Here is the long awaited chapter. Hope you like.


Jack sat on the sofa in the Hub, staring at the opposite wall. The Lieutenant sat up suddenly breathing in sharply. He looked over at her. She pulled her knees up, she crossed her arms and wrested her head on them. She hadn't noticed he was there. He watched as she started to shake, silent sobs shook her. As he watched she shook and shook. He stood up slowly; walking over to her he sat down next to her. He put his arm around her trying to comfort her. She didn't look at him. She lifted her head and stared at her knees.

"I'm so sorry Jack. I didn't mean it I had to make you mad." She whispered.

"How did you know all that?"

"I don't know, I can't remember." she looked at him, it was the first time he'd seen her emotional, tears where making tracks down her face, she looked tired and withdrawn. He just looked at her. It was weird he never imagined she could cry she seemed so strong.

"About Ianto and Steven…" he fell silent, choked with emotion.

"I'm sorry I don't remember I just remember the pain and…" it was her time to fall silent.

"What happened? You where right behind me then I heard you cry out in pain and watched you collapse and you kept going in and out of consciousness." She clasped her hands to her mouth she stood up starting to pace.

"Where have you been since I collapsed?" she asked quickly. Wiping the tears from her cheeks, she started to remember what had happened.

"Just in here."

"Where's Gwen?" she looked around the room.

"At home its 1am." She started to walk down the stairs to the autopsy room, no one was there. She grabbed her gun off the floor where Jack had dropped it after shooting her. "What are you doing?" she ignored him. Carrying on her search of the surrounding rooms she flicked through the CCTV. Watching the image fizz out at the point the lights had blown.

"I'm going down to the cells and mortuary, Just to check." She hurried off down the stairs.

"Too check what?" Jack yelled after her. She flung herself down the stairs two at a time bouncing off the walls, just slamming herself around the corner. She looked into the various rooms as she went down. She walked into the cells she checked the first 3 levels, as she came to the 4th she heard something move. She froze. She turned the lights on and walked in carefully covering every point she could as quickly as possible in succession. She listened at the door to the next corridor.

"Don't worry Kid, Jack will find us." She looked through the glass in the door, opening it slowly; walking over to the first glass fronted cell. Staring in disbelief at what it contained. The man in there stared at her confused. He stared back at her wondering who it was, she was a young looking girl, in black jeans and shirt, she was wearing the nicest boots he'd ever seen, Black, knee high, they where laced from below the ankle to the top of the boots. They were clearly what she normally wore; they were perfect but well worn. She was dressed similarly to Jack; he thought to himself except more modern, the braces she wore where hanging down by her thighs. He suddenly realised he was checking her out rather obviously and snapped his eyes back away from her thighs.

"You must be Ianto Jones." She said quietly.

"Sorry I don't know you, why am I back here? How did I get here? Last thing I remember I was dying. Where's Jack?" He spoke in a welsh accent. He realised he sounded very rude but she didn't seem to notice. She didn't reply. She just stared. She slowly raised her hand to her ear, pressing the communications device in her right ear.

"Jack, I need you to come down to level four of the cells and umm keep an open mind." She looked terrified. She just kept looking at him.

"I'm on my way Lieutenant." She dragged her eyes away from the handsome man in the first cell and walked a little further, a boy was sat curled up on the floor of the next cell along.

"You must be Steven." She said calmly giving him a small smile. He looked terrified. She could hear Jacks foot falls on the hard concrete steps. She turned back to Steven. "Don't worry; everything is going to be ok. I promise." She walked over to the other cell. Ianto looked at her his brow furrowed. She bit her lip.

"I'm here and open minded. What do you want?" both the Lieutenant and Ianto looked over at Jack who was stood in the doorway. She looked at him. As he registered Ianto stood in the cell, he turned back to her moving swiftly he slammed her up against the wall. She felt her feet lift slightly off the ground.

"Why are you doing this?" he yelled, "How did you get in my head? Why are you making me see the people I love?"

"I'm not making you." She coughed. "Jack let me go, I can explain." He pushed her harder against the wall in anger, trying to make her talk.

"Are you trying to take over? It won't work."

"No I'm not. Jack I swear," She gasped for air, "He's there, alive I…" he shoved her again.

"Jack let her go." Ianto yelled, banging on the glass of the cell. Jack loosened his grip. Her feet touched the ground again. He stared into her eyes. She could see the pain he was in.

"I'm so sorry, Jack please let me try and explain." He let go of her. She steadied herself; she didn't blame Jack for his reaction hers would have been the same. She took his arm pulling him over to Steven.

"Uncle Jack!" the boy jumped up. Jack took a step back, he didn't say anything. She knew this would be taking him down a few pegs. The Lieutenant took her key card and opened the cell.

"Come here Kid." He did she picked him up. "What do you remember?"

"The Aliens, that's all the aliens and Uncle Jack stopped them. Where's my Mum?" Nice kid, it was good he didn't remember it would be easier.

"Can you remember what stopped the aliens?"

"No, I don't know. I was kept out of the way." She looked over at Jack who was lent up against the wall tears welling in his eyes.

"Well we had better get you back to your mum, she's worried sick. You got lost in the confusion after the alien, we didn't know where you where." She smiled at him. She looked back at Jack concerned, he didn't move. She decided it was best for her to take control of this situation. Jack wasn't going to be able to cope on his own, "Well, Mr Jones." She turned to Ianto. "We had better get you out of there." She opened the cell open handed. Looking at Jack, Ianto didn't move. She walked over to the doorway turning back to look at them.

"I am so sorry." Jack shook with grief. As they walked up to one another and embraced, the Lieutenant put Steven down,

"Go on up the stair, stop at the top." Steven headed off up the stairs running. As he was out of sight Jack kissed Ianto passionately. She carried on up the stairs, leaving them to their reunion.

They where in the SUV like a flash, deciding it was better to get Steven back to Alice as soon as possible, Jack was driving. For once he was being responsible. They'd put a computer game in and Steven as busy fight zombies in the back seat. Ianto was sat next to him. Jack called Gwen when they were on their way.

"Please tell me, this is just a social call at 4am in the morning!"

"Sorry, we didn't think you would actually pick up! We just called to say you can have the day off tomorrow. So spend some time with Rhys and the baby!"

"Right, Ok I'm not going to question that, I'm just going to have a lie in!"

"We'll see you then! Bye." He hung up. Steven was engrossed in zombie killing Jack thought it was safe enough to talk to the lieutenant. He glanced in the rear view mirror at Ianto who was now looking out the window. It was a year since the 456. Earth was calm and back to normal, well as normal as it could be. "I think it's best if you handle this." Jack looked at the Lieutenant. She nodded in agreement. "I'll wait with Steven by the gate." She nodded again. "Are you not going to say anything?" she looked up at him.

"I don't know what to say Jack; I'm kind of a little confused." Ianto watched from the back of the car. Not saying a word just taking everything in. Who was this girl and why had Jack been so angry with her? She put her head in her hands. Jack pulled over. "Ianto stay here." She said jumping out and slamming the door. Jack looked at him with a faint smile and then got Steven out the SUV. The Lieutenant lent on her car door. Breathing deeply, what had she done? The whole universe could be different and she didn't know how to find out if it was or not. She pushed the thought out of her head as Jack came over to her.

"What are you going to say?" they crossed the road.

"I'm going to tell her the truth."

"Then will you tell me it?" she looked up at him and nodded. Jack stopped at the top of the path. She carried on to the door. She knocked on it. She saw the living room light go on. Strange she thought. It was 4am, not exactly a great time to call. Even thought it was getting lighter. The door opened. The woman stood inside looked very tired, grief stricken a shadow of life. Although it had been a year maybe more the Lieutenant knew how she felt losing a child, a loved one was never easy. She smiled at Alice Carter, or what was left of her.

"I'm Lieutenant Carter-Jones; I'm here on behalf of Torchwood." Alice tried to close the door but stopped when she saw Jack. She froze, staring at the boy in his arms.

"Mum." Steven cried out and Jack put him down. He ran up the path Alice stepped out of the house falling to her knees to embrace her son. She started to cry. "Mum its ok they found me." She looked up at the Lieutenant.

"May I come in?" She nodded. Slowly standing up, Steven ran into the house. Alice looked over at her father then walked into her home; the Lieutenant looked back at him. He looked at her the look on his face begged her to help him get his family back. She nodded slightly before closing the door behind her. "Steven why don't you run up and get ready for bed, it's been a long night." He looked from the Lieutenant to his mother. Who smiled at him he ran away up the stairs. They walked into the kitchen. "I know this is going to be hard for you to understand but I need to try and explain it to you for my own peace of mind."

"Right," it was the first time she had spoken it was just a whisper.

"I'm not human, I'm another species I'm a Time Lord and in fact I am now the First Empress of the Time Lords. This will make no sense to you but a few hours ago I was informed of this and a" she paused not really able to explain it, "and now a kind of transformation is happening. There's a calculation for creation, for everything and the Emperor well now Empress of the Time Lords has this calculation running through their mind. When the transfer happens its very unstable and when it started I collapse and Jack…Jack caught me and I could see into his thoughts and they were of you and your son and of a man called Ianto Jones, who worked with the Captain, there was so much grief that in the fragile state I was in I managed to bring them back through using the equation. I know it sounds mad but that's the truth, in short. I know this is going to be hard re-adjusting again, but I can help you. I don't expect you to trust me but I can re-write your memories so that Steven just got lost or ran away, he himself had no recollection of what happened so I said he got lost in all the commotion after the 456." Throughout her explanation Alice had just listened, trying to take in the information. The Lieutenant stopped, looking at Alice.

"Thank you for bringing him back," Alice stopped, "I...I don't want to remember." The Lieutenant nodded. She stepped forward.

"It won't hurt I'll just change your memory of the incident." She placed her hands on either side of Alice's head. The Lieutenant closed her eyes carefully moving into her memories. She tried not to look at them to closely. She carefully removed the memories, not really sure how she was doing it or when she had learnt to do it! She then re-wrote them. Carefully letting go, she looked at Alice, who smiled.

"I've been so worried, I'm just glad he's safe, thank you so much." She hugged her. The lieutenant wasn't really sure what to do now.

"Right I'm going to leave you and Steven in peace. If you need anything at all call me." She handed Alice a small card. She looked at it, putting it in the pocket of her dressing gown. "Now go take Steven a hot chocolate." They smiled at one another.

"Yes I will in a moment I just want to talk to my father." She smiled.

"Of course I'll send him in!" the Lieutenant strode quickly down the path towards jack who hadn't moved. "She wants to see you, I've re-written her memories, just be careful, she blames you for a lot of…" she broke off as Jack put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"Thank you." he whispered, as he started to walk towards the house.

"I'll take Ianto back to the Hub." She saw Jack nod as Alice embraced him, closing the door behind him. She stopped for a moment then walked over to the SUV. She jumped in the driver's seat; Ianto was still sat in the back.

"Right, you better get in the front." He hopped out and round. She offered him her hand, "We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Lieutenant Carter-Jones I apologise for the double barrel; even I'm not sure where it came from! Welcome back!" he shook her hand.

"Thanks." He was a little stunned

"Sorry for dragging you back," they both smiled.

"It's quite alright although I could murder a coffee!"


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