Disclaimer: I own nothing

So, so sorry about the wait! Explanation:

In the summer hols, Mum was constantly on the desktop, Dad was using the laptop, so that left me with my typewriter. So I've had to copy out the last chapter, this one, and the next one to boot. This has been the most torturous experience of my life (next to school camp), but I'm quite a good touch typer now!

So I'm really sorry again, please don't hate me!

And thank you SmartGrrl for the favourite!

Now, see if you can spot the Downton Abbey reference in here (hint, it's not dis-similar to a statement made by Branson... 3) . Also, most of this chapter is a rambling trip to no-where just so that you know. And one last thing, Bilis has gone off the charts, lost somewhere, not coming back in the foreseeable future, in case any of you were wondering.

Ahem.

"I hate couples night." Owen informed the hub drily, as he swigged from his beer bottle.

"We all hate couples night Owen." Adele informed him, from her place at the photo copier, as she tinkered away at the insides.

"Well it's alright for you!" Tosh spoke from her station. "You're in a couple, so you get a different night off during the week to be a couple!"

"Don't take your sad love life out on my fiancée." Ianto told her, with a cheeky smirk. The 'couples night', as they had named it, always had a sour effect upon the mood in the hub. This was Gwen's allotted night off which she took to spend with Rhys, as well as Jack and Donna's (the newest member of the organisation, who was the only one able to silence either Jack or Owen with one menacing glance) time off, usually occupied with a date. Though Adele and Ianto took another night off during the week, the atmosphere in the hub was always bitter.

From Gwen's desk came a faint buzzing- the sound of her mobile on silent. Owen, Tosh and Ianto all looked up from their desks, staring in fear at Gwen's desk.

"It's like the cry of the banshee!" Owen muttered.

"Gwen's phone is ringing," Adele stated, removing her head from beneath the photo copier, to reveal her hair done-up like a 1940s housewife. "Well isn't anyone going to answer it?" She asked, eyebrows raised.

"Don't!" Owen warned.

"Why not?" Adele asked patiently.

"It's usually a friend." He replied nervously. "A giggling friend. She has friends that giggle and shriek. A lot."

Adele sighed pointedly, and crossed the hub, reaching for the phone. The others looked on in pained amusement.

"Hello, Gwen Cooper's phone."

Deathly silence.

"No she left it at work- who is this?"

Pause.

"Oh!" She cried in dawning comprehension. "So you're Rhys! We've certainly heard a lot about you, mister!"

Tosh and Ianto exchanged glances.

"Yes we have! Did you really get a walnut stuck in your ear?"

Owen stifled a giggle.

"No actually, I don't want to talk to her, I'd like to talk to you."

Silence.

"Well, no, I won't drop it off thank you very much, she can come and pick it up. I'm not her slave monkey."

Pause.

"Well angry profanities to you too!" She snapped into the phone, before flipping it shut, and dropping it back on her desk. "Sorted!" She declared, with a proud smile."

"You are one brave woman, Adele Harman," Ianto said, walking forwards with arms out-stretched, whilst Adele grinned from ear to ear. "And you're mine, all mine!"She laughed and they embraced, leaving Tosh and Owen by her desk.

"Bloody couples night." Owen muttered in Tosh's ear, once again noticing the distance between them as she snickered.

Across town, in a bay-side restaurant, Donna and Jack were enjoying an intimate dinner. The couple had been growing closer and closer since their re-union two months ago, spending this time getting to know each other. Needless to say, over the past two months, Jack Harkness was loving his life. He was living with the most beautiful woman in the world, who made him feel giddy with one smile, and the kisses were mind-blowing. She was smarter than she made out to be, and funny to boot. Captain Jack Harkness was in love. Although the idea was supposed to make him happy, he felt a dull ache in his gut, whenever he thought of her slowly ageing and dying, while he lived on, young and ageless.
Though tonight wasn't about that. The Captain was sure that he was going to get lucky, and was very pleased with that. He had been certain, after Donna stepped out of her bedroom clad in a small black sparkly cocktail dress and very tall black heels- she'd gone out to impress. He did feel guilty for leaving Tosh alone though. 'She's not alone!' he told himself for what seemed like the thousandth time that night- she was with three of the people that he trusted the most in this galaxy, and he knew that on his many, many lives that she would be safe. His worried expression must have been noticed by his dining partner, because she placed a hand over his own, jerking him back to reality.

"She's going to be fine, you know that." She said, smiling sympathetically. He nodded in agreement, though he was still worried. "Jack!" Donna moaned slightly, and he hung his head. "He's not come back so far, he might not be back ever, and even so, you've drilled the protocol into the others so much that they've practically got in engrained in their brains."

"I suppose." He said, nodding more this time.

"So stop worrying and at least try and enjoy yourself." She told him, with a playful smirk.

Easy. He had a very fetching distraction across the table from him.

Couples night ended as it usually did, Adele and sometimes Tosh singing Benny and the Jets at the top of their lungs, in a rewarding attempt to annoy Owen. Tonight it was an Adele solo, it was taking Tosh all her will power not to join in.

"B-b-b Benny and the Jets-"

"Please stop singing!"

"Oh it's the weird and the wonderful, oh baby she's a really keen!"

"Please!"

Tosh and Ianto leaned against Gwen's desk as Adele danced about the top of the med- bay.

"She's got electric boots-"

She fell silent- they all did, as Toshiko heard a very familiar vworping noise that made her blood run cold.

Half way across town, Jack and Donna stood in a passionate embrace.

"Back home?" Jack breathed against her mouth.

"Hell yes." Donna agreed, and they both hurried to the SUV.

They all knew to be aware of the vworping noise- those had been Jack's exact words. At the time the others had thought it ridiculous, but now everything seemed so real to them. To Tosh however, the room seemed to move in slow motion. Adele sprinted to the armoury, and returned thirty seconds later with a rifle (though Tosh saw her empty the ammunition into her desk drawer, and slam it shut) then pointing it at the box. Ianto stood beside his fiancée, arms folded and looking intimidating in his suit with his cold demeanour, ready to intimidate any occupants of the space ship back into their abode. Out of sight of the doors to the spaceship, Owen moved himself in front of her, his hands reaching around her and resting in the small of her back.

'Protect Toshiko from the box at all costs.' Was what Jack had said. The door began to slowly creak open, and she swallowed thickly. She knew this day would come.

It seemed like an eternity until the doors opened, and the Doctor stuck his head out. As soon as he did, Adele poised the gun inches from his face, and clicked off the safety. His response was to look her up and down distastefully.

"I don't like people with guns."

"Fine with me." She said, nodding curtly. He inhaled, and paused for a moment, searching for something to say. After what appeared to be some internal debate, he finally settled on:

"Your hair style is out of fashion."

In an instant, Adele swung the barrel of the gun, and smacked him across the side of the face with it, a hollow 'thunk' sounded about the room.

"It's vintage." She hissed dangerously. The Doctor surveyed her, and raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He scanned the room, his gaze finally resting upon Ianto.

"Hello there!" He called cheerfully, "Is this the Torchwood three hub?"

"Yes." Ianto replied drily, not even fazed by this man's sudden change of demeanour.

"2008?"

"Yes."

"Fantastic!" He replied, with a grin. "May I please speak to Toshiko?"

Out of sight of the Doctor, Owen gently un-ravelled himself from Toshiko, and nudged her on the hip. She followed him silently down into the medical bay, where he backed her up against the wall closest to the rest of the hub, so if anybody looked into the bay, they wouldn't see her. He bent down and pressed a kiss to her forehead, seemingly surprising both of them.

"I'll sort this out worry." He promised in a whisper, before pulling out his hand gun, and running back up to the hub, leaving a mute and surprised Toshiko in his wake, though she didn't hear any acknowledgement of his presence. Maybe he was hiding as back up?

She couldn't hear much, though occasionally one of them would raise their voices. He couldn't find her, 'Please don't let him find me.' She prayed. Her breathing seemed too loud, magnified a thousand times. She felt sure that she could be heard across the entire hub, and she tried to regulate the intake of oxygen, though she found herself choking, not getting enough air. She let out an enormous, shaky breath, and pulled her knees up to her chest, and rested her head back against the wall. Why her? There were so many prettier women in the world, why her? The geeky little girl, hiding behind her computer, worth nothing to nobody. Before Gwen- Ianto even, she'd felt certain that she was useless, why Owen and Suzie had even used her as Weevil bait on certain occasions. But she'd allowed it, pretended to enjoy it, allowed herself to be walked over, because she'd been thoroughly broken by that damned prison, and had been slowly piecing herself back together. Since then she'd been chased by Weevils, cannibals, gloves, blow fish, fairies, and countless others, and now she was reduced to hiding from a man in a little blue box.

"Well now that's hardly fair!" Protested the Doctor's voice, closer now. "I only want a chat!"

"Well she doesn't want to chat with you, so piss off." Ianto's voice growled menacingly. The Doctor continued talking, un fazed.

"You've not spoken to her about me, she'd not even here from what I can see," Tosh repressed a shudder. "so you couldn't possibly know that!" He informed the couple. "Besides, why aren't you letting her see me?"

"We have orders to protect her."

The Doctor laughed.

"You don't know, do you? What I've done!"

Silence.

"I do." Said Adele.

"Well what has the big, bad nasty Doctor man done then? Answer me that."

Oh god, this was worse than she could have ever imagined. She was a strong woman, she didn't need to be afraid of a secret, did she? Maybe it wa because the object of all her night mares was in the one place she felt safe these days, maybe, maybe, maybe. She was so sick of this! So tired of hiding and crying, and having people smile at her as though she was some sort of special case.

"She doesn't want anybody to know." Adele replied. The Doctor scoffed, and she heard footsteps- un-mistakably his swagger.

"You humans are all the same, hiding from the tru- oh hello there."

"Get out." Owen's voice ordered coolly. "And take that box thing with you. Just get out and stay away from her."

"What is it with the guns?" The Doctor asked nobody in particular.

She'd hidden behind so many people, Jack, Donna, Ianto, Wilf... so many. Why couldn't she face him herself? She needed to confront her fears. If she did, the sleepless nights and the secrets might leave her be.

"We do what we need to, now leave." Owen commanded.

Her heart was racing, and her stomach felt jumpy and erratic- was she really about to do this?

"Look, I come in peace, I just want to speak to your genius." The Doctor begged. "I promise I'll keep her safe."

The words hung in the air like balloons. Keep her safe. Keep her safe. Keep. Her. Safe. Keep her safe?

She'd had enough.

"FINE!" She bellowed, jumping to her feet, and turning to face him, ignoring the look of surprise on his bespectacled face. "YOU WANT ME? WELL HERE I AM!"

With her heart pounding in her chest like a drum, she marched up the steps towards him.

Please review for the next chapter's release, because I'm that evil :)