"I don't know," John moped. "I just wish we knew what caused it."

After years as a time agent, Jack was pretty sure of what had happened; his job had been to prevent situations exactly like this one. Still, he knew he couldn't sound all that knowledgeable, or John was going to start asking questions he didn't particularly want to answer. "Hey," he said, "maybe what happened is like a movie I saw once. Someone went back in time and changed just one little thing, and that caused the whole world to change."

Jack got up and started pacing - or rather almost prowling - the front room. "It was just like this, people and things disappeared because something in history changed and threw things out of kilter."

Jack wondered how this could affect things between himself and the Doctor. 'Man', he thought. 'What I wouldn't give for my manipulator right now.' Unless the Doctor showed up he could be stuck here indefinitely. That is, unless he was already here. Maybe a little prodding, Jack thought. "I have no idea how we can fix this if that's what has actually happened. We may have to adjust to all this and start over again with our lives.

"Don't be ridiculous!" John shouted. "We can't just leave things as they are. We have to figure out how to fix this!"

"OK brainiac, what do we do?" Jack shouted back at him.

"I don't know!" John slumped on the couch. "We don't even really know what's going on or how much of this world is what we expect it to be. I mean, there seem to be an awful lot of policemen about, and they're acting like soldiers. What if this is some sort of alternate future where England is a police state?" He thought for a moment. "Hang about, this is your house."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"So how is it that you and I are the only ones who know that something's different, but you are still in your house, and I woke up under a bridge?"

"Well, that's simple, it's because... because... I have no idea why."

John nodded, his mind beginning to turn. "All right, let's analyze this. Why did you move here?"

Jack knew he couldn't give John the whole answer, but a partial answer was still the truth. "Because my wife left me, and I didn't want to rattle around the old place."

"Right. It had nothing to do with Sarah Jane. And Lavinia still lives in her house, too. I, on the other hand, probably would have wound up on the streets if she hadn't rescued me that day. So the world seems to be the world that would be if Sarah Jane didn't exist. Or at the very least, whatever's changed resulted in a world where she doesn't." He sat up. "You said there are other things and people missing."

Jack weighed how much to tell John, and ultimately decided he would find out most of it on his own. "Yes," he said, "but it's much more than that. You're right that it's pretty much a police state out there. Travel in and out of the country is restricted because of dangerous plagues, and the police are checking people looking for aliens."

Jack pulled the curtains aside and looked out the window for a moment. "Everything is out of place from the way I remember it. I went over to see you and Sarah Jane's aunt gave me about the same treatment you must have got. That old lady's living in total fear, but I don't know why. So I came back here and turned on the TV, and believe me, THAT was an eye opener. That's when I realized everything had gone off kilter. I was heading over to Harry's place when I spotted you. You know the rest from there."

John swallowed hard, still several sentences back. "Did you say … aliens?"

Jack nodded. "Aliens, and worse. Apparently there are aliens masquerading as humans, and now everyone has to be identifiable and carry papers to prove they belong here. But it goes much further than that. You've probably been too busy to notice, but there aren't any insects at all, which is probably why there are food shortages. You have to have your papers to pick up your weekly food supply or you can't get any."

Then, of course, there was the big picture, and Jack wasn't sure how much to say about it. Finally he settled on another partial answer. "Like I said, there's places I don't remember and some of the ones I do remember are gone. I have no idea how many people don't exist anymore and who all of them are. I'm telling you everything has gone crazy overnight."

"You can say that again," John said. "We've got to find the epicenter of all this." He stood and swayed, almost passing out.

Jack caught him and lowered him to the couch. "Are you OK? Should I call a doctor?"

"I'm all right, just tired, I guess," John said, leaning forward and trying to get some blood back in his brain. "I think I just stood up too fast."

Jack nodded skeptically. "Have you eaten at all today?"

"No," John shook his head, "and I'm not sure, but I may be starving."

"Well, then, as soon as you can stand up, let's go talk this over in the kitchen. I may have the last dozen eggs on the planet right now and I think we better get rid of them as fast as we can. And then you need to get some sleep."

They headed into the kitchen, and Jack opened his fridge.

"Seems pretty well stocked, Jack." John said, sitting down at the kitchen table. "What is it you do for a living, again?"

Jack laughed. "I used to know what I did up until this morning, but right now I think I may be unemployed."

"Not with a food supply like that, unless you're really a black marketeer."

"Hardly, although with the food I have now, I could go into that line until I run out of supplies. Let's just keep this our secret for now, OK? I'd hate to try and explain all this to the law." He pulled out a pan and placed it on the stove. "Now that I think of it, I think I'm going to stash all the non perishables right after we eat, while you get some sleep. If we ever get the real Harry back he'll have my head if I let you go on the way you look right now."

John couldn't keep himself from yawning. "It has been a long day," he said. "But we've got to figure this out and get Sarah Jane back."

"You're not going to get anybody back if you're in the hospital, or worse," Jack said, expertly cracking six eggs into a bowl and whisking them while the pan heated up.

By the time they'd finished eating, they'd formulated a plan. John would see if he could build something to look for temporal fluctuations, hoping it might lead them to the epicenter of whatever was happening. There was just one flaw in the plan. They'd have to go out for parts, and it was already too late in the day for anything to be open.

"That means," Jack said, "that you get some sleep, and in the morning you can make me a list."

"But I -"

"No arguments," Jack said, pointing to the couch, which he'd already pulled out into a bed.

John grumbled all the way there, but the fact that Jack had to keep him from falling over from exhaustion didn't help his case, and before he could argue, he was asleep.

Jack pulled over a chair and put his feet up, watching John sleep for a while. Until he knew more, he wasn't going to go barging into the hub.

Because from what he'd seen, this version of Torchwood was much more dangerous than he'd expected. And much, much more powerful.

But that was a problem for tomorrow. Tonight, he had enough of a problem to deal with right here on his couch.