A/N: Hey everyone! Here's Adrift for you you guys enjoy it.

Just a little warning - there are certain scenes of sexual nature in this chapter, though there's nothing graphic.

Read, enjoy and review :)

"I wanna talk about this kid. Jonah," Andy told Gwen.

"Teenagers go missing all the time. I mean, why is this one so special?" she asked.

"I was the first one here. Sat with his mum all night and all the next day. Every time I tell her we've got nothing new, I see a bit of her die."

"Anything strange about the case?"

"Like you don't know," countered PC Andy. Andy walked back to the police car and played the CCTV footage of the incident.

"What just happened?" asked Gwen, unable to believe her eyes.

"Exactly. The camera records one frame every six seconds."

"He could've done a lot in six seconds, jumped over the side, hidden somewhere ..."

"No, he's looking at something. Look, something's glowing, just out of the camera's line of sight. Like a flare, it's not there in the previous frame... or the next."

"Could be one of the lights on the Barrage."

"All right, stop lying. You know what happened here. Why aren't you telling me?" Andy finally asked.

"What are you talking about, Andy?"

"Right... 45 minutes later..." He forwarded the footage to show a black SUV stop at the barrage and Jack stepping out. "What's your mate Mulder doing there?"

"Jack?" she asked incredulously.

----------------------XxX----------------------

"No recognizable rift activity around the Barrage on that date," Tosh told Gwen.

"What about if you tried...?"

"I ran checks for three months either side. Then extended the radius by a mile and checked again. Still nothing."

"OK. Thanks."

----------------------XxX----------------------

"Well, sir, I think we should have enough time. Tosh's working on a particularly complex equation, Owen is in the autopsy bay and Gwen's gone to meet Andy," said Ianto as he straddled Jack's lap and started unbuckling the immortal's belt.

"I like the way you think Ianto Jones," smirked Jack as he kissed the Welshman, who was now his husband. Husband, Jack thought and smiled, love the sound of it. His mind drifted to the small ceremony they'd had four days back with the Torchwood members Jack's daughter and Ianto's sister.

"Jack? Jaaaaack?"

"Oh sorry, miles away," Jack smiled.

"Should I be hurt that I'm here, sitting in my husband's lap, trying to give him a mind blowing blowjob and he's thinking of God knows who?" Ianto asked mischievously.

"Hey! I was just thinking that we should go out somewhere, I mean Owen can handle the team for a few days while we go on a vacation or something, ya know..." Jack suggested nervously, chiding himself in his mind for living for so long and yet being unable to ask his husband to go on a honeymoon.

"Of course love. Maybe in a day or two. But for now," Ianto replied, punctuating his words with a passionate kiss.

He then slid down to the floor, settled on his knees and pulled down Jack's pants and boxers to reveal his half-erect cock.

Jack moaned as Ianto took whole of his length into his mouth. A few strokes of Ianto's tongue and Jack's cock was already leaking precum.

The Welshman hummed and the vibrations in his vocal chords traveled all the way through Jack's body. The Captain's head rolled back. "Yan - I'm gonna -ah- cum- " he panted.

Ianto hollowed his cheeks and sucked hard. "Ianto!" Jack cried as he came.

The archivist swallowed all that he was offered and got up.

"How about I help you now?" Jack smirked. However, the favour was avoided by the blazing of alarms of the cog door.

"Later," Ianto said as he placed a small kiss at Jack's cheek and went down.

When Gwen came to Jack's office, he was threading the belt through

"Jack, I met Andy today, he was telling me about this boy. He's been missing and at the time of disappearance, the CCTV footage shoes a bright glow," she started without any prologue.

"When did you say this was?"

"About seven months back. Were you on the Barrage that night?"

"They have this cute little coffee shack. I sometimes stop by there."

"A boy went missing. Just under an hour before you were there."

"OK," Jack said indifferently.

"Jonah Bevan, 15 years old. I thought maybe you were out there because of him," she prompted.

"Maybe if we'd registered rift activity"

"No. I just checked with Tosh. It was all clear."

"Sorry. Can't help. Do you want me to look into it for you?" he asked, hoping Gwen would drop it.

"No, it's fine. So it was just a coincidence then?"

"Guess so. Gotta run. Weevil hunting with Ianto," he said gleefully.

As if he needs an excuse now, Gwen thought scornfully. For god's sake, he's fucking married the teaboy!

----------------------XxX----------------------

"Hah! I feel as if the weevils are getting heavier day by day!" complained Ianto as he and Jack carried the unconscious weevil and put it in the boot.

"So what do we name her?" Ianto wondered.

"How about Gwen?"

"Jack!"

"No really. Yan, she's too curious for her own good. She wanted to talk about Jonah's case. Spotted me there, stringed up things. I said it might be a coincidence but I don't think she's gonna give up."

"Maybe you should tell her," Ianto suggested.

"What? About Flat Holm? Yan, she's too emotional, you know that. And it'll just make her believe that everything related to the rift, everything alien, is bad."

"No, it won't. It'll just make her realize that somethings are not under our control, sometimes we have to let things be," Ianto said. "...And that when you tell he to leave something alone, she should listen to you," he added with a smile. Jack smiled back but said nothing.

"Wanna make out in the back seat?" Ianto suggested to lighten the mood.

"You bet!"

----------------------XxX---------------------

"Hey, what have you got?" Gwen asked Tosh.

"It's barely a blip on the system. So insignificant, I've been ignoring it. But when I looked closer... This is what we recognize as standard rift activity. But what I've discovered is a negative rift spike that occurred at the time you're querying. Now, we've always assumed that these readings were residual rift flares. Like an aftershock. But, because this one coincided with Jonah's disappearance, I think we've been misinterpreting."

"OK, so?"

"So, we've always believed that things can only come through the rift one way. What if we're wrong? What if the rift doesn't just leave stuff behind? What if it also takes?"

"Who else have you told about this?" Gwen inquired.

"No-one. I called you as soon as I realized. But It could be a coincidence, or an anomaly. I can't be sure unless I can cross-reference it with other examples."

----------------------XxX----------------------

"Cardiff has an epidemic of missing persons, totally out of kilter with any other comparable city. And it's all down to the rift," Gwen explained at the team meeting.

"Are you sure they aren't just normal missing persons? People do go missing for other reasons," Ianto offered.

"No. Toshiko cross-referenced the locations with the rift spikes. The people we've identified here are definitely victims of the rift."

"What do we think happens to them?" asked Owen.

"Scattered through time and space, I guess," Jack suggested.

"Cheery thought, thank you," Owen said sarcastically;

"This is good work. But I don't know what you want us to do," Jack asked Gwen.

"We find a way to prevent it."

"Toshiko, can we predict when the spikes are gonna happen?" asked the Captain.

"Err, No. And they're gone in a matter of seconds."

"Then I don't know how we combat them."

"Jack, we have a duty here. These people are victims of the rift. If they'd been attacked by a Weevil..." Gwen started.

"Weevils We can catch. If they're victims, we fix their wounds, but this, we don't know when it's gonna happen, we don't know where they end up. Seriously, Gwen. Practically, tell me what we should do."

" We help those left behind," the Welshwoman replied promptly.

"It's nothing to do with us. Move on."

"Jack, you should see these people..."

"Some things we can't fix."

"So we don't even try?" she asked incredulously.

"Look, Jack's right. They need counseling. Support. That is not us," Owen supported his boss.

"Ah, OK, is that what you all think? We are the only ones who know the truth. We can help them. We don't have to be this hard. It's not a badge of honour..."

"Close this down," Jack said as he walked away.

"Jack!" Gwen cried.

"I'll talk to him," Ianto said, gesturing her to stop as she started after the immortal. You'll only make it worse.

----------------------XxX----------------------

"She'll hate me if I tell her," Jack suddenly said as they stood outside the conference room.

"No, she won't hate you. Even if you commit genocide, she'll still worship you," Ianto said cheekily.

"Hey I'm serious!"

"Okay, but really she won't hate you. When you told me about it, Jack, I saw the hero in you that day. I felt a different kind of respect for you. Trust me, she'll take it fine," Ianto reassured him. "But yeah, I would say that you still tell her to leave it alone, so that she can learn her lesson."

"Then how..."

"Leave that to me," Ianto said, taking Jack's hand into his.

----------------------XxX----------------------

"I've placed a GPS at her desk," Ianto informed Jack.

"Oh, you sure she should know?"

"Jack, we both know Gwen, she'll not leave this until she finds out the truth. If we keep it from her, she'll keep trying to figure it out and that will affect her efficiency in other missions. So, it's better to have her save the energy," Ianto reasoned. "By the way, if she's going, you'll need to be at the island as well."

"Yeah, I know."

"Would you like me to come along?" asked Ianto, knowing that Jack was still unsure about it.

"You will?" The Welshman smiled as he saw the immortal's face light up like a Christmas tree.

"I will. But if you don't get started with our game, I might change my mind," Ianto smirked.

"Ah, naked hide and seek, my favourite!"

----------------------XxX----------------------

Jack pulled Ianto close, relishing the feel of skin against skin. His lips found Ianto's as his hands roamed all over the Welshman's body. Their erections brushed against each other and the two groaned through the kiss.

"Jack, I - " Gwen started as she entered the hothouse. "Oh, God! I'm sorry." She walked out laughing, leaving behind a grinning Jack and embarrassed Ianto.

Ianto quickly grabbed on his clothes and got dressed before following Gwen out.

"Err - " Ianto muttered as he came out, still pulling his shirt on.

"Ianto, I'm sorry, I didn't realise," Gwen apologized.

"It doesn't matter," he said matter-of-factly.

"And I wouldn't have come in if I'd known -"

"Always room for one more," Jack replied, coming out with an unbuttoned shirt (and looking sizzling, Ianto prompted to the author) "We could've used you an hour ago for naked hide-and-seek," he added, clearly not meaning it.

"He cheats. He always cheats." The Welshman smiled as he relived the moments when Jack cheated.

"Was there something you wanted?" Jack asked.

"Jonah Bevan. The missing boy. I'll make it my own special project, my responsibility, nothing to do with anyone else. I'm not letting it go," Gwen answered him.

"No," the Captain said curtly.

"What?"

"I don't know how I can be any clearer," Jack replied coldly.

"Oh, well... Tosh has her projects, so does Ianto. Why can't I?"

"Leave it alone."

"I can't," Gwen asserted. The two stared at each other but then Jack just turned attention to Ianto, deciding to ignore the Welshwoman.

"Coming back in? Work to do," he said before going back into the hothouse.

"Yup," came the instant reply.

"Jack! We're not finished!" Gwen shouted after the Captain.

"Yes, we are," said Jack, closing the door behind him.

"Err... There's a package on your desk," Ianto informed Gwen before going back to the naked Jack waiting for him inside.

The Welshman cupped Jack's face in his hands and gave him a reassuring kiss.

----------------------XxX----------------------

"Are you all right?" Helen asked Gwen as she guided her through the Flat Holm facility.

"Oh, my God... They're here. What are you doing to them? What's going on here? Tell me!" shouted Gwen. Jack and Ianto came up to the two women.

"I'll take it from here, Helen. " he told the caretaker..

"What are you doing? Ianto, You knew this too and -" asked Gwen.

"I can explain," Jack said as he walked forward.

"Nooo, no, no, no. You stay away from me!"

"Gwen Let's go outside and talk," Ianto suggested but Gwen wasn't having any of this.

"These are the people taken by the rift! What are they doing here? What have you done?"

"Gwen, listen to me," Jack said.

"He's here. He's been here all along," said the Welshwoman as she saw the sign saying 'Jonah's room'.

"It's not that simple, Gwen, just listen to us, " tried Ianto, in vain.

"Open it," Gwen ordered.

Jack tried talking sense into her but she did not listen. He felt Ianto's hand on his arm. The Welshman nodded sadly as the immortal turned to look at him.

----------------------XxX----------------------

"When I took over Torchwood, there were two, just like Jonah. Ravaged from falling through the rift. Being kept in the vaults, neglected. I wanted them looked after. I set this place up. Told the staff these were experiments that had gone wrong," Jack explained to Gwen as they sat outside on a dock while Ianto went to talk to Helen about the occupants of the caretaking facility.

"How many are there?" asked Gwen.

"Seventeen, last count. It's increased over the last year. Like the rift is trying to correct its mistakes."

" But not all the missing return."

"No," Jack replied sadly.

"You can't keep them hidden. They have families who deserve to know."

"Gwen, they're sick. In ways you could never imagine. We can't fix them. We just care for them," he tried to convince her. Why couldn't Gwen be like Ianto? Why couldn't she accept that there were things that were out of their control? Jack remembered the time when he'd brought Ianto here, not because the Welshman had been snoopy like Gwen but because Jack had wanted to share it with him. He'd known Ianto would understand and he'd been right. A few minutes after meeting Helen and the victims, Ianto had sat with Helen making a list of all the things that were needed. He even made sure that Jack didn't have to visit much too often, knowing how much this disturbed the immortal. And even when Jack did visit, the archivist made it a point to accompany him. Why couldn't Gwen take a leaf from his book?

"Jonah's asked me to bring Nikki here."

"No," Jack instantly said. Didn't she see the despair that hung around here? How could a mother see her son like this?

" She has a right to know."

"No way Gwen, she can't know."

"She said not knowing is the worst part," Gwen insisted.

"How are you going to tell her her child has aged 40 years in the last seven months? That he's scarred, that he cannot look after himself?"

"We don't have the right to hide it from her!"

----------------------XxX----------------------

"She'll go home, have some good time with Rhys, she'll be okay," Ianto reassured Jack.

"I know but Nikki?"

"She's a strong woman, she'll cope. I'll go talk to her after a day or two."

"But -"

"Hey, there are things we can't change, that's what you always say, don't you? There was no way you could have stopped Gwen from bringing Nikki there, no matter how hard you tried. Jack, there will always be grief in the world, you can't relieve everyone. But at least we try to help those that we can. We can't control the Rift, we can't control who the Rift takes, where it takes them, when does it return them, but when they do come back, we can take care of them, we can look after them, which we do. There's nothing more that we can do, Jack," he said, hugging Jack.

His husband did not reply. Instead he buried his head in Ianto's shoulder.


A/N: A big thanks to all the readers, reviewers and people who put this on alert/favourite.

To SiriusWatty_1: Thanks a lot for taking time to review and pointing out the mistakes. I really appreciate that.