A/N: Freshly edited to adjust the balance of this chapter, following useful comments from CaffieneScribbler who correctly pointed out that I had some OOC behaviour going on ...

Chapter 10

"I'm bloody freezing, Owen! And my legs are still wobbly! Why the hell did you suggest the lift?"

"For my own sick amusement, Gwen. Do you need to hold on that fucking tight? If you break me you know I won't mend."

Gwen was gripping hold of Owen's arm for dear life as the lift descended into the Hub. Both looked worse for wear, dishevelled, with their hair slicked down and their coats soaked through. However, only Gwen was shivering.

"Oh my God, is that fresh coffee I can smell? Ianto?"

"Yes?" Ianto felt Jack's arm slip from his shoulder as they both turned to look in the direction of the voices that couldn't be ignored. Ianto found himself caught in the full beam of Gwen's deep brown eyes that took no prisoners.

"Be a love and fetch me a coffee. I'd give anything right now for a hot drink."

"No problem, Gwen. I expect you'll be wanting biscuits with that?" Ianto said over his shoulder, as he carefully stepped around the dripping woman to fetch one more cup of coffee.

"That'll be lovely, sweetheart." Gwen called after him.

"He's not your servant, Gwen," Jack commented, feeling slightly guilty at the thought that he also seemed to take it for granted that Ianto would wait on him hand and foot in the Hub.

"What are you on about, Jack? I've been out in the freezing bloody cold, getting sea sick and wet, while you two have been indoors in the warm, probably getting very cosy if I know you -"

"Drop it, Gwen." Jack's voice was firm and brooked no argument.

"What is it, Jack? What's going on?" Gwen was immediately alerted to the fact that something had happened and that Jack was hiding something from her. Something that concerned Ianto if her senses were right.

"Why don't you tell me what you found out about the creature of the lagoon?" Jack deliberately changed the subject, having no intention of discussing what was really bothering him. Even if Ianto hadn't asked him to say nothing, he always found Gwen's tenacious approach to acquiring information an incentive to hold his secrets even closer to his chest than normal.

"Can I have those images you took off the mobiles of the witnesses?" asked Tosh, sensing that Gwen wasn't going to let the matter go easily and wanting to do whatever she could to help Jack divert her. The last thing Ianto needed right now would be Gwen's curiosity and pity. Tosh had already taken advantage of the fact that Gwen was almost oblivious to what the rest of them got up to, as long as Jack was in the room, to scoop the plastic shards back into the bag and tucked it into the drawer of her desk.

If anything Gwen was glaring at Jack even more intensely, Tosh's abrupt request having made her even more suspicious. It really irritated her when Jack kept things from her and it would seem that he'd already spoken to Tosh about something whilst she'd been out of the Hub with Owen. Seeing that he wasn't prepared to take her into his confidence anytime soon, she resolved to ask Ianto about it as soon as Jack was busy. In the meantime she handed over her own phone, onto which she'd transferred all the photographic evidence. On site she had made sure to 'accidentally' erase all traces of the clearer images from the owners' mobiles and had checked out whether or not they had forwarded those images to anyone, including assorted branches of the media.

"I think some of them have been forwarded to friends and family – you might want to make a cover up story a priority on this one, get our picture and story to the press first."

Ianto had reappeared, silently as always, and handed Gwen her mug of coffee and a plate of biscuits, which she eagerly accepted.

"I'll get to work on that, if you can give me one of those pictures to manipulate." Ianto smiled pleasantly at Tosh.

Jack caught the expression, it was the one Ianto could muster even though his world was falling apart around him. He could tell that Ianto was torn between his professional commitments and his personal needs, but he would put Torchwood business first and worry about his own situation later. Jack wished that he could do something to comfort his lover, but the circumstances weren't being very accommodating. Later, he promised himself, later.

"I'll send anything useful to your terminal along with those other documents we discussed earlier."

"Thanks, Tosh." Ianto knew what she was referring to and was grateful that she'd been deliberately vague in front of the others. He was also relieved to notice that she had hidden all traces of the chess piece they'd been examining.

Watching the interchange between the two, Jack was almost glad of a task to keep their minds off the inevitable subject of the renegades from Torchwood One and their activities, although it did put that investigation on hold temporarily. However, the 'beast in the bay' did give them all something to focus on that would get them working like a team, which he had a feeling would be vital in the days to come.

"What about eye witness accounts?" Jack asked Gwen, while Tosh uploaded a range of images to her computer.

"As unreliable as ever," Owen butted in, taking advantage of Gwen having just taken a mouthful of biscuit. "It's either a sea monster or a dolphin or a man overboard – depending on who you talk to. There was one nutter convinced it was a bloody mermaid. But nothing's washed up so far, which is good news for the thing that fell in and probably very bad news for us."

Meanwhile, Tosh had uploaded and viewed the images, mostly blurred or fuzzy pictures of the water surface disturbed as if something had fallen in. One or two of the filmed sequences showed up a vague outline of an object in the midst of the splashing water. Then there was one that had by chance caught the object at just the right moment. This she enhanced and enlarged to fill the screen, showing clearly what could only be interpreted as a set of hinged appendages, similar to lobster claws, but narrower, longer and sharply serrated. They also appeared to be at least ten times the size of those of any lobster they'd ever seen.

"Whoa! That's a fucking big crustacean. Where the hell did which come from? 'Planet of the claws'?" Owen was impressed, although immensely glad that he'd decided not to take a swim in the Bay.

"I've heard of a race of giant sentient crabs called the Macra … a group of colonisers came across them… nasty things- " Jack shuddered, he didn't like crustaceans unless they were served with melted butter or a seafood sauce.

"No – it's not crab-like," Tosh had been busy enhancing the other images and calculating the size of the creature. "I've worked out from the impact splash that the shape of the creature was long and thin – more like a lobster I suppose. Approximately two metres long."

"So, what do you think?" Ianto had sat on the edge of Tosh's desk and was looking at the images with growing curiosity. "Radiation poisoning from the North Sea creating mutant prawns… I mean it doesn't have to be alien does it? Perhaps it's prehistoric – I mean if a pteranodon can fall through from millions of years ago, couldn't something else?"

"For fuck's sake, that's all we bloody need, more fucking dinosaurs," Owen groaned.

"Is that possible?" Gwen looked at Jack intensely. "You never did tell me where you found Myfanwy."

"I didn't. Ianto did." Jack shared a secretive smile with Ianto. "Long story. And, no, it's not for sharing."

Owen and Tosh watched the silent communication between the two men and witnessed with amusement the annoyance on Gwen's face at being so far out of the loop, she may as well have been in orbit around another planet. Ianto had picked up on Gwen's discomfort and had got up to collect the empty mugs.

"Oh yes," Jack suddenly recalled something he wanted to ask Gwen. "According to Tosh's data there was a boat very close to where that thing came through the rift – if anyone was onboard they should have seen it close up, or at the very least the opening of the rift. I was hoping you'd have spoken to the crew. Tosh - where are the details on that?"

Tosh passed Jack the printout which included details of the registration number, class, make and size of vessel. He showed it to Gwen and was pleased that she recognised the description.

"Yes – we did see that, but the men I spoke to said they hadn't seen anything at all. They were down below at the time, sleeping, and were woken up by all the activity on the water as everything else moved in to see what was going on. I didn't bother asking them anything else. I was just glad that it was one less set of people for Owen to retcon."

"They moved out of the Bay while you were there – we may need to talk to them again. You didn't spot the name of the boat did you?"

"Yes, I did now you mention it – very pretty yacht, it had a glossy black varnish on the hull and the name was written in beautiful lettering – Brenhinnes Du."

The sound of crockery crashing to the floor startled them all as did the sight of Ianto standing behind them, looking decidedly flustered.

"You OK, love?" Gwen wondered what was wrong.

"Sorry, bit clumsy today. I'll go fetch a dustpan and brush, tidy up this mess."

Then, before anyone else could ask him what the matter was, Ianto made a rapid exit, his head down, avoiding Jack's questioning gaze.

"Gwen, the name of the yacht? It's Welsh, yes? What would that be in English?" Jack demanded.

"Brenhinnes Du? The Black Queen. Ever so pretty it was."

"OK, people." Jack gritted his teeth, determined not to swear out loud or break anything. "Gwen, you're cold and wet, so I suggest you go home and get your husband to warm you up. Owen, there are some DVD's on your desk, movies that Ianto assures me will keep you out of trouble and may even educate you. Go home. You too, Tosh, you've been virtually living here the past few weeks."

Tosh gave Jack a knowing look and began logging off the programs she had running, making sure to forward the relevant documents that she'd compiled for Ianto. She understood what had freaked Ianto out and could tell that Jack needed the opportunity to talk to him in private without anyone else present.

Owen needed no excuse to stroll across to his desk, grab hold of the bag of movies and grin to himself. He knew what Ianto's collection meant to him and was honoured that he would lend him any of his precious DVD's.

However, Gwen wasn't so eager to leave. She gave Jack the look that suggested she hadn't quite understood him and then pointed at Ianto, who was busy sweeping up the broken mugs.

"What about Ianto, doesn't he get to leave early too? He looks shattered, poor lamb."

"Nope, he's staying here, with me. I'll make sure he gets a rest, don't worry."

Jack ignored Gwen's questioning gaze and focused solely on Ianto. In the space of a day, the situation had begun to spiral out of control. They had to be the same people responsible for the threats on Ianto and what appeared to be a crude demonstration of a particularly powerful rift manipulator. Their enemy was not just unpredictable and sinister, but also more dangerous than Jack had imagined.