Hughes Flats; Cardiff, Wales

Not for the first time, Gwen Cooper wondered about the price of working for Torchwood. She usually loved it. Working with Jack, she'd seen both the amazing and the impossible. Security issues were always a concern. Hughes Flats should have resolved some of the problems.

Gwen's mobile rang. "Are you okay?" She could hear the shower running in the background.

Rhys sounded relieved. "The bloke you sent took out four of the five of them."

"What bloke?"

"From Torchwood London. He had a thing on his wrist like Jack."

The only other wrist-strap Gwen knew of belonged to John Hart. "What happened?"

"The front of our flat was destroyed. The floor looks solid. The wall between the flat and the hallway, the kitchen counter, the table, the carpet." He hesitated. "It looks like a very strange bomb went off."

"Jack's pulling into the car park."

Gwen couldn't get passed the wrist-strap comment as she climbed out of the van. "Why would another Time Agent be on Earth?" She explained what Rhys said.

"I don't know. According to John, there were only seven left." Jack believed that much. "John's the only one that would come here."

Jack ran for the building and Gwen followed. They took the stairs instead of the lift. He paused to scan the body with a hand-held. "A biomech. The person who did this knew what they were doing."

What was happening, Gwen wondered as they continued up the stairs. When she stepped into the hallway and saw the damage, it was unbelievable. She stared. Over the years with Torchwood, she'd seen a lot. Melted cement was new. The more she thought about it, it looked more warped than melted. How did you survive that? Anwen sat on the floor with wet hair wrapped in a blanket. Visible through the giant hole in the wall. She looked up with tired eyes and a weak smile. Rhys hovered nearby, his clothing partially wet.

Gwen walked through the hole. "Are you up to telling me what happened?"

"It all started with the tooth fairy in the storage room…" Anwen tried recounting what happened as if it was a funny story. The humor didn't reach her eyes.

Gwen listened, having trouble connecting the John Hart who tried to kill her and the one who saved her family.

"When we talked about drugs, you said addicts could do horrible things," Anwen said. "It's a sickness."

"Yes."

"If John went to one of those places, maybe he's not sick anymore."

Even recovering addicts had serious problems. The immediate question was why John cared. There had to be something in it for him, but she had no idea what. She could imagine it had to do with getting back into Jack's good graces. Ten years had passed for them. John moved through time so it could be weeks or months for him.

"How old does John look?"

"Uncle Jack's age, maybe. His hair is grayer."

"Was he wearing a red coat?"

"No."

Rhys motioned her farther into the flat. Gwen followed him. They stepped into Anwen's bedroom farthest from the door. There was no damage, but the carpet near the bathroom was wet. The tile floor was soaked. She hadn't thought to ask why they were wet.

"What is it?" Rhys asked.

"What exactly did John say to you?"

Rhys paused to think. "He was from Torchwood London."

"Remember the man I told you about who worked with Jack before Torchwood? He tried to kill me, shot Owen, threw Jack off a roof? During another visit he blew up half of Cardiff."

Rhys shook his head slightly. "John was here to protect Anwen. She asked him for help and he came."


Jack Harkness scanned the damage again. Even with identical readings, he didn't believe what he was seeing. A creature that should have destroyed the building was taken by the Rift. While the Rift did remove people and items, it was random. This wasn't.

Jack looked up as Gwen stepped back into the hallway. She had an odd expression. "It was John." From her tone, that wasn't what concerns her the most. "Anwen can control the Rift."

Although Jack considered that unlikely, except it fit the readings. Another thought occurred to him as he was trying to piece together a scenario in his mind. He knew why Anwen's wrist-strap looked familiar. It was a replica of John's with a few modifications.

"Why would John protect Anwen?"

Everything starting with the wrist-strap lead to a future version of Anwen. The changes only she could sense. The hub modifications using designs Ianto would approve of and the promotion. From his own experiences with John, and the Time Agency, his less than ideal personality traits could be managed and even manipulated by someone he was emotionally involved with.

"Why?"

It was too soon to share the picture forming in his mind. If Anwen had the ability to change the past, it was likely she controlled Torchwood. Over time the job warped a person like the explosion damaged the wall. Figuring John out wouldn't take much, if she had access and possibly old stories. When he was in Cardiff last, he was having trouble coping. He needed a job and a mission. A bribe. Add a relationship and she'd have him.

"I don't know." Jack wanted to be wrong. John was a lot more complicated than most people realized. And smarter. If she lied to him he would figure it out. The consequences would be unpredictable and violent.


Near Hughes Flats

John Hart sat on the floor in his flat. After all he'd seen, done, and survived, he thought he'd never feel again. The sex, alcohol and drug addictions had been an unconscious attempt to feel. None worked. He'd been angry and lashed out, blaming others for what was missing.

He held up the simple necklace with a gold ring. It looked braided on top. Simple and solid without adornment, like the woman it belong to. She had been many things to him. He chose peace for the inside engraving. It was the one thing no one else had ever given him.

With a sigh, he tucked it back under his shirt. She was gone. When the time changes started, the woman he knew and loved ceased to exist. If he lived to see her again, he would be too old, and the circumstances leading to their relationship couldn't be repeated.

Unable to handle the memories or pain, he forced himself to focus on the laptop and Stilleman Caudell's flash drive. It had unexpected information. Caudell had been hired to abduct Anwen. The goal was extortion. Security and alien tech details were minimal. The building blueprints came from the city and included what floor and flat the Williams lived in. Which could have been determined from utility records. The result of shooting Caudell appeared to be secondary. He doubted Moss-Probert knew the consequences of what they intended.

Anwen's ability was unknown to them. Even after destroying the creature, they should have assumed Jack's defenses did it. Although, he couldn't guarantee it. If they figured it out, the next attempt on Anwen would be a power grab.

The gaps and inaccuracies suggested the information wasn't firsthand. The psychological profile on Jack was hilarious. Egomaniac and sex-crazed. His immortality was reduced to fast healing. Caudell either suspected a set-up or alternatively Moss-Probert wanted to plant information. Which could mean the profile was intended to be insulting. Either way, one of them expected Torchwood to act on it. It wouldn't take much to determine whether MP would benefit from it. That would tell him the intel's purpose.

After improving Jack's security net, and his own, he could work on the MP problem. It helped that Anwen had a tracking device. Jack had changed a great deal since the days they worked together. But his methods were much the same. It meant he knew where Anwen was all the time.

Steven entered the room. "That alien was off script." The accusing tone said what his words didn't.

John looked up. "I don't know." He'd seen damage done by the creatures more than once as a Time Agent. In the future on the other side of the galaxy. "If I knew it was there, we would have brought different equipment. Killing the last intruder was basically a dead man's switch. He needed to be placed in medical stasis." There was no way he would have allowed it anywhere near Anwen.

"Someone else is manipulating time?"

John shrugged. "Our being here could have unexpected consequences."