Henry gasped to life and rolled. Instinctively, he tried to crawl away. He grabbed and clawed at the ground before he coughed and collapsed. He was chilled to the bone and shivering uncontrollably. As the confusion of reviving began to face, he realized, Exsanguination… His very next thought caused panic.

Joe?!

He opened his mouth, trying to call out his husband's name but no sound was coming out. He coughed and hacked and cleared his throat. In between, he tried calling out Fish's name. He tried to sit up but ended up collapsing back down. His arms and legs felt weak and overused. Desperation rose up in him. Where was Fish? Was he injured? Killed? Henry tried to calm the panic rising up. If he was going to find his husband, he had to remain calm and clear headed. The next few minutes felt like hours as he tried to beat back the thoughts that Fish was laying injured and dying while he was unable to move. Finally, he managed to roll over onto his side.

"Joe…" he croaked. "Joe…"

The effort sparked another coughing fit. He managed to push himself up onto all fours. No simple stabbing would've done this to him. It reminded him vividly of his first death from poisoning. He swept the thought away. It was moot. He raised his head and shouted, "JOE!?"

There was no answer except his own echoing voice. The thoughts crept back. Was Fish injured? Was he bleeding to death? Had Henry's incapacitation cost him valuable minutes? He reached into his pocket for his mobile telephone but his pockets were empty. A robbery? he wondered, in confusion. He dragged himself to his feet. Unsteady, he started turning in place, looking around for some evidence of his husband.

"JOE?!"

Frustrated, he saw the pool of his own blood and the strange tracks leading out of it. Not a robbery… He began to follow the alien tracks. The idea it was some alien managed to calm Henry's suspicions slightly. Perhaps it had been fear and not intentional murder? Perhaps the alien had wrongly attempted to defend itself and then fled, leaving his husband unharmed? Then why does he not answer? The fear twisted his gut again and he began following the alien tracks. Eventually, they ran dry but he continued in their general direction. He found nothing but more parked cars.

"JOE!?" he called out again.

He got down on all fours and put his head to the ground, looking underneath all the cars. That was when he saw his mobile near his wallet and sword. He picked up his things and dialled Fish's number. He heard the ringtone echo up through the car park and took off running in its direction with his heart hammering in his chest. Please… he prayed.

With his limbs still weak and fuelled mostly by desperation, he stumbled once or twice as he ran towards the sound. It got louder and he saw the phone laying in the middle of the ground. He looked but couldn't see his husband anywhere.

"JOE?!"

Again, there was no answer. Henry picked up Fish's mobile and put it into his pocket. There was a drop of blood next to it. Then another. And another. A small smear. A line of droplets. His breath came in small, pained sips. He swallowed the lump in his throat as tears began to well in his eyes and the world began to fall out from beneath him. He followed the trail slowly at first but then faster as he grew more frantic. He saw another smudge and more drops as he followed the trail towards a parked car.

"Joe…" he said, quietly. He almost didn't want to look, fearful of what he would find. When the corner came into view, there was nothing there. The trail of blood ended. There was nothing but a puddle of blood that was barely more substantial than the other drips.

He let out a howl of frustration and anguish. He pounded his fists against the parked car next to him. No sooner had the car's alarm begun blaring than the SUV pulled up next to him, the horn shouting. A pressure blossomed between his temples.

Henry turned and cried, "Joe is missing!"

"We know, get in," Jack said as Gwen threw the door open.

Henry climbed into the back with Ianto. "There's a containment box the next level down. Where are Mao-Lin and Captain Hart?"

"Dealing with a riftugee across town," Jack explained as he drove.

"They might be a while. That World War I German pilot's quite cross he's in Britain," Gwen muttered.

Jack said, "Fish called about forty minutes ago, right after you were killed. We tried to get here as soon as we could."

"We need to find him," Henry demanded. Now, amongst his friends, he didn't bother concealing his distress. He reached forward, shaking Jack's shoulder with an iron grip. "Jack!"

"Calm down, Henry. He's alive and we know where he is."

"How?"

Ianto held up his PDA. "His subcutaneous tracker."

"It's still transmitting. We can find him. He's traveling east towards London," Gwen said. She pointed ahead. "There's the box, Jack."

She moved to get out of the car but Henry stopped her. "We'll get it, my dear. It's obscenely heavy."

Gwen started to bristle but Henry said, "If we herniate or slip a disc, we shall heal."

She nodded and the two immortals got out of the SUV and loaded the box into the back with several grunts a piece. The minute it was in the boot, they took off.

"Which way, Yan? Can you show me on your phone's map?" Jack asked.

"Eastern Avenue," Ianto said, leaning in between the front seats. He held up his phone so Jack could see it. "You could set the GPS."

"I would… if someone hadn't set the language to Welsh," Jack said, without taking his eyes off the road. "I wonder who that could've been?"

Ianto sat back in his seat. He had an overly innocent look on his face as he stared down at his PDA. He spread his fingers, enlarging the map. "It's stopped moving."

"What?" Henry cried, reaching out for the device.

Ianto lifted it out of his reach. When Henry settled back down into his seat, he brought the PDA back in front of him so he could direct Jack properly.

"Calm down, Henry. It says he's still alive. It's just stopped going east…" He trailed off and stared down at his screen. He stabbed at it a few times, pinching and twisting his fingers to change the display's zoom.

Henry didn't like his friend's drop off into silence one bit. Nor did he like the barely restrained look of dread in his eyes or the tightening in his jaw and shoulders. Ianto leaned forward and tapped Jack on the shoulder, showing him the PDA and Jack's foot pressed the pedal down to the floor. The SUV accelerated and Jack's driving became more insane than usual. Ianto sat back and immediately started frantically tapping out a text message to Miranda.

"Jack? What is the matter?" Henry demanded. "Ianto?"

With his hands gripping the wheel, in a careful and level voice, he replied, "Fish's locator's stopped transmitting." He quickly and loudly added, "It doesn't mean something's happened to him, Henry. It just means the transmitter isn't working anymore."

Henry didn't know what to say or do. Despite Jack's words, he sat there as each fragment of his heart fell away. He sat back in his seat, staring out the window. His grief was too profound for tears or words. He appreciated what Jack was trying to do but it didn't matter. Henry's mind leapt to the worst case scenario - that Fish was dead and lost to him forever.

The inside of the SUV was silent. No one spoke. They barely moved. It did nothing to lend credibility to Jack's assurances that Fish was still alive and well. They pulled up to the transmitter's last location and started looking around. It was the only lead they had. Not ten minutes after they'd started combing the area, Hart and Miranda arrived to help. Henry just sat in the SUV too distraught to move. He wanted to help but the idea of stumbling upon his husband's corpse was too much for him.

"Anything?" Jack asked, scanning with his vortex manipulator.

The others replied in the negative as they moved over the area with their PDAs.

"Where was the last location?" Miranda asked, leaning over Ianto's PDA.

The Welshman took three large steps to the side and then one small step forward. "Right about here."

"Bit far off the road," Gwen said, nodding at the busy road behind them.

Hart walked over to them and got down on his hands and knees.

"What are you doing?" Gwen screeched. "He's not in the bloody grass!"

"No, he's not," Hart said. He ran his hands along the dirt and patches of uneven grass. He tossed aside cigarette butts and bottle caps and some things Ianto didn't even want to identify. "But the transmitter could be."

Shrugging, they all bent down and began to search. It wasn't long before Hart said, "Gotcha."

He sat up, kneeling. He had the small transmitter between his fingers. It was no larger than a grain of rice and Ianto couldn't believe he'd found it. "Anyone got a torch?"

Jack shined his down onto Hart's hands as his former partner twisted the transmitter, squinting at it. Seeing everyone gathered around Hart, Henry left the SUV and started walking towards them. Hope grew in his heart. He stood between Miranda and Ianto as Hart spoke.

"It's not damaged," Hart said. He saw Henry and said, "It's just Joe's transmitter."

"He could still be alive," Henry said. His head lifted and he looked around as if Fish were somewhere nearby.

"He is alive, Henry. Someone went through some real trouble to find this and get rid of it even though…" Hart said. He paused, not knowing how to continue tactfully.

"Even though it would have been simpler to kill him," Henry finished.

"They want him alive," Gwen said, reassuringly. "Fish could've been the point of this all along. The rift device? How busy we've been? It's the perfect distraction and misdirection."

Just as they were all about to begin discussing their next move, Jack's vortex manipulator began to beep.

While Gwen's face filled with dread, Ianto leaned back slightly and pointed at Jack's vortex manipulator and said, "Woah, that hasn't beeped since…"

He turned to look at Hart followed by the rest of them, one by one.

Hart held up his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, don't look at me! I'm right here!"

"This version of you is right here," Jack corrected with a roll of his eyes. "And I'll remind you that it's the wrong one."

Jack opened his vortex manipulator and hit a few buttons. A small image of an alien projected itself.

"Jax, it's good to see you," it said, smirking.

"Cassie," Hart and Jack both groaned simultaneously.

Gwen turned and gave Jack a surprised look. "Your name is Jax?"

He ignored her.

"Yes, it's me, your old pal. Buddy. Comrade. Mate," she laughed. "I guess you've heard the agency's shut down. Bummer isn't it? Downer. Drag. Buzz kill. We've all been declared outlaws and under the Temporal Terrorism Act, we've been sentenced without trial to summary execution for crimes against the spirit of the Empire. Isn't that a pickle? A quandary? A rock and a hard place? A sticky situation?"

Gwen wasn't quite sure whether or not to laugh. She turned to Jack and Hart. "Is everyone from your bloody century completely cracked?"

"Shh!" Hart said.

"But I bet you don't know the best part, Jax. Torchwood is offering a reward. You see, if I show up with another rogue Time Agent? My death sentence gets commuted."

"She can't be stupid enough to believe that!" Hart cried, standing up and brushing off his jeans.

"Shh!" Jack hissed.

"What I'm proposing is a simple trade. Doctor Joseph David Fischer… for you. Why you, Jax? That's what I'd wonder if I was standing where you are. Well, what goes around comes around. That's the way the cookie crumbles. It's karma. And payback's a bitch." The hologram put one hand on her hip and thrust out the other. "See you soon, lover."

"Seriously, Jack?!" Ianto said, turning to glare at his husband. "Another psychotic ex?!"

The entire team was glaring at him.

"I'm the other psychotic ex, aren't I?" Hart asked but no one answered.

"I don't know what she's talking about," Jack said, waving at his manipulator. "I never slept with her."

Everyone was looking at him with disbelief. Jack raised both his hands out in front of him. He declared, "I didn't! Can we focus please!?"

Hart switched to Ekumen so the others wouldn't understand him and said to Jack, "If Cassie has him, that's not good. We have to find him, Jack. You know who he is."

"She knows too. She can't kill him. She won't," Jack said.

Miranda cleared her throat, loudly. Hart looked up. For a moment, the fifty first century men had forgotten the immortal woman also spoke their futuristic language. A look of alarm flashed on their faces for a split second and then it was gone.

"You're not considering this, are you?" Gwen asked.

Henry gaped at her.

"I'm sorry, Henry, that's came out wrong," she said, and then looked away as she continued. "We need proof of life, Jack. We need to set up the ambush."

"I know. We're going to," Jack said. He crossed over to Henry and put his hands on his shoulders. "We're going to get him back, Henry. I promise."