"Goodbye Page." Jack's voice reverberated within her mind. The anger in his blue eyes, the hatred in Owen's, left Page completely broken, shattered. She was without a home, without a job and without her friends. The people she had come to depend on. Two thousand years of independence destroyed by a single man. Page had wandered around Cardiff for hours before she was stopped. Someone came from behind her and took her hand. Page froze for a second before turning quickly to face Ianto. She stared, wondering why he was there. Did Jack send him? Page knew better than that though. Jack was angry with her, more so than he had ever been since she met him. This was not going to be solved so easily. She opened her mouth to speak, to apologize, to say something but no words came out. Ianto said nothing. He just wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to him.

She sat next to Ianto on his couch. Tears streamed down her face. She was dressed in a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt that belonged to Ianto. Her wet, red hair fell in her face. She had not showered or changed clothes since the initial explosion. Page had been covered in dirt and blood until Ianto took her home. She was unable to get into Owen's flat, so Ianto gave her some of his clothes to wear. The shower did little to help her, though it did relax her a bit. He looked over at her, as she hugged her knees close to her chest. Her hands were still shaking and she sobbed quietly. After a moment Ianto moved closer to her, putting one arm around her and pulling her close, letting her rest her head against his chest. "Page… what happened?" Three hours of silent sobbing was broken by the sound of Ianto's soft voice. "Jack wouldn't say a word. Owen just fell apart. He has no idea what's going on. None of us do and we're worried about you, both of you."

She closed her eyes, letting the tears slide down her cheeks. "They're real. Jack won't admit to it. He'd say they're simply aliens that slipped through the rift, but they're not. They're real."

"What? They who?"

She slowly turned her head to look up at him, meeting those blue eyes that reminded her so much of Jack's. "Demons." She looked down again. "I… I couldn't let him die Ianto. I couldn't."

"Page, what did you do?"

She swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "Gave up everything. Made a deal. Sold my soul. Call it what you want, I did what I had to Ianto." She sat up slowly with tears in her eyes. "I couldn't let him die. I heard him screaming. I closed my eyes and he was there. I couldn't let him die! It felt wrong, it wasn't right. He wasn't supposed to die. I couldn't let him stay dead Ianto. I couldn't lose him. I couldn't… not again."

"Shh," Ianto whispered, leaning forward and placing his finger over her lips to silence her. "I understand. I know what its like. You'd do anything to protect what you love. I've been there." The sadness in Ianto's eyes tore at Page's heart. She had heard, through the others, even through Ianto in passing, about Lisa but she did not know much. There was still so much about the team, about their lives that Page did not know. He cupped her face in his hands, much the same way Jack had done so many times before and looked into her broken sapphire eyes. "I would have given anything for her. I've been where you are Page."

"I couldn't let him die Ianto… I couldn't. He died and I couldn't breathe."

Ianto sighed and lowered his gaze for a moment. "You're going to die then? How long?"

"Two years." She heard Ianto sigh and looked up. "Ianto, I had to… I had to…"

"I know…" Ianto's gaze slowly rose to meet hers and the tears in her eyes. She slowly stopped sobbing for a moment, and simply stared at him. They both moved before either of them realized it. His lips crashed into hers, his body moved forward, pushing her down with her back against the couch. Heat, fire, between them brought on by a desperate need to feel something, anything. There was fire behind his kiss, a raw kind of passion Page knew had to come from being with Jack. Ianto seemed so reserved, so shy normally but now, he was far from either. Both were driven by pain and a desperate need to hide, to run away from it.

She could feel his heart pounding beneath his chest. A heartbeat. It had been so long since Page had felt any heartbeat but her own. So many nights she had fallen asleep in Owen's arms but he had no heartbeat, no pulse. Page closed her eyes, feeling Ianto's skilled hands tugging at her clothes, while her fingers pulled at his. His lips pressed hard against her own, his tongue sliding gently over her teeth. She felt his fingertips against her bare back and it sent chills down her spine. Ianto's hands were soft, smooth. They had not seen the fighting that Jack's or even Owen's had. It was slightly comforting to feel soft hands against her skin. Page clenched her fists around the red shirt he was wearing and pulled his body closer to hers, as his hands pulled the baggy t-shirt over her head and dropped it on the floor. Her fingers made quick work of the buttons on his shirt, the tie long since gone and Ianto's lips traveled down her neck and over her collarbone as her head fell back.

She pulled the red shirt off his shoulder, throwing it onto the floor by her own. Contrary to what Page anticipated, Ianto was doing nothing to stop this. In fact if he was doing anything, it was encouraging her. Her hands slid down his back, nails digging into his skin and Page heard him take in a sharp breath as his lips graced her neck. His fingertips ran over her ribs, sending shivers through her body. Warm fingertips, she was so used to Owen's cold touch. Her breath caught in her throat as Ianto's lips moved down her neck, over her collarbone and dipped down her chest before moving back to her lips.

She left early that morning. Before Ianto even woke up. Page knew now that there was no way she could leave this team. Jack had made that impossible, made her care about them, all of them. Not just Owen, but Ianto, and Gwen and Tosh. She could not leave the team, and Jack need to know that. He needed to understand why she did what she did. Page was not about to let Jack get the final word. She found Jack in his office when she arrived at the Hub. It was long before anyone else had shown up. She knocked on the doorframe, even though Jack knew she was there. Page took a moment before walking into his office. "You have no place to judge me Jack Harkness."

He looked up from the papers on his desk, but said nothing. After a moment of staring at her, waiting for another response from her, he stood. Jack slowly walked around his desk and leaned against it, crossing his arms over his chest. "What you did was selfish Page. Owen was ready to die. You should have given that to him." He took a step forward, circling the girl, towering over her. "You're a hypocrite. Its all right for you to bring him back because you're afraid to be alone-"

"I'm not afraid! I've been alone for two thousand years Jack. Don't forget that. You think you've got it bad. Watching the people you love die, for a hundred years. Try a thousand, two thousand. You do not get to lecture me on loss Jack." She stood straight, confident, stood her ground. Page was not going to back down from this fight.

"You didn't do it for Owen, Page! You did it for yourself. Because you couldn't live with the fact that you fell for him! That's what life is Page! Loss!" He stopped in front of her and stared down at her blue eyes. "You have no idea what loss is Page. You said so yourself. You've been alone for two thousand years. Who the hell have you lost! How many people you loved have you watched die?! You don't know what love is."

Her hands shook. His words were like knives in her back. "At least I survived. You did this Jack! You brought me here! I would have been fine on my own, but you brought me here! You lied to me!" There was so much anger in her. She had been holding it in for months and now it was erupting. "You said that you'd protect me. You told me you'd take care of me! You lied to me. You brought me here and made me care about these people, about Owen! You said you would protect them! You let Owen die! Have you lied to everyone in your life Jack?! You said you'd protect me, you didn't. You said you'd protect the team, Owen… You didn't. You said you'd protect Gray. You didn't and now look what he's done! YOU DID THIS JACK HARKNESS! THIS IS ON-"

Her voice was stopped instantly as the sound of a gunshot echoed through the Hub. No one was around to hear. No one would know. Page stood, staring at Jack for a moment before she fell backwards to the ground, a bullet hole between her eyes. Jack stared down at the body. He knew she would come back, the same way he did. He knew, but that did not make him feel any better for it. Jack had never, deliberately been the cause of Page's death. He knelt next to her, holding her body and rocking back and forth for about ten minutes. It was still several hours before even Ianto would show up. Finally Jack took a deep breath. He was not finished yet. She needed to understand. To know what it was like to be dead. He picked up her body and carried her to the morgue. Jack knew he would regret this. Page would wake up in the freezer with no way out, locked in there. Jack had been buried alive for over a thousand years. Page had only been buried for two days. Jack on the other hand, he knew he would wake up. He knew he was not going to die, and eventually someone was going to find him. Every time Page woke up underground she had no idea why. It was her first death. She did not know she was Immortal and she did not know she would keep coming back. Every time she died down there she thought it was the last time and that left a permanent mark on Page. She was incredibly claustrophobic. This was Jack's punishment. Instead of taking her life, her memories, instead of firing her. She wanted to be a part of the team so badly, she was going to stay there.

The day wore on, everyone arrived for work. Ianto said nothing about Page staying with him, about that night. He felt no guilt, but he kept the details of their night to himself. It was no one else's business. Owen slid back into his job with ease and, for the first time in months he removed the bandage from his hand. His finger healed and only a scar remained on his palm. When he came back it had been chaotic. He had not even noticed until the morning what had truly happened. He was hungry, starving. He needed food, he was breathing, a pulse. The gunshot wound on his chest was nothing more than a scar now, a memory. Owen was human, Owen was alive. Jack said nothing about what happened between him and Page and no one asked. The day wore on and came to an end. Ianto was the last to leave. He went to say goodnight to Jack, but Jack did not want to talk to anyone. "What's wrong Jack?"

He slowly turned to face Ianto, catching the younger man's gaze. "How could she do that Ianto?"

He looked down and took a step towards Jack, placing his hand on Jack's shoulder. "Because she loves him." Ianto took a deep breath, choosing his words carefully. "If Owen knew, if they're places were switched Jack… you know he would have done the same thing." Part of Ianto knew, that he was risking a lot just by saying this, but it needed to be said. "What would you give to save Gray? That's what she gave for Owen." If I knew with…" his voice trailed away and he looked down, letting his hand fall to his side.

Ianto looked to his hand when he felt Jack take it, lacing their fingers together. "He was ready to die Ianto and we were all ready to let him go."

"That's not true. Tosh wasn't. Gwen wasn't." Ianto took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them. "I wasn't. She did what she thought was right, what she thought was best. She was guided by her heart not her mind Jack." Ianto gave Jack's hand a comforting squeeze before he let go and left the Hub. He hoped to find Page when he got home, but she was not there. He assumed she left. Life went on. One week since Owen returned, since disaster struck Cardiff. They were still picking up the pieces. Owen was finishing an autopsy on a small alien creature. It was mostly harmless, vaguely resembling a large guinea pig. It slipped through the rift and was killed in one of the explosions. One week before anyone found Page. No one bothered to look. Owen died before and she left. Why would this time be any different.