10.

Jack turned to his team. By now, Tosh was sitting up against the wall, grimacing when Owen pushed a tissue against the back of her head. Jack hurried to help her stand up and wrapped an arm around her waist when she stumbled. "We have to leave."

"Where to?" Gwen asked.

"Doesn't matter." Jack looked back at the main Hub. "Who knows how long it'll be until they'll come back. They can't see you."

"Who?" Ben asked, confused.

"The team," Jack answered. He headed for the office door with Tosh. The others followed him.

Gwen sped up to walk beside him. "Jack, how is this possible?"

"I'll explain later," he answered and stopped, thinking. He was wondering where they could hide. Before he could make a decision, somewhere above them, a door slammed shut. The door leading to the surface. It was made of metal, very heavy and it could be heard down in the main Hub. The door led from the room that would later become the tourist office down a long flight of stairs into the Hub. The huge cogwheel door hadn't been installed yet. Their only protection against someone finding out about the base was a padlock.

Jack stared at the entrance. "They're coming," he said, hurrying with Tosh towards the corridor between the office and the med bay. He handed Tosh over to Owen and was surprised when Ben supported Tosh's other side. "The second room to the left. I'll catch up as soon as I can."

Owen, Ben and Tosh headed down the corridor.

Gwen and Ianto hesitated. Ianto asked, "What about you?"

"I'll get some things from the med bay to help Owen treat Tosh. I'll be with you in a minute. Now, go!"

Ianto nodded and hurried to catch up with the others.

Gwen grabbed Jack's arm. "What'll happen if they see you?"

"They know me. If I'm not mistaken, my current Me is in Scotland. I'll just tell them that I could return early." He pushed her towards the corridor. "I'll explain later. Go!"

She obeyed and ran after the others. Jack hurried to the med bay and stuffed bandages and a vial of alcohol into his pockets. Then he ascended the steps again … and saw ghosts. They were standing near the entrance, talking quietly.

Eveline Mason, the team's doctor, noticed him first. "Jack." She hurried towards him.

The other two, James Lees and Constantine Jane, were staring at Jack in surprise. Jack forced a charming smile.

Eveline smiled back and hugged him. "It's good to see you. I missed you."

He returned the hug gently. "Missed you, too." He pushed her away to have a proper look. Eveline was a beautiful woman with brown, long hair that framed a fine, pretty face. She looked up at him with big, green eyes. She'd been married, but her husband had died three years ago from a disease. She kept wearing the wedding band, though, and Jack recalled that she had never taken another husband, and died within a year. She hadn't lacked offers, though. And rightly. She was smart and independent, but also a good wife and a woman well-known in the upper class of London.

Jack couldn't get over the fact that she was standing right in front of him. Eveline had always been a friend. He remembered all the social gatherings, now, that he'd accompanied her to after the death of her husband so that she didn't have to go alone. He would have loved to see her starting a family of her own.

Jack dropped a kiss on her forehead. "You look great as always. Is that blouse new?"

Eveline tugged at it, blushing, and shook her head. "Stop it, Jack."

He grinned at the two men. "Just telling the truth, right, guys?"

Constantine Jane was a tall man with sharp features and gray eyes. He wore a dark coat and, upon hearing Jack's words, curled his lips into a smile. "For once, yes." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers. "It doesn't happen all that often, though."

James Lees, a man of slight build with blonde hair, the team's technician, crossed his arms. "I told you that you look fantastic, Eve. You wouldn't believe me." His dark eyes met Jack's and he winked at him. Just like Constantine, he was wearing straight-cut trousers and a white shirt under a tight jacket. Unlike Constantine, the clothes made him younger, maybe because of the freckles on his cheeks and around his nose.

Jack didn't know if it was him being nervous or the others, but a tense silence descended around them. Then he remembered that Matthew had gone missing a couple of days ago and they didn't know that he knew about that yet. Eveline's eyes were sad and James and Constantine seemed awkward. Jack assumed that they were wondering how to tell him. Suddenly, he felt exhausted; he didn't want to hear the words, not yet, not again.

"It was an exhausting trip," he said. "I think I'm going to go and sleep for a bit."

"Alright," Constantine said, sounding almost relieved. "Yes. We … we have some things to talk through without you either way."

Jack nodded at them and hurried into the dark recesses of the Hub. He heard James asking, "How are we going to tell him?" Then his steps drowned out the voices.

XXX

Ianto was standing near the door, his arms crossed, leaning against the wall and watching Owen try to treat Tosh in the dim light of the only lamp. The walls were adorned by shelves, all of them empty. It seemed as if the room should be a storage area, but it wasn't in use.

Gwen was walking up and down nervously, while Ben was crouching in a corner and trying to work out what he'd gotten himself into. Ianto thought that he was handling the situation well enough, all things considered.

For the third time, he said, "We're in the 30s."

"Yes," Ianto answered.

"How did we get here?"

Gwen shrugged. "Jack said he'll explain."

"He's talking to them," Ben said. "Why? I mean, they can't know him."

Ianto bit his lip. Gwen looked at him, her eyebrows raised questioningly.

Owen laughed. "Don't worry about that. Everything will become clearer in time. Believe me, tomorrow, all this will be a whacky dream."

"So, we'll get back home?" Ben asked.

"Of course," Ianto answered soothingly. He wasn't sure.

"Good," Ben said and laughed hysterically. "I promised my girlfriend I'd be home for dinner."

Owen rolled his eyes. "On the bright side, you have seventy years to fulfill that promise."

"What if we never get home?" Ben asked.

"We will," Gwen tried to soothe him.

The door opened and Jack entered.

Gwen immediately turned her attention on him. "Right, Jack? We'll get back home in no time."

Jack's eyes settled on Ben for a second and he seemed to get Gwen's underlying meaning. "Of course." He handed Owen a bandage and a vial. "Sorry, that was the best I could grab that fast."

"It's enough," Owen answered. "The wound's only superficial. I think she was thrown against the wall."

"You could always ask me. I'm not unconscious, you know," Tosh complained.

Owen shrugged in apology and looked at her questioningly.

Tosh sighed. "I was thrown against the wall."

Jack put a hand on Tosh's cheek and smiled encouragingly.

Gwen looked determined. "What happened there, Jack?"

"If you don't have any objections, I'd like to relocate to a more secure room to discuss this. I know a place not far from here that's not used at the moment. There's a bed there, too. Tosh could have a lie-down." He looked at Ianto. "You too."

"I'm fine," Ianto answered, irritated.

Jack stepped closer and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't tell me that you're not in pain."

Ianto was in pain, but it would leave as soon as his ribs and head had some time to recover. He didn't think that his wounds had been aggravated. Instead, he was worried about his own responsibility in what had happened. If he had reacted sooner to the noise, then all that wouldn't have happened – whatever all that was. He was pretty sure he'd been the first to hear it and just because he'd been too tired and wrapped up in his own problems, he hadn't reacted, putting the others in danger.

Owen dabbed Tosh's wound with alcohol and she flinched and made a soft, pained noise. Owen pulled a face. "Sorry."

"It's okay."

Jack looked around at each of them. "We should go."

Owen nodded. "Yeah. I'm done." He helped Tosh to her feet and pocketed the used bandage and the vial. Then they left the room and followed Jack deeper into the recesses of the Hub.

Jack smiled at Ianto. "Luckily they didn't have CCTV back then." He rounded another corner and opened the first door to enter a dark room. When Jack closed the door, it was pitch black for a moment, then something clicked and a weak light flickered on. Surprised, Ianto registered a double bed in one corner of the room, a cradle, a small furnace and a table with a record player on it. A few books and records were leaning against the desk lamp. Behind the rocking chair in the corner, a standard lamp was placed.

No matter how bare the walls seemed and how dark the room was without a window, it was obviously an improvised flat.

Jack walked through the room systematically, switching on the lights one after another. The lamps weren't as bright as in the 21st century and didn't make the room more cozy, but it was obvious that Jack knew this room well. He stopped near the record player.

Gwen sat down in the rocking chair. She smiled when it creaked in protest. "My grandmother used to have one of these. I loved it."

Ianto stepped next to Jack. "Where are we?"

"This is my flat," Jack answered softly. Ianto looked at him questioningly. Jack shrugged and corrected, "It was my flat." He shoved his hands into his trouser pockets and stepped into the middle of the room to get the group's attention. "How's Tosh doing?" he asked Owen who was sitting next to Tosh on the bed.

"It's not that bad," Owen answered and Tosh gifted Jack with a small smile and leaned back against the wall, her legs stretched out on the bed. Owen got comfortable beside her. Gwen wrapped herself in the blanket that had been draped over the back of the rocking chair. Ianto could understand, he felt a bit cold, too.

Jack sighed deeply and Ianto noticed that his shoulders tensed up. It was obvious that he was nervous about their reactions to his explanation.

"What happened, is called a Rift implosion. It's a simple time shift."

Ben stared at Jack, aghast. "A simple time shift … Rift implosion.That doesn't sound very reassuring."

"It is," Jack answered.

"Torchwood," Gwen and Owen said at the same time and Tosh nodded at Ben.

While Jack explained the Rift to Ben, Ianto went to the cradle and brushed his thumb over the wood. This was where Jack and Matthew had lived with Michael.

He looked around again. A home beneath the surface. Improvised, as far as he knew. Nevertheless … even though this place was bleak, there was life here. Jack and Matthew had shared something more than sex. More than Jack shared with Ianto.

It shouldn't hurt, but it did. He'd known that Jack and Matthew had been in love, but to see the proof ...

Ben asked, "So, if that Rift manipulator is handled in the wrong way ..."

"... it goes boom," Owen answered with a nod.

Jack specified. "It would tear apart the veil between time lines. That's an explosion. An implosion doesn't change anything about the surroundings. It only takes people or things to another time. Every trip through the Rift is a controlled implosion. Only what happened with us wasn't controlled. It created a blast and that's why we lost consciousness." He looked at Ianto. "My office must look like hell."

"Okay," Owen said, "but why?"

"I made a mistake," Jack answered. He held his arm up, showing his wristband. "I thought it wouldn't work, but it did. It just needed time to charge enough energy for the time travel. Apparently, the damage was too big to gather the needed energy in one go. The beeping we heard was a warning: Attention, time travel starting now."

Gwen frowned. "But we know that it's 1933, because that's the last … address you typed in."

Jack nodded. "This is 1933, approximately two days after Matthew went missing."

"Can we get back?" Tosh asked.

"Yeah," Owen said and leaned back. He pushed a pillow under his head. "Our trainee has to be home at seven."

Ben glared at him.

Owen shrugged. "Couldn't resist."

"It's got enough energy left to take us home," Jack explained.

Tosh rubbed her forehead. "But it'll need time to recharge, right?"

Jack nodded. "When the time comes, we'll have to be together for it to go well. We'll have to be in the same room."

Owen asked, "And 'til then? I mean, it took more than twelve hours the last time."

Ianto corrected him, "Sixteen hours."

Jack crossed his arms. "We hide down here. Nobody will come here, since Matthew's gone. My current Me won't return from Scotland for three more days. We're safe here. I'll try to find a blueprint of the Hub, just as I intended originally. Maybe there's still a possibility to help Matthew."

Ben raised a hand. "I'm confused. Who's Matthew?"

"Long story," Owen answered.

"Well …," Ben said, "... we've got some time on our hands."

Ianto noticed that the door was starting to open and put a warning hand on Jack's arm. Jack looked at him questioningly, then he turned around to the door. A young man in a wet coat entered, shivering, his dark hair plastered to his head.

He stopped abruptly when he noticed the people gathered around the room. He took a step back, crossing his arms as if he was cradling something to his chest protectively. Now Ianto noticed the bulge forming in his coat as if there was something hidden beneath to protect it from the rain. His green eyes found a familiar face and his mistrust left him. "Jack," he smiled. He opened the first two buttons on his coat and Ianto saw the sleepy face of a baby strapped to the chest in an improvised knot of sheets, curiously eying him.

Ianto looked at Jack who was standing next to him, frozen. "Matthew."