Jenny had often heard from coma survivors that your senses came back in blocks, the old wives tale that hearing was the last to go and first to come back seemed to have a grain of truth. However the thing that started to pull Jenny back to reality was smell, most definitely smell, rank and evil, it was the pungent nasty smell of urine and manure mixed with damp fungus infected straw. The next was touch, or more identifiably the crushing sensation on her chest, which led to sight through opening her eyes. This was less than useless though as she was either blind, the flash of energy had been extremely bright, or more hopefully in the pitch dark. She carried on moving her hands around and they connected with what she hoped was a head, the taste of bile and the acrid tang of burnt flash starting to make themselves known. So hearing was the last sense to return, precisely because there was nothing to hear but her own screaming, no electric hum of lights, no static from electronic devices nothing.

She took a deep breath, if nothing else the pungent smell of the ammonia brought her to her senses. Horse shit, that was the smell, horse wee and straw all pointed towards a stables but as her fingers ghosted over the face of the body on top of hers and down to the thready, but oh so there pulse, her memories rushed back. She remembered the g-force drag that had pulled them like the first moment a rollercoaster falls and it turning into a washing machine ride that had nearly torn them apart.

"Ianto." Jenny tapped his face, whispering as close to his ear as the difficult position they were in would allow. She was starting to get the idea it was night as her eyes became more accustomed to the low light and the very occasional whinny and a scrape of metal on stone also suggested stable. The straw around them also ticked the right box, it was lucky the rift had dumped them in an unoccupied box as a shire horse hoof could really spoil your day. More was coming back, the smell of burnt flesh was coming back and the flash, the flash as Jack had thrown something through the energy curtain, it had seemed to precipitate the final breakdown of the whirlwind that was holding them in a sort of limbo. She patted the floor around them for the tin, she had no idea what was so valuable you risk getting swept into a rift storm. She called Iantos name again and made ever widening sweeps for the box, perhaps it was that movement that finally got through to him.

It was touch with Ianto, well pain but that wasn't one of the classical five senses, searing, vomit inducing pain. The sort of pain that truly made you forget your name and the will to live. He started screaming, it wasn't a conscious thought because, as Jack had once pointed out, he wasn't a screamer, and at first he didn't even realise the noise was coming from him until he felt a hand over his mouth and heard urgent hissing to be quiet in his ear. He tried to look around, find something safe to take away this pain but it was black. The only thing he could latch onto was the calm voice and the arm around his chest, he took a very deep breath and tried to grab onto the arm but found he could only move one arm as the other one was numb.

"Ianto, try not to move now, it's ok, we're safe for the moment." He heard the words 4 times before he could process them. Finally he swallowed convulsively and nodded his head the tears flowing unbidden down his cheeks, the hand started stroking his face and belatedly he realised the voice belonged to Jenny.

"What happened? Where are we?" He whispered, not knowing why but understanding loud voices weren't required.

"Rift storm picked us up and dumped us god knows where. No don't move, certainly don't move your left arm." She said as he shifted his body weight helping him to sit up more, his leg was curled up beneath him and it was going dead. He cried out again involuntarily, he was sweating and going to be sick. Jenny just pulled his head closer to her chest, shushing him and rocking him gently like a baby using calming words and using her hand to cover his free ear and the arm over his face, just like putting a hood on a hawk.

When he had managed to get a little more semblance of control she moved her hand away and spoke gently.

"Is the pain only in your arm?" He could feel her supporting his body weight to one side as she swept the floor around them, he took a second to do a quick audit. The whole of his left arm below the elbow was on fire and the exploratory ripple he tried to give his fingers lanced pain right up to his shoulder, there were pins and needles in his leg, but that was because of the strange angle he landed at, he wasn't a ballet dancer and he knew it. A small noise of triumph signalled she had found whatever she was looking for.

She pulled the tin over popped the lid and there was a faint glow, Jack was like the worlds best boy scout, who else would have in an inside pocket of a tuxedo, an alien light stick in a tin with a small knife, always useful, a vial of morphine, semi-obvious, a packet of Retcon, great, and, bingo, a preloaded syringe of a Torchwood cure all borrowed from some friendly green wibbly things a few years ago. Ianto knew what was in the tin as soon as he saw the glow, he often had to refill the Retcon and had on more than one occasion used the morphine on Jack, the whole lot all at once even though it was three or four normal doses. He felt the needle stab in to his thigh and the irrational thought that he hoped she had checked the dose flittered across his mind. As if she could hear his thoughts she gently spoke again,

"It's only a half dose, I need you with me because we are going to have to get out of here soon." She looked at the second syringe, she remembered this stuff it had been recompense from a grateful alien race for making a rather large hole in Abergaveny. Torchwood had just called it a country park lake and then fought for years over what to do with the fluid. It acted as a broad spectrum antibiotic and sometime anti viral, it would wipe out certain viruses in days but that of course would have caused a world wide collapse in the pharmaceutical industry. The Torchwood Institute might well have been formed to protect the Empire from alien threats but it wasn't about to bring down one of it's greatest money spinners either. So they kept the small supply for themselves and found it brilliant for treating Weevil bites, which had the toxicity of a Komodo Dragon kiss, and all the other little knocks and scrapes they picked up while scrabbling around dirty dank alleys and in the sewers of Cardiff, perhaps one day the world would be ready for a cure all.

"What do we do now?" said Ianto with a wonderful feeling of numbness flowing round his veins.

"You are going to stay here, I am going to find out where and possibly when we are."

Ianto started to struggle upwards but a very slight hand on his shoulder was all that it took to stop him. She used the movement however to wiggle out from under him and to pull him round so his back was against the wall, she tore a strip off the bottom of her dress and wrapped it round the bloody and charred flesh of his arm.

"Hardly the best attire for exploring." She commented, pulling her heel from between the cobbles. Ianto laughed weakly and she stooped down to hold his good hand for a second, it was cold and clammy, she looked round and pulled an old horse blanket down from a hook. She wrapped it round Ianto roughly, trying not to see the lice crawling from the seams, if she was where she thought they were he would have to get used to it.

"Stay here."

"I'll try." He said smiling as she walked briskly into the darkness.

Ianto heard the sound of her tiptoed feet moving away briskly and rested his head against the wooden wall behind him. If he closed his eyes all this would be over and Jack would saunter in, all swagger and that smile, but instead it was still just black and he felt so empty.

Jenny opened the old hand carved door from the stables and stepped out into the fresh night air, she took a deep clearing breath. Just their luck it was a moonless night, but her eyes had adjusted about enough for her to tell there were more buildings to her left. She stood still and swept her eyes around, all she could see were the things that weren't there, no orange glow of street lights, no telephone wires or halogen lights screwed onto the wall. She cursed and clenched her teeth, she could have broken down and cried but she took a deep breath and got over the momentary self-pity. Besides the cold didn't really go with what was left of her dress.

She walked with a sort of resigned confidence, she'd done it too many times to get really scared but she noted the heightened senses. She reached the side of the stone built building, putting her hand on the wall she felt the roughness of the stone unweathered by the passing of centuries. A neat cottage, with a thatch and windows for an upper floor it would be tiny in the world she'd just left but here it was a sign of some wealth. She peered through the downstairs window into the kitchen, there was a fire in the grate but no other signs of life, curtains a triviality in times when you rose and slept with the sun. She skirted round the building and found a small dairy and the laundry / buttery to find prize number one, clothes. She felt slightly guilty as she lifted a few items, only enough to cover their 21st century garb but sometimes people only had two sets. Judging by the sizes there were more than two people using the building, probably dairy maids and stable lads so she found her best fit and guessed for Ianto. She straightened herself out and looked up and down at what she had managed, she would do until she could get to a city and get current money she resolved to send some back to replace what she was stealing, but she had to find out where she was. Leaving the bundle she had purloined for Ianto she moved to the cottage door, genuflecting and praying to Saint Joseph in his role as Patron Saint of buildings she asked that the door be oiled and the dogs quiet, before pushing on the door.

The light from the fire was small and reality she knew it wouldn't be giving out that much heat but on coming out of the cold it felt like a sauna. There was a ginger cat sat in a rocking chair in the corner, it raised an eyebrow then went back to sleep, no dogs, no maid sleeping in the corner, she thanked the saint. She looked around, on the mantle was a statue of Nelson, to her more modern eyes it looked cheap and tacky but it would have been a relatively expensive adoration of a man who had given his life against the French. So as dating evidence went it gave an earliest possible year, but it looked fairly fresh, chip free, which was an indication of newness with the softness of the china. She knew where this was leading, she looked round for the final piece of evidence, she doubted she would find a newspaper, she doubted the occupants would be able to read but there was always… She turned slowly to the dresser and opened the top drawer to remove the family bible. She fingered the heavily tooled leather work and slipped the clasp open to the first page, running over the ornate family tree drawn within. The writing was spidery and faded near the top, there were quite a few lines drawn through the leaves of the tree, children who hadn't reached their first birthday, the grandfather had died in 1798, a child had been born in 1804 so she could place herself after that.

She replaced the bible and looked round the room for any more clues, stepping in the pantry reminded her of many previous lives but the flour jar in the corner gave her the final clue, it was crudely printed with the name of a mill in Keynsham, whoever or whatever brought them here had to be linked to the elm trees, Jack had been wrong after all. Finally she found the last things she had been looking for, a bonnet and rough leather moccasin type shoes, red silk heels were not going to get her very far.

She moved back into the stable and quietly round to Ianto, he was still sat against the partition, his eyes closed and shivering slightly Jenny was sure it wasn't just the cold. She called his name and he responded groggily. She put a hand on his forehead and he opened his eyes, he was unfocused and it took him a second to shake back to reality.

"What did you find?" he asked, his voice thick as his mouth was dry. She held a cup to his lips, she would hold back the knowledge that the water was straight from a well and wouldn't see fluoride for 150 years, Ianto was going to have to adapt. She flicked open the tin for some light and started tearing strips off a sheet she had purloined to wrap his arm.

"Well, good news, as far as I can tell we're still in England." Ianto groaned,

"We started out in Wales." Jenny acquiesced the point that they had moved country, but only over the water. Then she added the but, there was always a but and this was a Torchwood but.

"But I think we had fallen back in time."

"Uh hu." Said Ianto in an uncommitted fashion, "How far?"

"200 years, give or take." They sat in silence for a few seconds, Jenny squeezed Ianto's hand as it started shaking.

"Don't worry, I have plans, we'll be fine, I'll get you back." Just don't ask me how, she thought. She pulled the blanket back over him and sat next to him resting against the wood, purposefully not noticing the tears streaming down his face.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before levering herself back up again, Ianto cuffed his face with his good hand and looked at her again in the strange green glow.

"You've got changed." She nodded and did a ditzy twirl that made him chuckle and tossed the items she had found for him down.

"We need to blend in." Sounded business like as she helped get the shirt over his injured arm, "Layers aren't fashion advise round here, central heating has been forgotten about since Roman times, keep your own stuff on but try not to let any one see the plastic buttons or your wrist watch." The second bit was easy it had melted in the heat and was half fused to his arm, that he couldn't feel so he knew it was bad. "Easier to blend in where there are lots of people so I suggest we head for the nearest city, which also happens to be a wonderful port, full of strangers."

"Shouldn't we stay here, so Jack can find us?" said Ianto hearing the patheticness of his own voice. He was shaking with the cold and the delayed shock. Jenny finished putting the stolen shirt on and gently pulled him into a warm embrace.

"Ianto, I don't know how to put this, but if Jack was going to find us here he would have managed it by now." He was shaking his head against his shoulder. "He has all the time in the world to find us, but we don't even know where we are, we need to be somewhere prominent and find away to let him know." She pulled him closer as he used his good hand to grip the front of her blouse.

He knew she was right but he didn't want to think that Jack, his Jack, the man who said would always remember him, he had forever to find him and he hadn't. He'd abandoned him in the past, he hadn't bothered looking, she was right he would have found them if he was bothered. He shuddered and pulled her shirt tighter to him, in return she rocked him gently till he seemed to calm down and then pulled away again.

"Don't worry Ianto, we'll get back, even if they can't find us now I can always hang round and stop it happening, just means I'll have to find something to do for 200 years, guess I can go see all those things I missed. I can be the first in the Klondike, collect Titanic stuff and store it, be out of Europe in 1914." It was her turn to shudder at the thought of some of the things to come. She pulled back and smiled at him, the soft glow from the light stick softening the stress etched in her face, Ianto wasn't fooled though because he saw the same haunted look that often held Jack in it's grip.

"We could take a horse and ride into town." Suggested Ianto as she made him a makeshift sling.

"Horse theft is a capital offence and while the jury might still be out on my ability to die you don't have that luck." Ianto slumped back slightly. "Might get lucky and hitch a lift with a friendly farmer, if not we have Shanks's Pony."

Ianto nodded slowly, even without the leg wobbling effect of the morphine coursing through his system he felt adrift, all the things he could normally count on were gone, phones, the internal combustion engine, computers, even his beloved fountain pen would be a century before it's time. His brain began to shut down again, his vision went to pin points in the darkness, his breathing became shallow and the sounds all became too much. Jenny pulled him in close and held him again till the panic attack subsided, the horses were becoming restless with the noise and adrenalin in the air.

"Ianto we've got to go soon, we can't be round here when the farm house wakes up." He automatically looked at his watch and whimpered again with the pain. "I promise you some of the good stuff once we get settled." She gathered the last remnants of their short stay together and stuffed it in a sack from the back of the stall, she didn't think leaving red stilettos would be very helpful.

Carefully she helped Ianto to his feet and then helped him stand against the wall, her shoulder holding much of his weight, till the blood had started to move back round his body. With his good arm still over her shoulder and her other arm round his waist she manovered him out into the yard and started off down the track, it was slow progress and there was a sliver of light starting on the horizon.

"Which way?" he asked as they came to the end of the farm track.

She looked at the road and shrugged. "I suggest we take the easy road and go downhill, it's also close to west and if we are where I think we are it will lead us back to Bristol."

In the absence of any better plan Ianto nodded and they started the long walk ahead.