When Rhys finally appeared, taken through the visitor entrance, Kayla realized she was going to dislike this human. It wasn't because he was human, and it wasn't because he was normal either. No, it was because he was skeptical. Fucking skeptical about everything going on in front of him.

"Oh! That looked so real," he gasped when the very real pterodactyl flew overhead with a cry at the noise the guest entrance made.

"It was real," Gwen corrected with a giggle that Kayla did not share.

Rhys turned to her, a concerned frown on his face, "They're extinct, Gwen," he pronounced.

"Well it's there," Kayla cut in before Gwen could reply, "Very nice creature," she added, the full implication there that Rhys was not a nice creature in comparison.

Gwen pulled a face while Rhys blinked at Kayla – stupidly blinked, really – and pointed up at the empty ceiling, "That's real? But it can't be!"

"It is, though," Kayla corrected lazily.

"It's from a different timeline," Jack added as he too joined the conversation. When Rhys looked at him with confused awe, Jack introduced himself, "Captain Jack Harkness. And the lovely woman next to me is Kayla. Thanks for dropping in, Rhys."

Giving both of them a frustrated look, Gwen waved over at the other team members, who weren't even hiding that they were watching the exchange taking place, "This is the rest of the team. Owen and Toshiko. Ianto."

As each of their names were call, the group waved, smiled, or just curtly nodded in Rhys' direction. Despite this relatively cold response, Rhys still smiled at the group, "Pleased to meet you."

"Welcome to our headquarters," Jack finished with that grin that Kayla knew he only did when he really did not like the person in front of him but was trying to be polite.

Rhys chuckled, not picking up on the animosity between him and Jack, "It's a bit bigger than mine," he tried to joke, but no one laughed. Nevertheless, he continued on, "So, Gwen tells me you catch aliens."

"That's the basic premise," Kayla agreed with a slight sneer that she quickly hid when Jack looked over at her.

"There's a Rift through space and time runs through Cardiff, Rhys, and stuff slips in from other timelines and planets, and it's our job to monitor it," Owen explained.

Rhys eyed the group skeptically, "Are you sure they're not some kind of weird cult," he hissed to Gwen, and that one comment made Kayla struggle very, very hard to school her face as if she had not heard it since a normal human would not have been able to hear it in the first place.

"You saw that alien in the warehouse," Gwen reminded him, "Go on," she pressed when Rhys still hesitated on speaking about the mysterious alien he had seen.

"What did you see?" Jack questioned, a slight command in his voice.

Rhys swallowed hard, "It was like this huge, shapeless beast, filling the space. Like a mound of flesh," he explained haltingly, his voice wavering and cracking as he spoke.

"So it's one massive entity as opposed to several organisms," Tosh said slowly, earning a sharp nod from Rhys.

"The latest tests reveal high levels of chloride, so it probably lives in the water. I reckon it came through the Rift, into the sea and its beached itself," Owen commented.

"Like a giant alien manatee," Jack suggested with a frown.

"Or a space whale," Kayla added, making the other stare at her, "It's what it sounds like. A whale that happens to live in space. They went extinct long ago, though. And they're harmless. No one, not even humans would ever be so cruel as to use it for meat."

By the time she was done, she was breathing rather hard at the mere idea of a space whale being used for meat, and everyone was eyeing her with concern, or in the case of Rhys, fear. For a moment, there was a hesitant silence, and then, "But how did they get it there? That warehouse must be fifty metres long," Ianto pointed out.

Rhys frowned at the question, "Maybe it was smaller when they found it, because they said it's growing."

"It's not dead?" Jack immediately asked, not pausing as Tosh made a soft gasping noise.

Rhys shook his head, his face going pale at the memory, "No, it's breathing. Its eye opened."

"They're using a fucking living animal for meat?" Rhys nodded at Kayla's outraged question, "How…how…how human," she finally spat, making the word sound like a curse.

She was even more horrified when the others didn't seem to share her anger. Owen merely commented on how it was mutating to create more meat for them, literally giving them a never-ending supply, but then Tosh eagerly pointed out that, "It could last them for years, then. If we understood how it worked, we could feed the world."

And even Ianto joined in, though he stopped himself short from offering this alien creature as a single source of meat at the scathing look Kayla sent him.

When Jack started to speak, even he paused as Kayla whipped her head to him, her eyebrow raising in a silent dare for him to say something positive about the situation, "Before we get ahead of ourselves," he said a bit weakly, "we're talking about dodgy pies in Merthyr, okay?" When Kayla opened her eyes to express outrage, he quickly added, "And the fact that they're cutting it up alive, which," he paused to turn and give Rhys a glare of his own, "we could have put a stop to already if it wasn't for you."

Rhys seemed to try and puff up against the frustrated accusation from Jack, but the action just made him look very, very stupid to Kayla, something that was not helping her low opinion of the man. The following protest of, "I thought my fiancée was in danger," didn't help much either.

"Well she wasn't. And now there's an alien creature being tortured by the worse monster I've ever been around," Kayla pronounced, giving Rhys a glare, "And don't you dare try to defend yourself because you're wrapped up in it."

"Kayla," Gwen hissed. Usually Kayla would have snapped something at her, but Jack spoke up before she could.

"All you did tonight was mess things up. Now we have to think of a way to get back in and, thanks to you, they'll have tightened security," he snapped at Rhys.

Rhys glared at the two in front of him, "Well, if you stopped and asked me what I saw in there, instead of showing off around the place and accusing me –"

"Do I show off?" Jack cut in, glancing at Ianto with a half smirk.

Ianto's lips twitched in a slight smile as he answered ruefully, "Just a bit."

"You'd know I got out by telling them I wanted a job as a delivery boy. So rather than cock things up, I've found you a way to get in. But if you can't handle that, big boy, then you can stuff it."

Without even pausing, Jack shot back, "This is quite homoerotic."

That, of all the comments said so far, made Gwen reach her breaking point, "No, no, no, no, no," she snapped hurriedly, "Jack, he is not getting us in."

Jack just turned on his heal, "Team meeting," he paused and then pointed at Rhys, "You too."

"Jack," Gwen protested even as she followed him to the conference room.

The meeting in the conference room was…awkward, to say the least. Ianto, Owen, Tosh, and Kayla watched in silence as Gwen stood by, her arms crossed, while Rhys explained the blueprints of the building that Tosh had hastily placed on the screen. Jack was the only one who didn't seem uncomfortable in anyway, but that was likely because the emotion he was conveying was frustration at Gwen's anger.

Despite these conflicting emotions, Rhys still went on with the explanation of the warehouse, though his eyes kept flickering between Jack and Gwen, waiting, just like everyone else, for one of them exploding, "That's where the thing is," Rhys said, indicating the large middle section of the warehouse, "That's the sedatives room. That's where they hang and pack all the meat," he continued in a similar fashion, waving at the different spots on the blueprints.

"That's good to know," Owen said shakily when a pregnant silence fell after Rhys was done.

Gwen nodded sharply, "Yeah, that is good to know," she agreed grudgingly, "But he's not driving us in," she finished with a glare directed at Jack.

"They're expecting me," Rhys protested in a low voice. As if they were at a tennis match, the team's heads whipped from Gwen to Rhys. Even Kayla went along with this motion, though that was mainly because the situation was saving her from thinking about how to ask Jack about her going to UNIT for a bit; perhaps, even, a long bit.

Perhaps, even, until she decided – because she was going to go back! – to rejoin the Doctor.

Shaking her head jerkily, Kayla zeroed back in the conversation, which had become an outright argument during her time spent thinking, "Oh, where was I when you to decided to get involved? Did you give me a thought?" Rhys snapped at Gwen.

"Oh joy, a domestic," Owen groaned, a thought Kayla shared with him.

"Rhys is right," Jack declared, "He's our best way in," as if that settled the conversation, he turned to the rest of the team, "Stun guns only," he ordered.

Owen made a face, "We've handled bigger than this. Why don't we just storm in, guns in the air, and arrest them?"

"We could hurt the alien," Kayla pointed out with a shake of her head, "Plus, they'll probably just kill the alien and run if we go in with our guns," she paused to give him a deeply unimpressed look, "blazing."

"I wasn't suggesting blazing, just waving," Owen grumbled.

"The last thing we need is a bloodbath," Jack said with a nod towards Kayla.

Owen just huffed, "Point taken," he agreed sullenly.

"Once Rhys has loaded up, he can clear," Jack explained, "You don't have to come. You can stand down," he added to Gwen, though it sounded less like an offer and more like a command.

"It might be better," Tosh agreed, only to shy away at the affronted glare Gwen sent her.

"You love him," Jack pressed, "Makes you vulnerable."

"He's not going in there without me," Gwen shot back firmly.

Kayla was surprised when Jack accepted this, going as far as to step back as if to signal that he was going to let Gwen do what she wanted on this mission despite her actions potentially putting them all in danger. But then, after Gwen replied to his statement that it was her decision, Jack added in a cold voice, "You both have to live by it."

Gwen faltered at this, which made the ever-watching Rhys huff in frustration, "Oh come on," he protested, "You and me, a team."

Gwen whirled to face him, "Damn it, Rhys! This is for real. Do you understand that? This is for real. And if you mess up, I will kill you."

Her frustrated shriek still echoing in the room, it took a moment for everyone to recover. It was Tosh who spoke first, her eyes anxiously flicking to Gwen throughout her question to Jack, "So, after we've stun-gunned the workers, we put the creature out of its misery?"

"No," Jack said firmly before Kayla could say something, "We're gonna save it. Stabilize it, wait for the Rift to open and send it back."

"It's your responsibility," Kayla agreed with a nod, "Your spe – that's what Torchwood is for."

Thankfully, no one seemed to notice the near slip she had. It would mean too many questions for her to answer if she started describe humans as their species since that excluded her from the human race. Tosh did, however, pull a face at Kayla's agreement, "Tell me exactly how are we going to use it to arm ourselves against the future?"

"We can always hide behind it," Owen suggested snidely.

"Just because it's alien doesn't mean it's not as worthy to be saved as you are," Kayla snapped, "It landed on your planet because of your Rift, so you have to fix it."

"You didn't hear it's cry," Rhys added in, "Heartbreaking."

Shaking his head, Owen looked at Jack with a rare serious expression, "Jack, it's growing."

"Well, we'll find a way to stop it mutating. We are doing this. That's an order."

"Fine," Owen huffed.

"I'll stock up on plankton," Ianto said blithely.

With the conference over, no one wanted to linger in the room with the two angry couple and Jack. Ianto, Owen, Tosh, and even Kayla practically ran from the room, leaving the trio of awkwardness behind.

The wait time until it was Rhys' shift for driving was horribly awkward. By the time Rhys got the lorry and had it parked and ready, Kayla was almost grateful to get into the back of it along with the rest of the team. Sure, it smelled horrible, was dark, and was very uncomfortable, but at least she didn't have to see Gwen increasing the amount of romance with Rhys to make Jack feel jealous. That hadn't worked, of course, because Jack had never understood why he should be jealous when everyone could just share in their relationships, but it still had been terribly awkward.

Thankfully, though, Gwen had abandoned this scheme once they were in the back of the lorry. She was nearly completely silent and still as Rhys drove through the morning traffic.

"I'll prepare an antidote of ketamine so we can start weaning it off," Owen muttered as he started to work out of the medical kit he had brought.

Jack nodded once, "Gwen, Tosh, Kayla, and I will take the main area. Owen, Ianto, cover the corridors and the small rooms. You okay?"

Gwen gave him a sharp look that was penetrating even with their surroundings shrouded in darkness, "What do you think?"

"He'll be fine," Owen assured, "He's a good bloke."

Despite what Owen had said, the rest of the ride passed in uneasy silence until, when Rhys parked, Jack commanded, "Let's go."

Everyone slipped out of the back of the lorry, spreading out and going to their positions as quickly as they could. Kayla got a brief look at Owen and Ianto heading off before she, Jack, Gwen, and Tosh went the opposite direction to the main part of the warehouse. Within a few moments, they were there, staring up at the poor, poor creature the men had been torturing.

"It can't be," Kayla whispered, her eyes filling with tears as she and the others looked at the animal, "They're supposed to be extinct," she forcibly moved her gaze to look at Jack, her horror matched on his face, "How did a space whale fall through the Rift?"

Jack didn't have time to answer because a worker returned. All the group could do was watch in horror as the space whale cried out when the worker cut into it, removing huge chunks of meat from it while it helplessly screamed in pain. By the time Jack was able stun the man, his wheelbarrow full of the meat, they all had tear marks glistening on their cheeks, though none of them mentioned it as they walked towards the poor, poor animal.

"Imprisoned, chained and drugged. Welcome to planet Earth," Jack growled as he stared up at the face of the distressed animal.

It was horrifying when the whale managed to turn its head enough to stare Jack. Only Tosh was able say something, and even then her voice shook horribly, "It heard you. It's sentient."

"Jack," Gwen gasped out as they finally reached the hole in the whale's side where it had been cut into it, "Oh, that's disgusting."

"How…how could anyone do this?" Kayla gasped; only Jack picked up on the unspoken question about how the Doctor's chosen race could do this.

Jack was unable to answer, so instead he too asked a question, "What have they done to you? What have they done to you, my poor friend?"

All they could do was stare. They had no pain medication to give to it, though Kayla was slowly coming to the realization that there was no way they could heal the whale. Not with it in such horrible conditions.

Time Lords had the ability to understand creatures in a way most couldn't. The Doctor had explained it to her before, but Kayla had never understood what he meant. Until now. She could hear the space whale's cries with such horrible, horrible clarity. It was why she knew – no, was certain – that the space whale didn't want to live anymore, and when Kayla looked at the poor animal, she understood why. Who would want to live in a universe that had harmed you so?

"Everyone, they're armed," Owen warned suddenly over the comms.

Gwen instantly turned, her eyes going to the nearest exit, "Rhys."

Jack placed a hand on her shoulder, keeping Gwen there, "Gwen, stay here."

Grudgingly, the Welshwoman did as she was ordered to and stayed with the group, but after a few minutes of tense waiting, she pressed her comms. on, "Ianto, did Rhys get away?"

"I'll check now," Ianto promised promptly.

There was a very small pause, and then a different voice, his tone deadly serious, came over, "They've got Rhys and Ianto," Owen whispered.

Jack didn't hold Gwen back as she sprinted over to the door, but he did hurry after her, leaving Tosh and Kayla to do the same.

"Gwen. Gwen, no. Listen. Hey. It will be okay," Jack assured. Somehow, he was able to get to the door before Gwen and he tried to open it, only for it to remain firmly shut, "Locked," he pronounced.

Gwen barely had time to hiss, "They must know we're here," before the group was hiding away as one of the doors opened and a ruffled Ianto and Rhys were brought into the room, both held at gunpoint.

Both men automatically stepped back at the sight of the whale, and the man holding the gun at them just chuckled at their reaction, "What is it?" Ianto asked hoarsely.

"The lads call it the Cash Cow," the man holding the gun declared.

Another man, smaller and with a more innocent face, joined the gun-holding man, "Dale, what are you doing here?"

"They couldn't bear to see us making money, Vic," Dale replied. He pushed Rhys and Ianto, making them stumble, "Fancied some for yourselves, eh? Thought we'd be a pushover?"

Rhys gave Dale a snide look that had Gwen hissing under her breath at him, "Mate, you're so out of your depth."

Not at all impressed, Dale just smirked at Rhys coolly, "Funny, I was just thinking the same about you."

"Dale," Vic said in a hesitant warning, "don't be an idiot."

Shaking his head at the other man, Dale clicked the safety off as he pointed his gun at Rhys' head, "Show yourselves or I shoot the delivery boy."

With no hesitation, Gwen removed herself from hiding with her hands high in the air, "Okay! There's no need to make any threats."

Dale's gun didn't move from Rhys as he eyed Gwen, "It's just the two of you, is it?" When Gwen made no move to correct him, he motioned with his free hand to her waist, "Gun down. Kick it over.

"I don't have a gun," Gwen tried, only to get a scoff from Dale.

"He had one, so you must have one," glancing at her fiancé, Gwen quickly removed her gun and kicked it over, but Dale wasn't done with her yet, "Any more of you? And before you answer, have a proper think, because if you lie, I will shoot you."

"There's just me," Gwen promised.

For a tense moment, it seemed like Dale had caught the lie, but instead he motioned to the drum and sharply ordered Gwen to get against it. She wordlessly complied, staying against it without moving, "We can help you out, Dale," she offered after a moment of silence.

"Yeah," Dale scoffed, "help yourselves more like," done with her for now, he motioned at Rhys and Ianto, "Come on, stand next to her. You, too."

The position Tosh, Jack, and Kayla were in was not good, but as long as they weren't spotted they still had a chance - "Dale! Three more. Far corner. They can't get out. It's locked," a third man the trio hadn't seen called out.

Moving out of their hiding space, the trio stared down Dale, whose gun was pointing once more, "Take out your weapons, stand where I can see you. Drop your weapons."

None of them complied.

"Do you know what that animal is, Dale?" Kayla asked, a hard note in her voice that unnerved the man.

"Shut up, now," he ordered, though his voice shook.

Kayla didn't, "That's a space whale. And it's likely the last space whale around. Do you know what a space whale is?"

"It's an alien. A creature from another galaxy. It came through a Rift in time and space, and it was unlucky enough to find you," Jack answered for him smoothly.

Dale's mouth dropped open, "No," he protested, "No way."

"Did you really think it originated on this planet? Have you ever seen anything like it before?" Rhys pointed out.

Vic stared up at the creature, his mouth in a 'O,' "It can't be. Can it?" He asked in a small voice.

"Look at that creature," Kayla pressed, "Look at that beautiful, ancient creature."

"It's just meat," Dale snapped with a shake of his head, "that's all."

"It's a sentient animal you are carving up while it's alive. You have to stop."

Dale glared at Kayla, "And then what have I got? I'm making money here. This is my business. For the first time in my life, I've actually got something for myself."

"Dale, stop. You can still walk away from this," Gwen promised.

But Dale was fixated in his position, which is why he turned, accused her of lying to him, and then shot. Kayla, Jack, Tosh, Gwen, and Ianto cried out in horror as Rhys fell to the floor, bleeding from the bullet he had taken for his fiancée.

Suddenly, there was chaos. Ianto, his hands free from the ties he had been put in, grabbed Dale's gun, forcing him to shoot at the ceiling. The space whale, terrified from the noise, started to thrash heavily in its bonds, succeeding in the ropes ripping loudly, and in a surprising show of wisdom, Dale broke away from Ianto and ran along with the other two men.

"Ianto. Go after them," Jack ordered. Not waiting to see the Welshman run off, Jack tapped his comms., "Rhys has been shot. The creature's coming loose. We need that sedative now."

Gwen knelt down next to Rhys and took his head in her hands, looking down at him with tears streaming down her face, "Open your eyes. Come on, you can do this. Open your eyes now, okay?"

"Owen, we need you. We're trapped. The creature's breaking free. If we try and get past, we'll be crushed," Jack pressed, his voice holding a frantic quality to it that Kayla had heard only a few times.

They did all they could do as they waited for Owen. Tosh tried to place pressure on the wounds while Kayla and Jack hung back and tried desperately to speak to the whale. But whether it was pain or the fear, they did not know, but something was stopping the whale from understanding them the way it had just a few minutes earlier.

By the time Owen arrived with a shout of, "Bloody hell!" Kayla knew there was nothing she could do. It was why she didn't do anything as Owen started to inject the poor animal with a dose of sedative that seemed too large, even for its size, to do anything but kill.

"Owen, you're making it worse," Jack snapped as the animal started to thrash even harder, but the second dose Owen injected into it made it slowly, slowly start to calm down.

"What did you do?" Kayla asked, though she already knew the answer. Even as Owen confirmed her suspicion, Kayla turned away to stare up at the eye of the space whale as it started to sing a mournful song.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, watching as the whale calmed down into a drug-induced state of peace. Everyone else was focused on Rhys and helping him, which meant no one saw Kayla place a hand on the whale her eyes closing. No one else saw the space whale die.

No one felt like celebrating when Rhys emerged from the autopsy room after Owen had cleaned him up. Tosh was blankly staring at her computer screen, Ianto was standing hesitantly by her, Jack had withdrawn to his office, and Kayla was sitting on the couch in complete silence.

Gwen was the only one who managed a smile when Rhys came out with Owen, but that smile was short lived because only a few seconds later, she was called into Jack's office. Everyone, except Rhys, knew what would happen next: Gwen would be ordered to give Rhys Retcon. If she didn't then they would both be Retconned.

It came as no surprise to Kayla when none of those things happened. Sure, Gwen seemed like she was going to comply, but then she came back screeching that none of them understood and she wouldn't do it and Jack…Jack had all but confirmed that she was correct in her assumption that she didn't have to do it. He snapped at her to go home and that he would see her tomorrow, and like a short summer storm, Gwen left the Hub in an eerie silence.

That night, once everyone had gone home, Kayla paused as she made to leave the Hub. She could hear a soft noise that drew her into Jack's office. He was bent over his desk with his shoulders shaking. If it had been any other day, Kayla would have left him at it. In fact, she did start to turn, but some noise from her made Jack look up from his desk.

"Ky," he murmured in a low voice.

That was all it took for the tears Kayla had been saving for her roof and her stars to roll down her cheeks as well. Hesitantly, she approached Jack, pausing as she waited for him to send her away. But he didn't. Instead, he stood up and opened his arms. In a juxtaposition to her approach, Kayla practically leapt into the awaiting hug.

"I'm so sorry," Kayla said, though she didn't know what she was apologizing for, "I'm so sorry, Dad."

In answer, Jack just squeezed her tighter.

UNIT, Kayla decided, could wait for tomorrow.

Welcome back everyone! I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday season! I know I did, and I wrote a lot of fanfiction during it. I am so excited for what is in store for Kayla as well as the other characters of my story and I hope you guys can enjoy it with me. I've recently uploaded a crossover between Kayla and Amy called Blue Box of the Morning, so feel free to check that out.

Just like last time, I will update ten chapters and then take a break for a week; then, I will upload the last 10 chapters.

Finally, for this chapter, I really like it. We're still in what I would refer to as the middle of the book, but we're getting really close to the climax, but otherwise, this chapter doesn't have much.

No new reviews, so see you guys next week!