Another forty minutes passed before the line finally began to dwindle down. Ianto's hand was stiff from the constant signing. It was a good thing, too, since at least no one could claim to be able to read what he wrote.

"Oi, I'm tired," Gwen complained as she stood up and stretched. "Starving, too." Ianto nodded in agreement. Their breakfast seemed like ages ago. Burn mentioned something about food in the green room, so they followed him back through the ops area to the room he mentioned. A lot of the crew members who were at the convention were already there, grabbing food off the platters scattered about the room.

"What's with you three," Burn asked as he watched them grab their food and sit on a sofa together. "You guys have been joined at the hip since yesterday. Aren't you sick of one another?"

"What's wrong with enjoying one another's company?" Jack asked as he took a bite out of his sandwich. He was wondering when someone was going to notice that they never left one another's sides. Ianto shrugged, ignoring Burn's comment as he dug into his potato salad. He really didn't care what anyone thought.

"I really don't want to go see that bloody play," Burn grumbled as he sat down in a chair near them, eating food from his plate. "I can't be arsed. I mean really. It's usually some ham handed romance or something beyond silly with cheesy fan monsters. It's embarrassing, really."

"Oh, they have so much fun, though," Naoko said as she overheard Burn's comment. "I think it's cute."

"You would," he said with disgust. "Well, I guess I shant complain too much since they're paying us to be here. But you'd think they'd come up with something original occasionally."

Ianto was amused at the conversation. "It could be worse. What if you were in an alternate reality where Torchwood was real and you had to fight your way through each day?" Jack snorted his drink at Ianto's comment and Ianto had to thump him on the back as he coughed. Gwen just shook her head at the two of them.

"Wouldn't that be a cock up?" Burn laughed. "I wonder if I'd be dead there? Probably would be, wouldn't I? I'd be rubbish chasing monsters in real life."

Ianto looked down at his plate. "Oh, I don't know about that. I bet you'd be rather good at it, actually."

"Yeah, that's me, King of the Weevils and all," Burn said with a laugh. "Guess it's something." He stood up and moved off to find more food, Naoko following him. Ianto took the opportunity to check the monitor and was gratified to see that there was a lot more activity going on.

"Jack, I think we're getting close," he murmured, showing him the face of the monitor while Gwen looked on. "The hard part is going to be getting a pin point of where it will open in the hotel, as well as getting to it."

"We're going to have to slip away at some point, " Jack said with a nod. "Kind of hard to do when you're the main characters and everyone's watching you."

"Wait a minute, I have an idea," Gwen said. She picked up her plate and walked over to a table. Leaving her plate behind, she made her way over to where several of the security members were milling around in their UNIT uniforms.

"That still cracks me up, you know," Jack said, indicating the UNIT patrol with his chin. "Martha would kill herself laughing if she ever saw them."

"I could imagine she would," Ianto said. "You know that they had UNIT uniforms for sale in the dealer's room?"

"Oh but Ianto, I only want the real thing for you," Jack said, resting his hand on Ianto's knee. They laughed, sharing a private moment together. The broke apart when Gwen came back towards them, young Charles Grange in tow.

"Jack, Charles has promised to assist us in our secret mission," Gwen said with a smile. The young man stared at her with his mouth hanging open. It was obvious he had a crush on her. "I told him that we would need his assistance with a rift spike, and he's all too happy to assist."

Ianto rolled his eyes. Only here could she tell him the truth and have him believe it. If only the young man knew that it was really true!

"What do I have to do?" The young man asked, eager to assist. This was the best convention ever, he thought to himself. Not only did he get to spend most of his time with the principal cast members, but they were treating him just like a team member. He loved role playing, and this had to take the cake. Just wait until he got home and updated his LJ blog. No one would believe it!

"Come here, Charles," Jack said, moving over and patting the sofa between him and Ianto. Charles nearly tripped over the table in his excitement, and Ianto had to steady him as he made his way to the sofa. "Tell him, Ian." Ianto shook his head. This was insane.

"Well you see, Charles, here's the thing." He picked up the portable rift monitor and showed it to him. The young man's eyes grew huge as he saw that Ianto's monitor showed all sorts of lights and images, as if it really worked. "I've been monitoring a set of spikes that have been going on today. There's one particular signature I'm looking for. When it comes, we're going to have to move swiftly to get to wherever it is. Do you think you can help us get away and over to wherever the rift spike shows up?"

"Sure thing," Charles said with enthusiasm. "Do you think it's going to happen soon?"

"We're not sure. But we have to be ready," Ianto said.

Charles nodded eagerly. "That's right, it is the 21st century, and we've got to be ready," he said, repeating something as if it were a well known phrase. Jack shrugged behind Charles' back at Ianto. "You can count on me, sirs!"

"Good, good," Jack said, patting Charles on the back. "What do we have coming up?"

"Well, there's the fan play next, followed by some more panels into the evening. I think you're all on the Torchwood After Dark panel, and then there's the concert by Willy and The Weevils. That should be a lot of fun." Ianto shook his head and grinned. He could only imagine.

"What do we have to do for the play," Jack asked.

"Just be there and watch it," Charles said. He looked from one to the other of the cast members as they all watched him. It was strange being the center of attention. They were treating him like a real person, like he mattered. It felt really nice. He was so glad he signed up for security detail for this con.

"Well, that can't be too hard, then. Think you can put us someplace where we can slip out if we need to?" Jack asked. Charles nodded eagerly. "Great. Listen, have you eaten yet? This is good food, you should have some."

"Oh, this isn't for me, it's for all of you," Charles protested. Gwen overrode his protests and pulled him to his feet. She then tugged him over to one of the tables and stood there while he made a selection of food to eat. His fellow security members looked on with envy as he got to eat the same food the cast and crew got. They weren't allowed to eat in the green room, but obviously Charles didn't have a choice with Eve Myles insisting he eat.