Owen screeched the SUV to a halt. As it stopped all three of them were thrown forward in their seats. Ianto in the passenger seat and Jack behind him in the back.

"He drives quicker than you," Jack said to Ianto.

"This is an emergency," Owen snapped. "And that's all we need." He waved a hand at the police cars parked by the old abandoned house. "Especially that," he added. Ianto followed his gaze. Kathy Swanson was stood outside the house, with two uniformed officers, and one other plain clothes policeman.

"At least they haven't gone in," Ianto said. He opened the passenger door and got out. Jack followed him, looking up at the house. It was an old, tumbled down Victorian affair. The windows were gone, the frames rotted through. Part of the brickwork was crumbling and the roof was missing a good number of tiles. Up one side of the house grew a thick ivy plant. It was dead in patches, the leaves turned brown, gently crumbling away

"Pretty," Jack said, looking at the house.

"A complete wreck," Owen commented.

"Still pretty," Jack insisted stubbornly. He looked at Ianto for some kind of reaction. Ianto smiled at him.

"If you like it Jack, it's pretty."

Owen groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Problem, Dr Harper?" Kathy asked, stalking up to them. Owen smiled at her, moving forward to cut her off. The last thing he needed was her anywhere near Jack. The Cardiff police were not their biggest fans, although they were often very glad to dump problems on them when they needed to. It was a very much a hate/hate, often one way street relationship. Which Jack seemed to revel in, not something he could do now, however.

"Not at all, is there any reason you're here? Only as far as I knew, you'd passed this onto us, for some reason."

"We had several emergency calls about the noises coming from the house, so we thought we had better attend. We didn't realise some of you lot were already here." Kathy glared at Jack. "And besides we didn't pass it onto you, your boss took it away from us."

Jack looked startled and did not give the glib retort that Kathy was expecting. Instead he looked at her blankly.

"Did I?"

Before Kathy could snap an answer, Owen took her arm and moved her forward. But she also noticed Ianto take Jack and push him back towards the SUV.

"Jack, you stay here," Ianto said. Jack looked up at the building.

"Shouldn't I help?"

"No. Not this time. Me and Owen need to get in there, just stay, okay, we won't be long."

Ianto picked up the anti-weevil spray, cuffs and everything else they would probably need. And he pressed down on his com.

"Gwen!"

"Ianto! Fucking hurry up!" Underneath the sound of her voice was the sound of banging and growling.

"We're outside, so are the police." Ianto turned, leaving Jack where he was and he jogged over to Owen. By the sound of it they couldn't waste any time. "Where are you?"

"Upstairs, the door right opposite the stairs. We've barricaded ourselves in. One weevil's trying to get in; I don't know where the other is, presumably with the brood."

"Where?" Ianto asked.

"They're nesting in the back of the dining room. It's one huge room, you can't miss the nest they've packed a ton of old furniture around it."

"Right, Gwen," Owen said. "We'll come in. Ianto go round the back, deal with the second one. I'll take the front door, distract the other. As soon as we have it away from the door, you two come out, and work as back up."

"Okay," Gwen said.

Owen nodded at Ianto.

Jack watched them from a distance. Ianto ran in through the gap in the wall – where presumably there had once been a gate - and around the side of the house, through the garden. He disappeared through the ram-shackled fence. He had his gun in one hand and the spray in the other. Owen made straight for the front door, disappearing into the main area of the house.

As he stood there Jack gripped onto the open door of the SUV. He felt a little torn as to what to do. Under normal circumstances he presumed that he would also be involved. Probably leading any attack. Ianto had explained to him that he was in charge. He should have known what he was doing.

But of course now, he didn't.

Instead he was reduced to standing outside, quivering in terror because of what was going on in the house.

"Not joining your troops then, Captain?"

Jack jumped and stared at the woman who had walked up to him. He looked at her dark skin, her hair in plaits and her long legs neatly hidden under her pencil skirt. He shifted on his feet and gripped onto the door, unsure of what to say.

"Jack?" she asked, frowning slightly. Jack looked down at the floor. She seemed like a nice lady, very pretty but Jack knew better than to touch after he had upset Tosh last night. And Owen today had warned him about saying anything he shouldn't. So Jack was at a loss as to what to do.

"What's the matter with him, Boss? Cat got his tongue. By his reputation he's bound to have licked one."

The man who spoke looked at his friends. The two uniformed officers glanced at him and then each other then they all laughed. Kathy watched Jack. He stared at them with shock and incomprehension. He didn't understand the conversation or what they were hinting at. Normally, he'd had been ready with some kind of comeback, or he simply radiated enough confidence with a threat of underlying violence that it put people off saying anything at all.

Now, instead, he just looked confused and nervous. His worried eyes moved from her to the house. There were no sounds coming from inside. Jack didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Their plan seemed quite sensible to him. One in the front, one around the back and attack on both sides. From what he had heard of the conversation there were only two things to deal with, and somehow Jack didn't doubt that all four of them could handle it. It was four against two, which were good odds. Still he couldn't shift the nervous, gnawing feeling from the pit of his stomach.

He should have been in there helping. None of them wanted to put him in danger, while he was like this. Vulnerable was the word Ianto used. He didn't feel very vulnerable, he just felt stupid. Again he felt himself chewing on his lower lip, shifting his feet nervously. Maybe they should have left him behind, perhaps that would have been better.

"Jack, are you all right?" Kathy eventually asked. It didn't take a genius to realise that there was something seriously wrong with him. Even the uniformed officers had stopped trying to wind him up and they were now just looking at him in curiosity, whispering between themselves.

Kathy reached up and took his arm, where his hand was clinging tightly to the door frame.

"Jack?" she asked again. He blinked at her again; surprised by the fact that she had touched him, although all she had hold of was the thick material of his coat. Everyone else didn't want to go anywhere near him, apart from Ianto, and even he was wary at the moment.

Now he was in a serious quandary. He wasn't quite sure where the feeling came from, but by the way the other officers had spoken to him he thought it was probably best that they didn't know about his current condition. He gave a smile, as charming as he could make it and he patted her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze for good measure.

"Don't worry, everything's fine."

Kathy Swanson frowned. Jack's smile faded as he saw the irritation on his face. He hadn't actually meant it to sound patronising but that was exactly what it seemed like to her. Jack was brushing her off. Which was entirely true but he wasn't doing it for the reasons that she was assuming.

She snatched her hand back. Jack jumped slightly and stepped back, moving closer to the open door of the SUV, hoping to use it as a shield, huddling against it slightly. Kathy's frown deepened. She looked ready to say something else but there was a sudden shout from inside the house.

A second later she was sent flying, landing heavily on the floor as Jack rushed past her. He didn't even look back as he ran towards the house. Jack had immediately recognised the shout, filled with pain, anger and outrage. It was Ianto's voice. Jack knew it from last night. It wasn't quite the same, but it was similar enough to throw Jack's protective instincts into overdrive.

He rushed to the house, leaping the three foot wall surrounding it with an elegant grace, his coat flying out behind him. He had his gun ready; no one had thought to take it off him, even Ianto, who had had it rather dangerously waved in his face.

Kathy felt herself helped up by the two uniformed officers and they watched Jack barrel into the house. There was a crashing sound from inside and the yelp of pain increased. They watched Jack disappear and the PC on Kathy's left snarled.

"Show off!"