Gwen pulled up short when she saw Jo in the target practice area. It wasn't an unusual sight; in fact it was rather common. But the current weapon lying in front of Jo was unlike anything else she had produced.

It was much like a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher, except it was twice as big. Straps held braces that covered Jo's torso, as though the cannon weighed an incredible amount.

Jo glanced at Gwen and smiled. "Gwyneth! Morning to you. Is it a nice day out?"

Gwen shook her head. "No, it's raining like crazy outside. What is that?"

"This," Jo said, picking up the cannon and setting it on her shoulder with a grunt, "is something that should only be handled by someone who eats a lot of calcium and goes to the gym frequently." She pulled a lever on the cannon's side. It started to glow green and purple, and a loud electric sound came from it. Jo pointed it at the target dummies that were lined up in a column all the way to the far wall. Gwen stared as the cannon whined louder and louder, charging. Jo was smiling broadly in anticipation.

With a loud pop, the cannon discharged. Gwen blinked, waiting. Jo set the cannon down as Gwen asked, "Was something supposed to happen?"

"Wait for it."

Three seconds later, the whole row of dummies disintegrated, as well as a large section of the back wall. Jo jumped up, beaming.

"Yes! Oh, sweet! It still works!" She turned to Gwen, holding out a gloved hand. "High five!"

Gwen walked past her, staring at the piles of dust. "What was that?"

"That, my dear Gwyneth, is what happens when you fire a delayed sub-sonic disintegration pulse at something. Great range, goes through anything in its path. Only downside is the weight. Then again, most of these things are operated by the Tilions. They're about 3 times the size of humans. Funny thing about them is that they can only speak in rhyming iambic pentameter. It would have been great to listen to, but they could only hear in rhyming iambic pentameter as well. Have you ever tried to insult someone in rhyming iambic pentameter? So…bloody…annoying. And what was worse was that they looked like zucchinis, and there aren't many words -actually, I don't think there are any real words- that rhyme with the word 'zucchini'. I had to keep switching languages, and making stuff up, and it was just a mess."

Jo reached into her pocket and pulled out a paper bag, holding it out to Gwen. "Toffee?"

"No. Thanks, I'm fine."

"Oh, don't worry," Jo said quickly. "These are normal candies. Not doctored or anything."

"I'm good."

Jo shrugged and ate one herself. Stuffing the bag back into her pocket, she picked up the cannon. "Well, catch up with you later."

Gwen could only stare in mild confusion as Jo wandered back up the stairs.

Gwen tapped on Jack's office door as she walked in. He looked up at her. "What's up?"

"I think your find is starting to go crazy again."

Jack sighed. "Just what we need. What did she do?"

"Nothing, she's just acting a little…odd. Out of character."

"But she hasn't tried killing any one."

"Unless you count the targets that used to be in the shooting range, no."

"Why, what happened to them?"

Gwen smiled lightly. "They've been disintegrated by a sub-sonic pulse."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "I'm surprised she was able to get it working again. Those things are hard to fix and even harder to carry. What exactly was she doing that made you worried?"

"She went into some dialogue about a race of aliens that talked funny and then offered me a noninfectious candy. Just out of the normal for her."

Jack shrugged. "Well, I'll keep an eye on her. It could simply be a teenage phase, and as long as she isn't trying to drain the life from us, it shouldn't be a problem."

"In 1814 we took a little trip

Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.

We took a little bacon and we took a little beans

And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans."

Owen blinked in confusion at Jo. She was fixing something that looked like the bracelet Jack always wore. The song sounded like it could have come from the 50's, but Owen couldn't be sure. She continued her song as she kept working.

"We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.

There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.

We fired once more and they began to runnin' on

Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico."

"Interesting tune," Owen said dryly. "Can't say much for the lyrics though."

"Your own faults," Jo said, not looking up at him. "You were the ones who were trespassing on our rights again. We just told you to stop in the best way we could. The results of that chemical you found on the blowfish man are pinned to the corkboard over there, if that's what you're looking for."

Owen unpinned the test results, scanning the list of elements as Jo kept talking. "Nothing special by itself, but you're lucky you sent it to me. Add coal dust to the whole mix and you get a nice boom. On the other hand, if you put it in a pot with Portobello mushrooms it makes a lovely sauce. Goes great with lamb."

The bracelet sparked suddenly and Jo slapped her instruments down on the desk. "Bother! I really thought I had it that time."

"Had what?"

"Jack gave this to me to see if I could get it working again. Damn that sonic of his! Breaks more things than it fixes."

"Sonic?"

"Sonic screwdriver," Jo said, picking up a magnifying glass and peering at the vortex manipulator. "The Doctor carries one with him all the time. Looks like a silver pen with a blue light on one end. Does everything you can imagine. He promised to give me one for my 200th, but I've sworn I'll steal his first. One day, I won't give it back." She carefully set down the magnifying glass and tossed the bracelet to Owen.

"Give that back to Skippy for me, would you? Still works for everything else, and the batteries are charged now. Oh, and if he could get me some weapons grade uranium, I'd be much obliged. I have a Quirxan communication system that needs a new battery, and uranium should do nicely."

"I'll see what I can do."

Jo beamed. "Thanks." Opening a desk drawer, she pulled out a paper bag and offered it to Owen. "Toffee? Non-infected."

"Thanks. I'm good."

Jo shrugged and stuck one in her own mouth before wandering off down an aisle.

Jack walked into storage, which was now Jo's home. Her world, actually. After all, she'd been living down there for three months, and almost never came out. Jack didn't go down very often; it wasn't as though he and Jo ever talked about a lot of things. There was the Doctor, but swapping stories were always best when the subject was there to embarrass. And anyway, just getting near her meant he ran the risk of putting her over the edge. Apparently he smelled good, though she still made it very clear she wasn't attracted to him.

Now they did have something to talk about. Each member of his staff had come to him, each with a separate story of how Jo seemed to be going crazy again. Not serial killer crazy, just locked-in-the-basement crazy. After Owen had heard her singing, Tosh had told Jack that Jo had reprogrammed the entire computer system overnight. It wasn't a bad thing, since it was operating 200% better than before, but to do it in only one night…! Even then, Jack had decided to leave Jo to herself. He hadn't gotten worried until Ianto reported that she had refused fresh coffee and had instead asked for tea with lemon, milk, and sugar in it.

"Jo?" Jack called into the now organized room. "You still down here someplace?"

"No, I happen to be up."

Jack craned his neck back to stare at the ceiling. Jo was crouched on it like SpiderMan. She waved at him, grinning broadly.

"Suction climbers. Found them in one of the boxes and just had to try them out. There's another set on my desk if you want to give it a shot."

Jack picked up the lightweight objects curiously. Jo's voice floated down to him from the ceiling. "They slip on over your shoes and fit on your hands like gloves."

Shrugging, Jack did as was instructed. Jo continued coaching him. "There, now just walk up to a wall and start climbing."

Again, Jack did as ordered and was soon crouched in front of Jo on the ceiling. She was still beaming. "Grand fun, isn't it?"

"You've gone completely stir crazy, haven't you?"

Jo's face became instantly serious. "You have no idea. I'd probably kill myself if I didn't know I'd come right back."

Jo jerked on her hands and feet, causing herself to drop off the ceiling. She landed in a crouching position and took off the suction climbers. Jack crawled back down by way of the wall.

"Thing is Skippy, I've got the worst case of cabin fever ever, and I am the worst possible choice to have cabin fever. I haven't been outside in three months, I haven't done anything really productive for a week, and I have taken in no new information for three weeks." Jo sighed. "I hate this. I should be in the year 30,000 running from the Gralflaxin beast of Zarnoff Two, not shelving board games from retirement homes in 1942!"

"If things were getting so bad, why didn't you say so?"

"Because you can't do anything about it!" Jo said. "There are only two things that could do any good. The biggest one would be for the Doctor to show up, which isn't likely. The other would be for me to get out of the Hub and go do something. Problem is, I have enough trouble restraining myself from attacking anyone with just you five about. If I went outside, I'd go into overload and blow up a block before you could say "Oh shit."

Jack smiled. "If you could go outside and not be bombarded by everyone's brain waves, would you do it?"

"In heartbeat."

"Then grab a few of your mints and follow me."

Katie followed Jack trying to figure out where they were going. He had already led her outside, but it had been very brief. They were back underground again, walking through a series of tunnels. Jack stopped in front of what looked like an old maintenance elevator. He opened the doors and stepped in, motioning for Katie to join him.

"I found this awhile back. It's never visited by anyone; the entrance has some kind of natural perception filter on it. But, if I push the right button on my vortex manipulator…"

There was a sudden flash. Katie stumbled and Jack caught her arm, holding her upright.

"…I get here."

Katie's eyes widened and she stepped a little ways away from Jack, looking out. "It's magnificent," she breathed.

Katie was gazing out on the whole city of Cardiff from the top of a building. She closed her eyes, and for the first time in two months, she saw no Rift energy. It was all down below, its own weight holding it down. There was almost no heat energy, and sound could barely reach her. The only mental waves came from Jack, and what little light there was came from the city far below her.

"Like it?"

"I love it." Katie breathed in deeply, giddy with the fact that it was so easy. "I feel like I can move again."

"I know it's not much, but it'll have to do for now."

"Oh, but it helps." Katie turned round to face Jack. "Could I get the access code out of you, so I can come here on my own?"

"Yes to the first, no to the second," Jack said. "Whenever you need the air, one of us needs to be with you. Call it a chaperone, but I don't want something to happen and have to go hunting you down if you lose it."

"I'll take it."

Katie sat down carefully, holding her legs to her chest as she looked out over the bay. Jack sat down next to her. For once, she didn't feel the urge to latch onto him like a leech.

"You're taking this pretty hard."

Katie smiled lightly. "TARDIS is my home, time is my backyard and space my tire swing. TORCHWOOD is like being stuck in an apartment with relatives you can hardly stand. No offense."

"None taken," Jack said, smiling. "I felt somewhat the same, but not quite so drastically. I'd been a time agent for a while, so I was used to staying in one place for prolonged periods. I also found TORCHWOOD, and I was able to stay busy, move about. I'm surprised you held out this long."

"So am I. When the Doctor shows up, I'm getting some kind of phone from him so that I can call if this happens again. No, I'll just rebuild my communicator. I used to have a communicator that could send messages across time and space. Took me three weeks just to gather all the parts. Wish I still had it."

"What happened to it?"

"It got crushed in a cave in. That was the day I died for the first time, actually. I also ended up losing one third of the survivors of an attack. And then I proved stone can bleed."

"Sounds like a busy day."

Katie smiled. "Yeah. It was right before I went through the Rift, actually. Blimey, was that a confusing trip."

"What was it like, going through the Rift?"

Katie clicked her teeth together. "It was like everything was happening at once. Literally everything, across time and space; it was right in front of me. But at the same time, there was nothing happening. I could still think, but the thoughts were fragmented. And then there was something in there, something living in the Rift. I could feel it latch onto me. It hurt a lot."

"Something in the Rift?"

Katie nodded. "Yeah. Can't say I liked it very much."

"Did it come through with you?"

Jack's tone was more serious than she usually heard. "I don't think it did. I haven't felt anything like it since, and it's been two months."

Jack nodded, appeased. "So, bleeding stone and a trip through the Rift. TARDIS travel sure takes you places."

Katie pulled her legs tighter against her chest. She sighed. "Oh, I can't wait to get out of here. I will one day, even if I have to write him a letter and leave it where I know he'll find it, and then I'm going to race across those stars until I can go no further, then start all over again."

Jack smiled as Katie fell silent. They stared out at the ocean, each lost in their memories of the Doctor.

Far down below, in the city streets, a figure started to form out of the air. He stared up at the building next to him, his entire being focused on who was up there.

"I can hear you, Kathryn Trouble Moore. I know exactly where you are. One day soon, I'm going to pull you out of your realm of relative safety, and then I'll have you. I'll catch you with the one piece of bait you can't resist."

The man picked up a cracked mirror from the alley he was in and examined his appearance. His hair was messy, and he wore a pin-stripe suit and trench coat over his thin frame. The shoes on his feet were red, looking worn from age and use. With a broad grin revealing crooked teeth, he looked back up at the building.

"Soon, Katie. Very, very soon, I'll have you standing in front of me. I'll take your head in my hands and stare into your lovely green eyes as I absorb every last one of the thoughts racing through your brilliant jewel of a mind. I will look into your eyes until the moment you truly die."

*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*

And that ends that episode. Katie's trapped on earth, she can't signal the Doctor yet, but it almost sounds as though he's already there. Or is he?

You'll get your answers in my next episode, "The Child I Once Was." Leave a review telling me your prediction of what might be next!

Also, before I go on, I want to thank animemonkey13 for all the amazing reviews I've been getting. animemonkey13 has been very consistent in responding to my chapters. Thank you again!