"This isn't gonna work."

"Have a better idea?"

"Yeah double back for Jack and try again –" Rex was cut off by a stray shot.

They were lying on their stomachs under a delivery truck. Around them Torchwood troops hunted for them.

"We won't be able to, pretty sure our ace in the hole has been found out."

Rex sighed.

"Look, our rendezvous is on the other side of that wall."

"The fifteen foot wall topped with razor wire?"

"The fifteen foot wall with an electronic gate."

"We're gonna get killed."

"No you aren't." Gwen said breathlessly and shifted to move closer to the gate.

"You're the one that said he wouldn't trust just me."

"Yes and he won't. He doesn't really know you Rex, you wouldn't trust him either."

Rex didn't correct her just sighed and checked his weapon.

"Jack can't keep them from us much longer."

"Then why don't you go make yourself useful then?" Gwen sighed in exasperation.

"I'll be fine!" She snapped as he glanced at her.

"Fine." Rex growled and carefully worked his way out from under the vehicle.

"Bloody stubborn." She muttered.


Ianto was stumbling. He had given up on jogging and devolved to his current not quite drunken stumble. He had realized the cut on his left arm was much worse than it had seemed. He had used his belt to tie it off but could do nothing else for the blood loss.

He wasn't going to stop moving or turn around. Too much had been risked already. Ahead he could see the dim outline of the exit.

Torchwood had to be stopped and only Jack could reach for help beyond Earth. He kept moving.


Rex leapt over a low wall and still running flat out dropped a Torchwood operative with two near perfect shots. Panting he slid to a halt next to the fresh corpse and knelt. He checked to ensure there was no pulse then looted the body. Two flashbangs, a radio, and an assault rifle. He checked the weapon over then safed it and checked his bearings.

He was close to where they had left Jack. He slipped between two enormous brick buildings the kind of thing he would only see on the East Coast back home and down a skinnier alley to reach Jack's last known whereabouts.

Jack was still lying there. A pool of blood had formed around him.

"Fucking tragedy." Rex growled as he sidled next to Jack. Jack didn't reply. Rex scowled and checked his pulse. Nothing.

"Fucking fuck." Rex half breathed half whispered. He studied the buildings nearby then decided to cut his losses and take a chance. He grabbed Jack by the lapels of his coat – grinning as he envisioned Jack's reaction to such harsh treatment – and dragged the bigger man back down the skinny alley he had used to enter the sheltered area.

Jack came to as Rex was lying him down.

"Rex? Where's Gwen –"

"You are incredibly heavy."

"Thanks slim what's going on?"

"She's waiting on your boy, I circled back for you."

"Give me a hand up."

"Hey no lose the coat."

"What – oh." The absorbent wool was dripping with blood, it was completely waterlogged. Jack grimaced and shrugged it off.

"Sure you wanna leave that?"

"What choice do we have?"

"Amateur." Rex muttered and reached into his pocket he pulled out a small container of liquid fuel for cigarette lighters and a lighter. In moments he had soaked the coat and set it ablaze.

Jack didn't comment but Rex's smirk was a little smugger than usual as they backtracked to Gwen.

Rex was professionally paranoid his recent political fuck up notwithstanding. His little firebug kit had been meant for personal use but worked just a well for Jack. The entire disaster of The Miracle could be laid in no small part at Jack's feet. His impossible existence had been the catalyst and in solving The Miracle and bringing death back Jack's nature had corrupted Rex's leaving them both fixed points in time. Immutable, solid, forever.

Rex really hadn't and still didn't understand all the ramifications of his new reality but he knew one thing for damn sure. His blood could twist reality in the wrong hands.

So he made a burn kit, several, and with his CIA I.D. carrying flammables hadn't been an issue.


They joined Gwen under the truck with minimal trouble.

Gwen stared at Jack suspiciously.

"Had to burn it." Jack sighed.

"Scandalous." Gwen commented and returned to watching the gate.

"Bag." Ianto muttered and almost didn't see it. It was a blue nylon shoulder bag, wedged under the secure keypad. He tugged it free weakly and tried to remember what the voice had said about the code. Smiling as he remembered it was his birthday he leaned heavily against the security housing and with a shaking hand entered the code.

He retrieved the bag and the gate started to groan and shift then slowly slide open.

Ianto managed to walk out of the gate not wanting to appear completely vulnerable to whatever lay behind it. He found himself walking into a parking lot that appeared to border a visitor's center of some kind. The parking lot was almost empty.

Before he could call out Gwen appeared, she rolled out from under one of the only vehicles in the parking lot and charged him. As he started to sink to his knees Rex and Jack appeared, Jack rapidly outpaced his companions and reached Ianto first.

Jack knelt in front of him, wrapped a strong arm around his shoulders.

"Jack…no." Ianto sighed and tried to pull away.

"You're bleeding, we have to get you out of here." Jack said and hauled Ianto to his feet.

"Jack please…let me go." Ianto's eyes were wide, the whites showing like a terrified horse's eyes so blue against the smeared blood on his cheek they seemed impossible.

"Ianto I'm not going to hurt you or stop you but you're bleeding –"

"What if I ask you to?" Tears on his cheeks.

Jack kissed him as Gwen gently took his weight while maneuvering around his injured arm. Jack broke the kiss and Ianto let out a half strangled sob.

Rex peeled off when he saw Jack and Gwen were fine with Ianto and started looking for an escape vehicle.

"He's lost a lot of blood." Jack said.

"He seems –"

"He can hear you." Ianto said weakly and smiled then jerked in panic. "The bag where is the bag –"

"You're still holding it." Jack said and lifted Ianto's uninjured arm to his line of sight.

"It's important." He said firmly.

From the parking lot they heard an engine start.

"Not much time, they'll make the voice talk." Ianto murmured.

Jack was very grateful Rex wasn't there to offer his particular brand of commentary.

Together Gwen and Jack managed to get Ianto to the parking lot where Rex met them. He had liberated a sedan and hopped out to help Jack and Ianto into the back seat. Gwen took shotgun.

"Where to?" Rex asked.

Silence reigned.

"Come on this is your damn city." Rex prompted again.

"Keep on this road for two miles." Gwen said and glanced at Jack. Jack nodded.

"Then what?"

"Just – give us that much time to think!" Gwen barked back.

Ianto was conscious but barely.

"I have to look at your arm." Jack said and using a knife he produced so quickly Gwen couldn't see where it had been stowed he gently cut away Ianto's sleeve. The arm hadn't been cut but shot. It was a fleshy through and through but the bleeding had gone unchecked for a dangerous length of time.

"We need a blood bank –"

"No, I'm O negative." Gwen interjected. Jack wondered how he hadn't realized that.

"We still need equipment."

Half an hour later Ianto was fully unconscious and breathing shallowly. They were clear of the city and on the way to one of Jack's myriad 'friends'.

"Jack we could –"

"If we leave him at a hospital they'll take him again."

"If we don't he might die – he's so pale." Gwen fretted.

"Jack she has a point." Rex said. Rex's use of Jack's name sobered the immortal. They were right.

"Okay okay…turn in at the next sign for –"

"There." Rex growled as red and blue lights lit up the road behind them. Jack swore colorfully while Gwen glared him and Rex to silence.

"I don't even have a fucking license in this country." Rex hissed as he slowly pulled over.

The police vehicle stopped ten or more feet behind them. It was difficult to judge distance in the rain. They waited a small eternity until someone finally exited the vehicle.

"It's normal but we're fucked." Gwen muttered.

Rex rolled down the window and waited. This might work out. If they could incapacitate the cop they would –

The face peering in at Rex wasn't framed with a police officer's cap. Rex blinked.

"My name is Jade you need my help." The woman said.