Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood.

Author's note: Thanks again for all the reviews, story alerts and favourites. The reviews in particular are very welcome, since I never really know whether people like my stories or not.

You may have noticed that Tosh has featured very little in the last two chapters. This was very deliberate, since I wanted to deal with her in a specific way. In this chapter, her voice carries across decades to reach her friends.

Two hours had passed since they had opened the Rift with the help of the Rift Manipulator and the tension in the Hub was so thick Ianto was sure he could cut it with a knife. Gwen had returned some time earlier, since opening the Rift had not impacted the Ritz Dance Hall in the present in any way. She had helped Owen patch himself up while Ianto made them each a cup of strong coffee. As minutes ticked by, Ianto was becoming more and more agitated by the waiting.

"Should we perhaps go back to the Dance Hall? There might have been a delay in the Rift bringing them back, some kind of time lapse or whatever Tosh used to call them."

Gwen was the first to break the silence and ask the question they were all thinking about.

"We should give them another half an hour, before…"

Ianto's words were interrupted by the siren warning them that the giant cog door was about to open. All three members of the Torchwood team rushed towards it, just in time to see their Captain stride through it. Ianto was initially puzzled as to why he was alone, but then he looked at their leader more closely. Jack wore the same outfit he had worn earlier when he and Tosh had headed out, but he could have sworn the clothes were slightly different. More telling was the sadness and hope warring in their leader's eyes, which made Ianto's veins run with ice.

"It didn't work, did it?" He whispered, just loud enough for the others to hear. "Opening the Rift didn't bring you home."

Jack merely shook his head, while Gwen and Owen gasped at the implications of this, and strode straight to the Welshman before him. The Captain pulled Ianto into a crushing hug, letting out a shuddering breath of relief at finally being back where he belonged. Ianto held his lover just as tight in his arms, keen to give Jack the time he clearly needed to compose himself before facing the others. Finally the immortal man pulled back and turned to regard what remained of his team with serious eyes.

"I have something for you."

Jack pulled a yellowed letter from his coat pocket and handed it to Ianto. Owen and Gwen gathered close as they all recognized Toshiko's neat handwriting instantly. With trembling fingers the young Welshman pulled out a letter and held it so that they could all read it together:

5 January 1983

Dear Gwen, Owen and Ianto

When I am writing this, you are all still children. By the time you read this, I will be dead.

Unlike Jack, I was not cut out for the long road. I knew that straight away of course, back in 1940, when the Rift failed to bring us home. Over sixty years will have passed by the time Jack delivers this letter, but I bet he will not look a day older. That is, until you see his eyes. I worry about him, he has been carrying so much sadness with him all these years. I hope that by being reunited with all of you, and Ianto in particular, will offer him a small measure if peace after the long road he has had to traverse to find you again.

When Jack officially discharged me from my service to Torchwood, he was kind enough not to retcon me. In practical terms it would have been extremely difficult, given the extent of my knowledge and given how long I have worked for the institute. Life, as it turned out, decided that I should not take those memories to my grave after all. It has now been six months since I was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and already I struggle to recall your faces. By the time the disease claims me, I will not remember even my own name.

While things still remain in focus, however, I wanted to reassure you that I have led a good life. It was certainly not a life I expected, in so many ways, but I have found more happiness than I ever dared to dream. Back at the Ritz Dance Hall, where Jack and I slipped into the past, I met a young navigator called Tim. We kept in touch through the war and Jack often called us wartime sweethearts. We were in love and after the war Tim asked me to marry him. The day of our wedding was the happiest in my life so far. Since then, I have had many more such days.

You see, I became something I thought I would be would be – a mother. I had six children, although my youngest son died in infancy, and with the help of them and Tim I was able to rebuild a family to replace the one I lost. I have three grandchildren now and my oldest daughter is pregnant with the fourth. I cannot describe the love I have for my children, but I hope that one day you yourself will experience that same love towards your children. Please do not let Torchwood stop you from having a family and finding someone you love to spend your days with!

Tim and I have grown old together and his presence in my life has been a great blessing. I have never been able to tell him the truth about who I am, but I like to think that he would love me regardless. I see sadness and worry etched on his face when he is unaware I am looking at him, although he tries to hide it as best he can. It seems like such a cruel fate that he has to lose me, lose the Toshiko he loves, long before death will eventually claim me. I cannot tell how terrified I am of the thought that one day I will forget my beloved husband and my family.

Jack has granted me a final request, a final breach of Torchwood protocol, although officially I have not been part of the institute for decades. He has agreed that I can be buried in a cemetery here, rather than returned to the Torchwood morgue. I will rest easy, knowing I am near my little boy and that one day my husband will lie by my side. I hope I will dream of distant planets, of music from beyond the stars and of friends I have not seen for such a long time, but who have always been in my thoughts. I hope that you will one day come to visit my grave.

The day you will read this letter is my grandfather's 88th birthday. Please tell my family that I love them. I know they can never find out the truth about what happened to me, but this letter is my chance to say goodbye to them. I hope you will tell them that I was happy and had a painless death.

Thank you for everything we have been through and done together over the years. Please remember me and know that I am happy.

Yours always,

Toshiko

By the time they finished reading the letter, all three remaining Torchwood members were blinking back tears. With the letter were photos, some old in black and white and some newer ones. They showed Toshiko through the decades, starting with a wedding photo of her and Tim. There were pictures of their children and the last one showed Tosh, grey and bent with age, holding her first grandchild. Despite the decades that she had lived through since they had last seen her, her smile was as bright and radiant as ever. The team looked through the photos slowly, taking in details of Toshiko they had never before seen. Amidst their shock, the sight of her obvious happiness eased their sorrow a little.

Jack stood beside his team, momentarily lost in fond memories of Toshiko and Tim that had been awaked by the photographs. He missed his friend, who had been the only one to know the truth about him for many long decades. It seemed inconceivable that she had been at her desk in the Hub that very same morning. He suspected he would spend many an hour going through the CCTV footage of the base, simply watching Tosh go about her work. Ianto putting the letter and the pictures back in the envelope roused him from his reverie and reminded him about what he was going to say next.

"Tim passed away six years ago, but not before he became a great grandfather. He was buried next to Toshiko, just like they both wanted."

"But how did you survive if she didn't?" Owen asked the question that was also bothering Ianto. "You don't look a day older and according to this it's been over sixty years since we last saw you."

A shadow passed over Jack's features and Ianto immediately wished Owen has not voiced their concern just yet. He was surprised, however, to see a guilty look on Gwen's face, which suggested that the Welshwoman already knew the answer. Ianto felt an unexpected stab of hurt at the thought that Jack had shared a secret with the newest member of their team, but not with him.

"I'd rather not go into it now," Jack hedged. "I'll explain everything in good time, I promise."

"I'd like to see her," Gwen stepped in, before Owen could object. "I'd like to go say goodbye to Toshiko."

Ianto nodded and even Owen reluctantly agreed that dragging answers out of Jack could wait. He was less thrilled when he heard that they had several hours' drive ahead of them, but Gwen quickly promised to drive and ushered them towards the car. Much to the team's surprise, Jack slid into the back and settled in the middle seat, allowing Owen to claim shotgun. The Captain held Ianto's hand throughout the long drive.

It had just begun to rain when they got out of the SUV at the cemetery by the village church where Toshiko and Tim had been married decades earlier. They had stayed in that same West Country village all their lives, choosing to raise their large family in the warm and close-knit community. Jack led the team past rows of graves with familiarity that suggested that he had followed the same path countless times before. Near the far edge of the cemetery, under a large oak three, were three headstones clustered together. Toshiko's lay in the middle, with Tim resting to her right and her infant son to her left. All three graves were well kept and had fresh flowers in marble vases. Jack brushed absent-mindedly a stray leaf off of Tosh's headstone. The date carved to the stone revealed that Tosh had died a mere three years after she had written the letter to her fellow team members.

Gwen laid the white roses they had bought on the grave and took a step back. She was still trying to wrap her head around the thought that her friend, with whom she had been chatting about shoes just that very same morning, was dead and had been dead for over two decades. Somehow what had happened to Tosh finally made the power of the Rift seem real to her. It took and gave with utter indifference and the Torchwood team was left to pick up the pieces. But now one of their own had fallen, had died over twenty years ago and they had not know.

"Tosh, I'm going to miss you," Gwen started, feeling like she should say something, but she was soon overcome with the grief settling in her heart. "Tosh, oh god, Tosh!"

Jack drew the distraught Welshwoman to a hug, letting her sob against his great coat. The Captain's face showed lines of grief, etched on it over sixty decades. He met Ianto's eyes over Gwen's bowed head and the young man's eyes mirrored the endless sorrow in his own.

"Yeah, Tosh, it won't be the same without you." Owen's voice was even more gruff than usual and he discreetly brushed a hand over his eyes.

Ianto stepped forward and kneeled in front of the grave, disregarding the moisture that immediately soaked his suit trousers and raising his face to meet the endless stream of rain drops. He stayed unmoving for a few moments and then cleared his throat. Once he began to speak, the rest of the world faded to the background until all there remained for him was the headstone he reached out to stroke.

"Toshiko, I wanted to say thank you. During a time when all I wanted to do was to die, your companionable silence was far more comfortable than the disingenuous questions about how I was doing. You of all the people understood, because you too had sacrificed everything for a loved one and paid the price for it. Even more than that, you genuinely cared about me. You made me feel worthy of being someone's friend again. You made me feel like I could matter again. Not just keeping the Hub in order, but actually matter as a person. To you, my opinions and feelings were important. I will never forget that. I'm not sure if you knew, but you were my best friend. In fact, you were the first best friend I ever had. It was an honour and a privilege to work, fight and laugh by your side. I hope from the bottom of my heart that you lived your life knowing how much you were loved by us all. No one can ever take your place in our lives and in our hearts. Thank you, Toshiko, and goodbye. I hope you are resting well, with your family around you, and that one day we may meet again."

By the time Ianto ran out of words, all four of them had tears in their eyes. Thus the sky and the Torchwood team cried themselves dry in front of the tombstone of their beloved friend.