years, even if that was only there first date. She wasn't going to throw a potentially good thing away because he didn't believe in aliens (never mind that she had seen so many different things over the years and her whole work was based on them, and their very real existence.) So she lied, laughed and told him that of course she didn't believe in aliens, that was just stupid.

But after that night she began noticing the other differences between the two. And maybe she was just being finickity about him being boring, but Tosh knew that she could never have a meaningful relationship with someone who didn't believe in life on other worlds, and how people were still dubious she didn't know. And that was what she wanted, more than anything else in the world. A meaningful relationship with someone who could love her no matter what. And she knew that in that moment, Danny never could.

Yet for some reason she hadn't ended things with Danny, she didn't know why, but she just couldn't, she'd hate to hurt him. And that's what would happen if she said that she didn't want to see him any-more, because he liked her. She could see it in his eyes. So she ended up gritting her teeth and listening to mundane stories about his life. At least one of them were happy.

TWTWTWTWTW

Owen was whistling tunelessly as he finished with the autopsy of Beth, marking down a few more notes before taking another look. Even though it was morbid, this probably ended up being one of the favourite parts of his job. Whilst it was upsetting that another person or species had died, this was what he'd been trained for. Here he knew what he was doing, could get lost in the mechanics of it all, knew what to do when, but the really brilliant thing about Torchwood was that there were so many new things to learn about.
Sure he wasn't as smart as Tosh, but like her, Owen had a desire to learn. To find out about new things, technologies, viruses, biological layouts. Whatever it was, Owen wanted to know about it, understand why it did this, that and the other. It was why he was so glad Jack gave him the freedom he did. If he worked for UNIT or even Torchwood 1 (scratch that, especially Torchwood 1) when it was still standing there would be all these protocols he'd have to follow and thousands of forms to fill out before he would have been able to lift a bloody scalpel.

And there would have been no way he would have been able to carry out experiments, in places like that you had to have authority and experience. Something he might have gained it eventually, but it would have been too slow for his taste. Torchwood 3 was more his cup of tea, it suited him better, the size, the workload, everything.

Owen knew he worked best under pressure, and Jack had helped him see that. Before this, he'd been happy at the hospital. Been happy with his tiny paycheck and the meagre amount of responsibility he was trusted with. But Torchwood had opened his eyes, made him realise he was better than that, and he was eternally grateful.

"Autopsy of Beth Mackenzie completed at 01:52am. Freezing and sending down to the morgue." Owen said before turning off the recorder, looking over the few notes he'd scribbled down when he'd forgotten that he could talk into the recorder as he was working, and not get any guts or gore all over his pen and paper.

Placing Beth's body into a container, Owen started the freezing process before he tidying the equipment away. Thanks to some advanced alien technology the body would take only ten minutes to fully freeze, but Owen did not want to send Beth's body down to the morgue prematurely. Not after last time, even if it was incredibly unlikely that she'd up and leave again. The autopsy had proven that Beth was definitely dead. Not human no (this time, none of his equipment had been broken, but he was assuming that was due to Tosh breaking the natural shields and the whole dying thing) but dead.

He'd managed to disinfect half the equipment before the container started beeping, telling him that the freezing was over and that she needed to be sent to the morgue. Owen quickly sent the body down, before getting back to the task at hand.

It was surprising really, Owen had thought it would take longer to complete the autopsy, had been fully prepared to be still at the hub by the time Jack had gotten back, but the whole process was relatively quick. There was no defences to break through and nothing that would put anyone at risk (Thank God, he couldn't help but think) and Owen was quite excited to go back over the notes he'd made, do a bit more research into the species and then try and make an educated guess about the whole thing, but that could wait.

All Owen wanted now was his bed, the adrenaline from earlier in the day had worn off and he was now exhausted. However he knew he couldn't leave straight away, there was still a huge mess in the autopsy bay and Ianto would have his head if he left it. So he sighed and grumbled to himself, but got the job done.

It was only as he was logging off for the night about 45 minutes later that the hub door opened, sirens blaring loudly. "I'm just going Harkness, no need to -" Owen stopped suddenly on seeing that the person who had entered the hub was most definitely not Jack. "Tosh, what's wrong? What's happened?" He ran down the stairs to the young technician, carefully taking off her wet coat. He noticed straight away that she was soaked through. When had it started raining? No not the thing to think about Harper he mentally berated himself as he lead Tosh to the sofa.

"I'm just going to get you a towel all right?" When she nodded, Owen got off the sofa and ran to the locker rooms a few floors below. As well as towels, he grabbed some blankets and looked through her locker for spare clothes, but everything in there were blouses and office skirts, which whilst great during the day, are not ideal in the middle of the night, whilst soaking wet.

Cursing he made his way to his locker, grabbing an old jumper which would more than swamp Tosh, but it'd keep her warm which was the point. When he got back, Tosh looked a lot more like herself, her face wasn't as pale and she seemed to be taking in her surroundings, something she wasn't before.

"Thanks Owen," she smiled, taking the jumper he handed her and shamelessly unbuttoning her soaked blouse, not even seeming embarrassed at the company. She pulled the top away from her and pulled the jumper on, hiding her quite amazing breasts. SHUT UP BRAIN SHUT UP, because that's when it hit Owen. Tosh was drunk, considerably so. It hadn't been obvious at first, she wasn't slurring or falling al over the place, but her eyes were slightly glassy and sober Tosh would never have the self-confidence to do that.

"No problem sweetheart," he said gruffly, looking away as she shimmied out of her skirt. Luckily his jumper was much too big on him and stopped mid-thigh so she didn't expose anything. He had no idea what to do in this sort of situation. "You gonna tell me why you're in such a sorry state?"
At this Tosh let out a wail, which pretty much confirmed that she was off her tits. Brilliant. "I'm such a twat," she moaned, leaning back on the sofa.

"We all are, have to be to get this job," She gave a small hiccuped laugh before falling silent again.

"I think me and Danny are finished," she finally said, playing with a stray thread on the blanket.

"How come?"

"Well I just kind of snapped in the restaurant we were at."

Earlier that evening - 8:30pm

"And the Ian said that we weren't going to-" Danny was currently telling her about some deal the business had just made. Or at least Tosh thought that was what he was talking about. To be truthful she had stopped listening about five minutes ago and was slowly working on emptying the bottle of wine on their table.

"Tosh? Tosh? Are you even listening to me?" Danny said, looking slightly worried and a bit more annoyed that once again Tosh had stopped listening. "Am I boring you?" He asked quietly, once he was certain he had her full attention.

"What? No, no not at all," Tosh protested, but even to her it sounded weak, and that was saying something seeing as she had single-handldy drank the better part of the wine.

"Is something wrong then? With work or you family?" Danny asked, placing his hand on top of Tosh's. She snatched hers away as soon as they made contact, like his touch burned.

"No there's nothing wrong,"

"Then what is it? Is there anything I can do to help,"
"You could shut up," Tosh snapped. "Because that's one thing you never do, always wittering about this and that. Never shutting up."

"Calm down Toshiko, people are staring," Danny said, looking round the room self-consciously, apologising as best he could to all the glares sent their way.

But this only made things worse. "I will not calm down, I mean it's probably the only way I'll probably get myself heard over all your shit!"

"You're crazy," Danny hissed, his face beet red as more glares turned their way. "You act all interested in me, but then never listen to what I'm saying, ignore me when I ask about you and now you're screaming at me."

It was at that point that Tosh threw the remainder of wine in her glass at his face.

"I'm sorry madam but we're going to have to ask you to leave. Some people are complaining," A waiter said snootily, looking in shock at the dripping form of Danny.

"I was just leaving anyway," Tosh spat, grabbing her jacket and marching out of the restaurant. The rain sobered her slightly, but she kept on walking. To the one place where she knew she'd be safe. To the hub.

"Shit," Owen remarked as calmly as he could when Tosh finished her story.

"Just a bit. The thing is, I'm not sure why I got so mad at Danny, he didn't do anything wrong I was just getting so sick of the whole thing. Although I doubt that he'll ever want to see me again after tonight. Not sure if that's a good thing or not."

"The fact that you can't tell probably means that it is a good thing you broke things off now, rather than later." Owen said, getting comfy on the sofa. Tosh sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry that you two didn't work out though, he did make you happy, however briefly that was for. You deserve happiness you know that Tosh, it suits you. When you smile you can light up a whole room, you should do it more often." Stretching, Owen checked the time on his phone, swearing lightly when he realised how late it had got. "How about we go down to the spare rooms, it's getting pretty late. Tosh? Tosh?"

That was when he noticed that she had fallen asleep sometime when he was speaking. She looked so peaceful when she was asleep he couldn't help but note. Soon enough he couldn't fight the tiredness either and felt his eyes droop.

Half an hour later Captain Jack Harkness found two of his employees curled around each other on the sofa. Tosh's hair was still slightly damp, but the rest of her was fine. Jack was amused to see her in Owen's spare jumper, with said doctor wrapped around her.

Smiling he picked up a blanket and covered them with it. "Sweet dreams,"