Dinner was a simple affair. The three women sat in a small Italian restaurant, sharing a bottle of wine and talking about nothing in particular. It was a pleasant enough way to pass the time, but Rose couldn't stop her mind from wandering, and she was relieved when they finally headed out into the evening with a casual goodnight.

Although she was glad to be alone again, it was still early, and she found herself unsure of what to do next. She considered going back to her hotel room and watching television for a while, but the thought held little attraction for her. If she was honest with herself, all she wanted to do was go back to the Hub and go over some more of the time travellers' files, but she was determined to avoid the possibility of being alone with Jack. After this afternoon she didn't trust herself with him at all. It was so complicated, with so many emotions tied up in it, and she was fairly certain that if he looked at her in the right way just now it wouldn't be long before she threw herself at him. And that would not be very sensible, particularly in light of her alleged professional role.

She found herself an empty bench on the docks and sat down, looking out across the sea. It was a long time since she'd been to the coast. Since Bad Wolf Bay, she simply hadn't wanted to. Now, watching the gentle lull of the waves under the artificial light of the lamps along the walkway, the only word she could find to describe her feelings was wistful. The memories tried their hardest to surface, but she had grown more than efficient at suppressing them and she pushed them away with very little effort. Memories alone weren't her problem right now; memories come to life were.

She sat there for a while, lulled by the soothing rhythm, then finally pushed herself to her feet. She began to wander away from the docks, passing the office entrance to the Hub with only the slightest hesitation, and headed towards the Plass. It was at that point that the unmistakeable smell of chips wafted past, and she smiled to herself. At least there were some memories that didn't need to be ignored.

"So how are we shaping up so far?" Jack asked as they drove along on their way to visit the travellers from the future. "I mean, are you planning to get us all fired any time soon? 'Cause that's the kind of thing I like to know in advance."

"I think you're doing okay," Rose replied, then frowned. "Although I'm not too sure about this Owen guy. He's not exactly impressing me so far."

"He's not exactly impressing me, either," Jack said darkly. "He's been like this for a while, but it's getting stupid now."

"How long's a while?"

Jack shrugged. "It's difficult to say really. A month or two, maybe longer."

"And you're still keeping him on?" Rose said in disbelief.

"He's good at his job. Or at least he used to be."

"'Used to be' doesn't cut it, not for what we do. In my second year at Torchwood we had a guy who was a bit past it, and he nearly got the whole team killed."

Jack didn't answer her, and she could see from the closed look on his face that he wasn't planning to. There was obviously something going on here that she was missing.

"How far away is it?" she asked, breaking the silence which had fallen.

"Another 40 minutes or so. We thought they'd be better off out in the countryside, less chance of causing trouble that way."

They fell into silence again and Rose looked away, staring through the dark windows as they began to leave the city behind.

"Who are you really?" Jack asked abruptly. Rose turned back to face him quickly, shocked, and met his eyes. "Seriously. I know you're from Torchwood. I know you're meant to be Pete Tyler's daughter. But I also know that until seven years ago, you didn't exist. Nowhere to be found. So where the hell'd you come from?"

Rose found that she couldn't pull away from his gaze, and her mouth was suddenly too dry for her to speak. When Jack finally released her by turning back to face the road, she let out an audible sigh of relief and leant her head back, closing her eyes.

Damn. This was so not a good way to be answering this question.

"Tell me," he said, and there was an edge in his tone which she knew from experience meant he wouldn't be letting this one go. "Because you're not from round here."

Quite suddenly Rose found she had a new strength, and she sat up straight, looking ahead.

"I could say the same about you, Time Agent."

Jack was too well trained to let his shock show on his face, but she saw it anyway. It was in the clenching of his fists, the straightening of his shoulder blades; it was in every angle of his suddenly tense body. She had seen him like this before, in another time, another place, and it made her ache to throw her arms around him and hug the pain away.

Very calmly, Jack indicated off the road and pulled into an empty layby. He slowly put the hand brake on and turned the key in the ignition, keeping his face turned carefully away from her.

"How the hell do you know that?" he asked in a quiet, dangerous voice.

Rose swallowed the lump in her throat and took a deep breath. "Oh, Jack... I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you."

Jack lifted his head then, a scathing look in his eyes. "You wanna bet?"

She looked back helplessly, unsure of what to say next or even how they'd got to this point. She'd been so determined that none of this would be an issue, so keen to avoid any of this coming out that she hadn't really considered what she'd do if it did.

"Tell me," he said, and his voice was almost a growl.

"I knew... another you. A long time ago." Jack waited, eyes narrowed. She sighed and looked away. "In another world."

"Explain," he said through gritted teeth.

Rose leaned back in her chair, raising her eyes to the car ceiling, then looked back at him and said quietly. "I come from a parallel universe, Jack. That's why I didn't exist before, because this isn't where I was born. I came here with my mum seven years ago, and I'm stuck here. Can't get back. An' when I was there, before, I knew... this other you. We... erm, we travelled together for a while."

"How did you get here?"

"That was Torchwood. Torchwood One here, that is. Well, actually, I'd been here before, the first time the Cybermen came, but we got home again. Then we had to send them all into the Void and I almost got swept in, and my dad - well, sort of - came and got me and brought me here, and I couldn't get back again. And I left... well, I'm stuck here."

"That makes no sense. If it wasn't for the fact that it tallies up, I wouldn't believe a word of it." Jack leaned forward onto the steering wheel, arms crossed, then shook his head. "You knew another me?"

"Yes," Rose answered quietly.

"How?"

"How what?"

"How did you know me? When did you meet me? Why did I go travelling with you?"

"Long story," Rose said wistfully, looking out of the car window across the damp fields.

"Doesn't matter. We're not going anywhere until you tell me."

"I met you during World War Two." She found it difficult to get the words out, and had to swallow before continuing. "I... I was hanging from a barrage balloon wearing a top with a Union Jack on it, and then I fell, and you... you caught me in a tractor beam and got me to your ship. And then I fainted." She smiled slightly. "Seem to have a habit of doing that around you."

She glanced over in Jack's direction. He seemed to be deliberately trying to avoid her gaze. "Anyway. Turned out you were the reason we'd ended up there in the first place, chasing some Chula ambulance that you thought was rubbish but which actually contained nanobots which tried to rewrite the DNA of the whole human race, but we sorted it all out in the end, and the Doctor decided he'd let you come with us."

"The Doctor? Who? No, it doesn't matter... there were nanobots in there? But..." Jack's face was whiter than she'd ever seen it. "But... I did that... here... how?"

Rose frowned. "You brought the Chula ambulance to London here too? But people here... they're normal... when it happened in my world, people started growing gas masks. I guess... I guess it was just one of those differences, like I was never born here, and Mickey was called Ricky... maybe there just weren't any nanobots on your ambulance. That's gotta be it. So you probably never met Nancy... she saved us all in the end, she did. Did the bomb go off?"

Jack visibly flinched at that, then said, "Yes. It went off." His voice was curt, and she decided not to press him on that.

"Anyway," she said in as light a tone as she could manage. "That's when I met you. An' you came with us after that. That's how I know you were a time agent." She frowned, then softened her voice. "And that's how I know about the memories they stole, too." Jack winced again, turning his face away from her. She reached out and touched his arm lightly. "I'm sorry." Then she opened the car door and stepped out into the wet morning, leaving him alone with his thoughts.