It was late evening when Miranda had completed her autopsy of Jessica Rees and the xenopsy of the alien parasites. The rest of the team had spent the the whole day chasing down random hits on the facial recognition. Toshiko's program had turned up a number of them throughout the day. If Gareth Harding's face appeared on any camera in the city, it would trigger an alarm. The program was far from perfect because the cameras and their angles were far from perfect. None of the matches were spot on but they were investigated anyway. Each one had proven to be a false lead and everyone was beginning to get frustrated. Four people were dead and if they didn't catch up with Gareth Harding soon, there would be another body tomorrow.

Now, the Torchwood team minus one were gathered in the boardroom. There was no friendly banter over the soda can between Ianto and Miranda. The Chinese take away had been put into the Hub fridge, barely touched.

Without waiting for Jack's usual preamble, Miranda started to speak from her place at the foot of the table. "I completed the autopsy of Jessica Rees and the xenopsy of the parasites a few hours ago. There are a number of samples I'm going to have Fish process when he returns."

Miranda twisted in her chair. Her hands weren't steepled in front of her but folded in her lap.

"There were a lot of changes to Jessica Rees's body but her autopsy was unremarkable. Given her profession and the fact that she was living on the street, she was in good shape. There was no evidence of sexually transmitted disease. As for the changes to her body, there are a lot of unanswered questions there. Her DNA is unchanged. Her systems and tissues are no different than anyone else's. I have no idea how she's achieved the greater speed or endurance we saw."

"Any theories there, Will?" Jack asked.

"It's possible the parasite is inducing a heightened state of fight or flight," Miranda said with a shrug. "It's inconsequential."

"I don't think so Miranda," Gwen said. "The biology behind it maybe but if the parasite's doing it, it's important. Didn't she say that we were learned?"

"What are you after, Gwen?" Jack asked.

"Well, think about it. You learn something, you get better at it," Gwen said.

"The other parasite's been in his host for a hundred years," Ianto said. "He'll have a greater understanding of the human body, its limits and its capabilities."

"Which means he may have more speed and strength than we saw displayed in Jessica Rees." Miranda sighed and muttered an ancient curse under her breath.

"Ianto, I'm going to be taking point tonight," Jack said.

Ianto nodded and made no move to protest as Gwen and Jack debated back and forth whether or not Gareth Harding's strength and speed would reach super human qualities. Miranda wondered if there would be a protest made after hours about Jack's decision to take the lead tonight rather than have the two men searching jointly. She thought it unlikely.

If Jack had given the same order three years ago, Ianto would have made a polite and professional protest in the meeting followed by a more vocal one after hours. Miranda shared the Hub with the two men and was privy to far more details about their personal lives than Gwen or Fish. She'd overheard a number of arguments between them about Jack's overprotectiveness of his lover. But as the years had worn on, Miranda watched as Ianto Jones changed his tune. The protests in front of the team became less frequent and then stopped. The arguments after hours became less vocal and now they also were infrequent. Ianto had been a Torchwood field agent for four years and it was a job title with a painfully short life expectancy.

Miranda didn't want to glance down the table at Gwen, who was now past the five year mark, when most Torchwood field agent's were killed. Only one Torchwood agent had survived past it - Tabitha Rutherford who died in the line of duty having served Torchwood for seven years and four days. Even though Jack and Miranda had instituted the so called 'Warder's Orders', the mortal members of the team still had close calls. Fish's recent hospitalisation was case in point and Miranda often wondered who's luck would run out first. While Jack, Gwen and Ianto continued to theorise about Gareth Harding's strength and speed and its impact, Miranda spared a thought towards Ianto Jones's latent immortality.

When Jack and Ianto had shown up at her home three years ago, uninvited and unexpected, Miranda had felt the pressure behind her forehead and eyes. It was the faintest hint of the immortal potential within the young Welshman. Miranda had decided not to say anything and to allow Ianto's first death to occur naturally. But she had placed a time limit on her silence - Ianto's thirtieth birthday, which would occur next August. No one knows how fast a year can pass better than someone who's seen four thousand of them. Miranda knew that date would be here before she knew it and she would need to make a decision. But that day is not now…

While she had been distracted, the others had finished their discussion and were now looking at her expectantly.

"Sorry, woolgathering," she said. She tapped the tablet in front of her, bringing up a picture of the parasite.

As Miranda rubbed at her stinging eyes, she said, "After I'd finished the autopsy, I examined the parasite in situ and then removed it as best I could. There were dozens of structures extending between the parasite and her brain. The scanner only picked up the larger structures. There is absolutely no way we could remove this parasite with today's technology and surgical methods. An infected person would never survive such a procedure."

"I've never heard of any parasite like this," Jack said, squinting at the picture a bit. "And there aren't a lot of sentient parasitic species out there."

"Torchwood has never encountered anything remotely like it," Ianto said. "Obviously, it's not the first parasite we've come across but it certainly is the first sentient one."

"How extensive is the brain damage, Will? You said she was in a vegetative state?"

"Not only was the parasite taking up considerable real estate inside the skull, it had burrowed into her brain. There are dozens of tendrils that had dug into her brain like roots from a tree. The brain damage wasn't made haphazardly. The parasite knew exactly which parts of her brain it could destroy and which parts it needed to keep," she said, twisting in her chair a bit.

"Christ, it knew exactly how to use her," Gwen whispered.

"Your original assessment was correct, Gwen. It was using Jessica Rees as a puppet. I don't think it was able to access her brain though. Anything it knew about humans and human society was learned," Miranda said. "The parasite itself is composed almost entirely of neurologic tissue. It is a true parasite for us. Unlike the hitchhikers, which are marginally beneficial, I don't think it's possible for us to co-exist with this species. They appear to be geared towards two goals - infestation and reproduction. There are structures here and here where I found this species equivalent of testicles and ovaries. They are hermaphroditic. This large sac here contained hundreds of fertilized eggs. It looks like they fertilize in a single mating, hold the fertilized eggs within and disperse them through this tube at a rate they feel their host can handle. The good news is that this parasite seems completely dependent upon us after infestation."

"How completely?" Jack asked.

"I mean, completely. If we had the technology and methods to remove the parasite, it wouldn't survive outside of the human body. It was even using Jessica's heart to keep its own circulatory system running," Miranda said, twisting in her chair a bit.

"I'm amazed it survived to drop through the rift and infest someone," Ianto asked, frowning. "I think you're both right. I think the bloody thing changes hosts when it changes life stages. There must be some sort of mechanism to keep the parasite alive while it searches for something new to infest. That's when it must have fallen through the rift."

"That's a pretty specific set of circumstances," Jack said. "It's probably why we haven't seen more of them."

"Maybe this is the only stage that can survive here?" Gwen asked.

"That would be the best case scenario," she said. After a brief pause, she continued. "I examined the developing parasites last. They appear to have died before the adult. There are signs that the adult parasite was reabsorbing them as it starved. And this is where I'm concerned with regards to our current situation."

"What do you mean, Will?" Jack asked.

"The adult parasite needs the fluid its been draining from its human victims. Since it couldn't feed, as a measure of last resort, it cannibalised its own young. Whatever the adult needs, the developing parasites need, probably in greater supply since they are growing. Up until now, we've been dealing with a non-gravid, single adult parasite."

"And now we're dealing with a parasite that needs to feed probably up to twelve developing parasites. Christ," Ianto said, shaking his head.

"We're going to start seeing more bodies, Jack," Gwen said, alarmed. "Either they'll come closer together or we'll start seeing two or three at a time, maybe more. Should I circulate Harding's picture to the police now?"

Jack shook his head. "Let's hold off on that until after tonight, Gwen. If we nab him, we won't have to risk retconning any of the police. All right everyone, we go back to Bute Park tonight. I want to start at midnight on the west side of the river. Gwen, Miranda, that car park is big and pretty empty, the SUV will stand out too much. Draw straws or whatever for who's car we'll use tonight. I want you all to go and get a few hours of sleep. See you at midnight."

"A word, Jack?" Miranda said, not looking up.

Gwen and Ianto both left the board room looking weary and eager to get out of the line of fire. The immortal woman's voice had the distinctive tone to it that they'd all learned over the past few years. She was about to tell Jack something he wouldn't like.

"Make it quick, Will," he said. "I want to get a few winks myself."

"We've never seen anything like this, Jack. I'm going to add it to my long list of research projects," she said with a sigh.

"You don't need my permission to take on a new research project, Will," Jack said, a little impatient.

"No, but I do need your permission to send Gareth Harding's body to UNIT after we catch him," she said and then held her hand up to stop him from protesting. "UNIT has far more man power than we do. They have an entire team of xenobiologists who will be able to research this far better than I can on my own."

Jack was silent for a bit, considering Miranda's very valid point. She was his medic and his second in command and already had more than a dozen research projects going. She didn't just have a lot on her plate, her plate was overflowing.

Almost as if reading his mind, she said, "Jack, I don't want to hand it off completely. I will do my own research but this species needs to be examined far more thoroughly than I can manage. The level of threat that this species represents is terrifying. Gareth Harding has existed among our society for a century, other factors notwithstanding, he has gone unnoticed. They're intelligent. They're adaptive. They're long lived and have the capacity to extend host life. Their potential for population growth alone is astounding. These two parasites could have potentially given birth to twenty four offspring. Twenty six turns into seven hundred which turns into half a million-"

"I get the picture, Will," Jack interrupted, raising a hand to his forehead and sighing. "I'd rather not hand over the entire body."

"Martha Jones will keep me in the loop," she said. "We don't need to hand the body over to them and let them have a field day with it. It will defeat the purpose of having UNIT step in to only give them a few pieces of the puzzle."

Jack didn't answer her. The potential for exploitation existed with any agency that dealt with aliens or futuristic technology and right now every single way the parasite could be exploited was running through Jack's head. Maybe it was egotistical, but Jack knew what was best and most of the time that meant learning what they could and then locking it away as if it never existed. Sadly, Jack didn't trust other agencies to be able to make that call. He would've been fine with supplying UNIT with samples but the entire body? Jack was a smart man and knew that it wasn't easy putting together a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box. He also knew that figuring out what that picture was supposed to be was even harder when huge chunks of the puzzle were missing. But she had a point, this threat outweighed the risks.

"There's going to have to be some guidelines and a lot of rules," Jack said.

"We can discuss the specifics later, Jack," she said. "We also need to arrange for all alien agencies, worldwide to know about this threat and to know what to look for."

"Agreed," Jack said without hesitation. "Whether or not they listen to us is a different story, Will."

"I know but at least we can say we tried," Miranda said as she got up from her chair. "I'll be in my rooms. Sleep well, Jack."

"You too, Will. I'll see you later," he said as he left the boardroom, waving over his shoulder.

Gwen's purse was still on her workstation but the former PC was no where in sight. Jack guessed she had retreated down to the staterooms for a quick kip. He crossed the main Hub and into his office. Once he was down in the bunker, he saw Ianto hadn't changed his clothes. He was sitting up in bed, barefoot, in his trousers and dress shirt. The shirt was mostly unbuttoned, the cuffs rolled up. Jack sank down onto his side of the bed with a grunt.

"Will wants to give Harding's body to UNIT," he said, irritated.

"She's right you know," Ianto said.

"You knew about this didn't you?" Jack asked as he dumped his boots onto the floor with a clunk.

"She asked me whether she thought she should bring it up in front of me and Gwen and I told her it was best you discussed it in private, that's all, Jack," Ianto explained.

"Are you going to go off on me about me taking point tonight?" Jack asked as he slid off his braces.

Ianto shook his head and shifted down the bed. He rotated his pillow and started to push on the sides, plumping it. "No. It makes the most sense. The washrooms are cramped. There's more potential for something to go wrong."

Jack laid down on top of the blankets and punched his pillow a few times by the corners. He kissed Ianto briefly and the rolled away from him. Ianto's arm slid around his waist and soon the two men were spooned against each other in their usual sleeping position. Jack lifted his head slightly, giving Ianto a sidelong glance over his shoulder. "You'll be careful tonight, right, Yan?"

Ianto dipped his head and kissed the back of Jack's neck, just above his collar. "Of course, I will, Cariad."

Jack wriggled against Ianto, settling into the embrace. He laid his head back down on the pillow and closed his eyes and then opened them again. "Hey, Yan? That vacation we took last year was nice. I thought we could have one this year too."

"Sounds nice," Ianto said, a little sleepy. He brought his legs up into Jack tighter.

"Anywhere you'd like to go?" Jack asked. "You know, just for a few days?"

Ianto felt himself falling asleep and he missed the overly innocent tone to his lover's voice.

"Doesn't matter," he mumbled into the back of Jack's neck. "You said you wanted to go to Barcelona."

"The planet, not the city," Jack said. "There must be somewhere you've always wanted to go."

"Rome, but not just a few days," Ianto mumbled, tugging Jack into him tighter. "Cold."

Jack pushed lifted himself up despite Ianto's grunt of protest and dragged the small throw from the foot of the bed over them.

"Better?" he asked.

Ianto sleepily tugged Jack into him.

"Am, now," he whispered once Jack had settled back against him.

Jack smiled as Ianto's breathing evened and the young man drifted off to sleep. Jack, a trained soldier, could once fall asleep at will but now, sleep often eluded him and when he did sleep, he found he didn't need much. Miranda didn't sleep much either and Jack wondered if it was a byproduct of immortality. More and more, Jack was learning the implications of his immortality and, unlike Miranda who could die at the stroke of a sword, Jack's immortality seemed to have no loophole.

Laying there in the darkness, Jack listened to Ianto sleep. He allowed himself to feel a small amount of bittersweet gratitude that his lover would never have the burden of centuries of life's troubles to keep him awake at night. He pushed the thought back in his mind along with the pang of sadness that followed it. He would treasure every single moment he could spend with Ianto Jones no matter how small or simple and right now that meant being able to fall asleep in his Welshman's arms. Jack closed his eyes and cleared his mind and let the sound and feel of Ianto's breathing carry him to sleep.