We pulled up on the side of the street. Outside, it was bright and sandy, the sun beating down. I could feel the heat from inside the car. It was bustling with people shopping and wandering and eating ice cream, and I smiled.

"Urgh, twenty seven hundred miles. Man, am I sick of your ugly faces," Rex moaned as we hopped out of the car happily. "Anyone got change for the meter? Last thing we need with a stolen car is getting a ticket."

"Good point, Rex," I nodded. "But I have no money whatsoever."

"No coins." Jack shrugged.

"No, I've only got plastic," Esther added. "You said no plastic." I grinned and followed Gwen up a small bank by some palm trees. The ocean was right there in the distance, rolling blue and white.

"Wow, look at the horizon!" Gwen exclaimed. "We've reached the edge of America."

"Decades since I saw the Pacific. Must be about seventy years." Jack chuckled.

"I was here in 2029, just after the hundredth anniversary of the Oscars," I added. "That was a good night."

"Are you kidding when you say things like that?" Esther asked with bewilderment.

"Oh ho ho!" Jack laughed. "I wonder."

"So, where's PhiCorp from here?" Gwen asked.

"Uh, maybe about… ten miles that way," Esther replied. "Technically it's another city. PhiCorp headquarters is in Los Angeles, and we're in Venice."

"We need to find somewhere to hide while we plan the assault." Jack said, and turned away, walking back towards Rex and the car.

"Can't we stay here by the sea?" Gwen called after him. "Not some stinking, dirty pit for once, Jack? Please?"

A little later, we headed to an apartment Jack had organised for us to see. It felt very domestic, and I wasn't sure that I like it much. That opinion must have shown in my expression, because Jack started talking to me in my head as we climbed the flight of stairs.

"You've got that face."

"What face?"

"The face I always imagined the Doctor would have if Rose made him settle down."

"Well… it's all very homely, Jack."

"What, with all that Torchwood tech in there?"

"No, not the actual place. I mean going to view it."

"I see. You are just like your Dad."

"That's good."

"Exactly." We entered the room, which was fairly large and open. The kitchen led into the living area, but everything had white sheets over it. I didn't like it, but then again, I didn't dislike it either.

"Well, I'm not gonna pretend, it ain't nirvana," the man showing us the apartment sighed. He was big and very tough-looking, all in leather with a bandana. "But if you want somewhere with no questions asked, this is all I got."

"I usually live in a police box, this is nothing." I replied, examining the scenery out the window.

"As long as it's got electricity and a roof, this is all we need." Rex said, frowning at me slightly. That was beginning to become a habit.

"Hot water would be good!" Esther called from somewhere behind me.

"I don't suppose it's any good asking who you are?" The man asked.

"We're travelling circus folk." Jack replied cheekily.

"Yeah, and he's the clown." Rex chuckled.

"I'm the bearded woman, but I've shaved." Gwen added.

"Yeah, you missed a bit!" Jack called.

"You know what, I think we should actually do this circus." I joked. Jack smirked at me before turning back to the man.

"Cash in hand," he said. "And there's more of that tomorrow as long as you don't tell anyone we're here. If anybody does ask, you let us know straight away."

"Sure thing," the man replied grudgingly as he took the notes and turned to leave. "By the way, if you get hungry there's a café on the corner does a guava jalapeno cheese tart that's just fabulous. Laters." I smiled as I watched him stroll out through the door, the others looking bemused. I loved it when people kicked stereotypes right in the face.

"Fabulous?" Rex sniffed, turning to Jack. "What is it with you, you make everybody around you gay?"

"That's the plan." Jack replied darkly, and winked at me.

"Watch out, Rex. You'll be next." I grinned.

"Yeah, he wishes." Rex smirked.

"OK, now we can use this place as our delivery address, we can order that spare server," Esther began, slipping straight into professional mode. "Then we start in on PhiCorp, but the first thing we've got the do is lift out the security profile."

"Right." I nodded. As we settled down, removing some of the sheets from the furniture and unpacking our own kit, Gwen's phone started to ring.

"Oh, sorry, uh got to take this," she spluttered with embarrassment. "Sorry. Um, yeah. I just… sorry."

"Rhys." I stated to Jack once she'd left the room. He nodded curtly, and turned back to the laptop in front of him.

"Sorry, Rhys," Gwen said as she walked back in half an hour later. "Sorry."

"We've all got family," Esther replied quietly. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can see them."

"Yep." I murmured. I could feel Jack's eyes on me and a slight soothing thought in my head.

"OK, what do you need me to do?" Gwen asked.

"Right there."

"Well, this PhiCorp raid means we need to lift out the security protocols on Jilly Kitzinger's files. Think you can do that?" Rex ordered.

"Mm hmm. Got Torchwood software ready and waiting." She nodded, settling herself at the indicated laptop.

"There is a lot of…" The whiney voice of Oswald Danes sounded into the room.

"Jack, really?" I grimaced.

"You're obsessed with this bastard." Gwen spat.

"I'm gonna put a permanent trace on him so we always know where he is." Jack said, staring at the news feed on the opposite wall.

"What about Kitzinger, did we find anything more on her?" Esther asked.

"She's freelance," I began. "She's been working with PhiCorp for about six months. She's good, but I don't think she's connected. She just happened to be at the right place at the right time."

"Just like Oswald," Esther nodded. "We're wasting our time tracking them."

"It's never a waste of time. 'Cause our greatest problem is that what's happened to the world is invisible," Jack said. "But quite by chance, Oswald's found himself right at the heart of it. George Eliot wrote this chapter in 'Middlemarch'. She said that if you take a piece of metal with random scratches all over it and hold a flame up to the metal, the scratches look like they're forming patterns, circling around the light. And that's Oswald. He's blazing away, and patterns are starting to revolve around him. And all we have to do is keep watching."

The next day we were still sat around in the new apartment/base, and I was beginning to get restless again. Being in one place wasn't healthy for a Time Lady.

"So, to recap there's over a hundred dedicated servers identical to that one inside the PhiCorp building, all containing corporate data," Esther was saying in front of the projection of her research on the wall. "But, according to Jilly Kitzinger's information, number one thirteen is a secure server accessible by only the highest corporate brass."

"That's our target." Jack said.

"And when PhiCorp says secure, they mean secure," she continued. "I have never seen firewalls like this before. Our only option is to steal number one thirteen, to physically take it, and cover our tracks by leaving a duplicate in its place."

"Which is empty?" Gwen questioned.

"So, we damage it. Fire damage," I suggested. "PhiCorp will think the information's lost, not stolen, and they won't overreact." A phone started ringing again.

"Oh, sorry," Gwen shook her head, reaching for it. "It's off."

"Alright, I can scout out the building. So how are you gonna get me inside?" Rex said authoritatively.

"Oh no, not you. This is a British job," I smiled, then paused. "Plus a Time Lord. Plus a fifty first century… scratch that, it's a job for us three."

"You're still on CIA lists, Agent Matheson," Jack clarified, smirking at me. "It's way too risky to pass you through security."

"And what makes you any better?" Rex snapped.

"Jack wiped us off the map, remember? He's got a piece of software that removes any reference to Torchwood online. There's no record of us, unlike you." Gwen explained.

"OK. Dead is dead, that's me, huh?" He sighed.

"Rex, you're a better strategist than any of us." Esther said, trying to lift his mood.

"I beg to differ!" I spluttered.

"Maybe you can figure out what to do next?" Esther continued, frowning at me slightly in disapproval. "Check this out. This is the IT centre where the servers are housed. Floor thirty three, maximum security, completely enclosed. We need to gain access, but it's restricted with some heavy duty biometrics. Only one man can gain total access. The man who designed it: Nicholas Frumkin."

"Well, what kind of biometrics?" Rex asked. "I mean, what level?"

"Every entry needs voice print, palm print, iris recognition… by him and him alone."

"OK. Then I know exactly what you need to do."

It turned out that Rex's plan was absolutely brilliant, and we put it into action immediately. Step one was to find Nicholas Frumkin and get his handprint, eye and voice from him. Simple enough. It was decided that the best way was for two of us to act like an all-American couple and stop him in the street. Esther found out that he, Mrs Frumkin and their baby daughter were on a family day out nearby, so the only thing left was to select two of us to carry it out. We decided on Jack pretty instantly, but there was a debate between Gwen and me for the wife. We ended up resorting to an accent war, and Rex and Esther declared me the winner. So, the day of the Frumkin outing was also the day of the Smith's public debut.

"Oh, hey!" Jack exclaimed as we reached the couple pushing a pram.

"Oh my gosh, look at her!" I added, leaning over the pram at the tiny little girl. "She is a beauty!" I could feel the Frumkin's discomfort straight away.

"Don't I know you?" Jack asked Nicholas as I cooed over the baby. "I swear we've met before. You're, um…"

"Nicholas."

"That's right, Nicholas Jackson, isn't it?"

"No, Nicholas Frumkin." Voice, check!

"Oh dear, I am sorry!" I injected with a cheesy smile. "My husband's always getting names wrong, aren't you honey?"

"Oh no, you must thing I'm an idiot!" Jack laughed. "But I think we met that night a few weeks ago, remember?"

"Was that the night you came home wasted, bumblebee?" I asked suggestively, raising my eyebrows at Mrs Frumkin.

"No, sweetie! Gosh, don't embarrass me in front of these lovely people," Jack replied cheerily. "John Smith, and this is my wife, Donna." The couple smiled politely.

"Your baby is just so amazing, she is just awesome!" I grinned.

"She's a keeper, isn't she?" Jack added.

"Do you mind holding that for me?" I asked, passing a silver flask to Nicholas. "Thank you so much. Look at you!" I said to the baby. "Wow! Oh, thank you, I must take that off you." I smiled and took the flask back. Handprint, check!

"Hey, doesn't she remind you of our little girl, pumpkin?" Jack said eagerly, tapping my arm. I glared at him for half a second.

"Oh yes!" I cried. "You should see her! Shouldn't they see her, cuddly bear?"

"We'd better be moving along," Nicholas tried as we fussed with Gwen's phone, trying to find a picture of Anwen. "It's lunch hour, you know, so…"

"Oh, there she is!" Jack exclaimed excitedly as we found one.

"That's fine, there she is," I repeated, showing the screen to Nicholas. "Her name is Amy Melanie Martha Sarah… Jane. We couldn't choose!"

"No!" Jack agreed, shaking his head with a happy smile.

"She's beautiful." Nicholas nodded.

"Thank you, I know! Look at her little face!" I grinned, forcing the phone an inch away from his nose. Eye, check! "So it was awesome meeting you."

"Yeah, you too. See you around." Nicholas said politely.

"Sure thing!" Jack replied.

"See you later," I smiled as they passed us. "Come on, my darling."

"Take care!" Jack called as we walked quickly in the opposite direction hand in hand.

"That was the best fun ever!" I giggled quietly.

"I know, right!" Jack chuckled. "Cuddly bear, though, Jen?"

"Shut up!"

Phase one of Rex's plan was complete thanks to mine and Jack's simply brilliant acting skills. I even suggested heading to the 1950s to bag ourselves roles in a couple of Hollywood classics, but Rex shot us down pretty quickly. Plus, I wouldn't admit it out loud, but the main reason might have been to find Dad. Anyway, after the brief celebrations of our success we moved on to phase two. For that, Jack, Gwen and me were going undercover, and that meant costumes. I refused at first, to which everyone raised their eyebrows and suggested that I would rather stay behind with Rex and Esther. Quickly, I backtracked and agreed to change my clothes. There was no way that I was about to let the others in on the action while I sat behind a computer screen. I didn't change my shoes, though. Jack knew that was never going to happen.

Esther fixed my hair into a quiff that morning and I reluctantly put on my tailored trousers and jacket. We'd compromised by wearing trousers long enough to just about cover my Converse. Gwen looked much smarter clip-clopping along beside me in her heels and dress, but I was comfortably strolling by the building. I decided that my footwear was far more practical.

"Here we go," Gwen murmured as we paused in front of one of the glass panels, checking our appearances. "Good luck." I smiled encouragingly at her and turned back to the door, striding in confidently as if I owned the place, just like Dad taught me.

"Can I help you?" The receptionist said as we reached him.

"Yes, we're here for the training sessions." Gwen replied.

"Your names?" He requested snappily.

"Amelia Noble." I smiled.

"And Yvonne Pallister," Gwen said, handing him two fake passports. "International sales."

"Only problem is, I don't see any training going on today." The man said suspiciously, scanning his computer screen.

"We got emails last night about it," I replied quickly, flashing him a smile. "It seems all very last minute, maybe it's not on your systems? Who was the email from, Yvonne?"

"Lorraine, in Human Resources." Gwen answered. The man scrutinised us.

"I'll call them." He said eventually.

"OK."

"Yeah, I have Yvonne Pallister and Amelia Noble down here," he began down the phone. "They say there's some kind of training… OK. Floor twenty one, go on up."

"Thank you."

"Thanks." We nodded, and continued to the lift. Once we'd stepped inside and turned back to face reception, I glanced at the man before the metal doors slid shut. He was rifling through a stack of papers and wasn't watching us.

"Good work, Miss Pallister." I said under my breath. Gwen smiled at me as the lift elevated past floor eleven.

We waited another few minutes once we stepped out of the lift. Jack would be joining us with the replacement servers up there, which was something else I made an argument about the day before. If I was allowed to wear my leather jacket that the TARDIS gave me, I could have easily fit those servers in the pockets. Time Lord Science. But apparently it just wasn't worth the risk and I wouldn't have looked the part and they would have been more suspicious and a whole load of other reasons Jack and Rex and Esther listed.

I heard the lift ding and the doors rumbled open.

"Hello, handsome." I smiled seductively as Jack pushed the boxes into the corridor.

"Love the uniform." Gwen added. I looked him up and down. He was wearing a dark green all-in-one suit, which looked kind ofOK, but I much preferred the coat.

"Look at you two!" Jack exclaimed, smiling a little as his eyes passed over us.

"How do you ever get anything done with us around, Captain?" I teased, poking my tongue at him.

"A lot of focus," he replied, and turned back to the boxes. "Come on."

"Oh, hold on," Gwen said as I began to follow him down the corridor. "Whoever wears heels to work is heroic. Why do women put up with these?" She held up one of her shoes dramatically. "Look at them!"

"And you wonder why I stuck with the Converse?" I giggled, holding her arm as she reached down to remove the other.

"The Fire Department's average response time is twelve minutes. When they arrive, Esther's gonna direct them to the fourteenth floor. That should buy us another five minutes before they start checking other floors," Jack said quickly. "Let's go, girls."

The next couple of minutes went by in silence. We'd planned it in so much detail that we didn't need to discuss as we went. First, we pushed the boxes around the corner and paused next to the smoke detector. I watched Jack light a scrap piece of paper so that the edge smoked a little, which he blew up to the device. Alarms immediately blared throughout the building, and I peeked into the corridor next to us to see workers rushing downstairs. Nodding as I turned back, we moved into the next corridor, which was exactly the one we needed. We stood outside the door and waited for Gwen to fake our way into the high security room.

"Please state your full name." The computer system's voice said.

"Nicholas Frumkin." Our recording played into the speaker.

"Please place your right hand on the sensors as indicated." Gwen slid her hand into the glove we'd made with Frumkin's print on and put it to the machine.

"Please look closely at the circle below." I tensed as Gwen moved closer to the sensor. That was the part we were anxious about, and I felt Jack's mind become nervous as we watched the scanner start.

"Access granted." I let out a heavy sigh of relief as Gwen turned to us.

"I never thought that would work." She said.

"We owe Rex one," I paused. "Don't tell him I said that, though." Jack smirked as the system unlocked the door. Inside, the room was large and very white. It was almost clinical, with rows and rows of metallic servers that looked like the filing cabinets Jack had at the old Torchwood hub.

"Server one thirteen." Jack said as we walked in and stopped next to one of the rows. I helped Jack remove the wooden panels from the sides of the boxes as Gwen opened number one thirteen, talking on her phone simultaneously. I stayed focused on the task at hand, not even talking to Jack in my head as we switched the servers.

"Good luck!" Jack called as he took the boxes and pushed them out of the room.

"Thanks!" I shouted back, not looking away from the servers in front of me.

"Thank you, go." Gwen added. We worked quickly and with determination, muttering numbers to each other for the server codes.

"655-321," Gwen whispered to me. "And 322… OK, 324."

"Right." I nodded. I wouldn't have looked away from the wires if I hadn't noticed the loud smack next to me, and turned around to see Gwen knocked out on the floor, a greying man stood above us. I didn't get a chance to speak before I was hit too.

When I woke, I could feel tight ropes around my wrists and ankles and mouth, and my head was laid across the cool floor.

"Gwen! Jenny! Can you hear me?" I heard Jack yell suddenly, and he appeared above me. I smiled underneath the rope, and he ripped it off as soon as he reached down.

"Jack." I breathed, and he helped me sit up against the server cabinets.

"Are you alright?" He asked anxiously as he pulled Gwen up beside me and took the rope from her face. "Can you hear me, Gwen? Who did this?" Behind his shoulder, the man instantly appeared with a cold look in his eyes.

"Jack, behind you!" I cried inside his head. Jack span around easily and pulled out a gun, training it on the man before he could disarm him.

"Who are you?" Jack barked at him as they began to circle.

"Names aren't important right now." The man replied calmly.

"Oh great, he's cryptic." Gwen moaned.

"What do you want?" I asked, glaring at the man.

"Well, clearly you're dead." He said, switching his gaze between Jack and me. I quickly assumed that he believed me to be human.

"Then why am I still alive?" Jack asked.

"That's the point," the man said, and it worried me that he appeared to be taking command of the conversation. "It's gotta be said, Miracle Day's hardly been advantageous with those in my line of work. The day the killing stopped. But I can't tell you, Jack, Rose, how wonderful it is, how truly wonderful it is to meet people who are… mortal. It's my Holy Grail." I frowned.

"Rose?"

"I don't know, Jen."

"If we're the only ones who can die, then it's in your interest to keep us alive." I said.

"That's exactly what I'm doing," the man replied sarcastically. "Haven't you noticed the absence of killing? Because this fascinates me. I've been paid to eradicate you, but that only makes me wonder why. What makes you two so different?"

"I don't know." Jack snapped, still with his gun pointing at the man.

"And yet, you're the only ones left. The only true humans."

"OK then." I snorted.

"Jack, there's something weird about this."

"He thinks you're human."

"I know. But why?"

"If I knew, I would tell you," Jack continued aloud, both to me and the man. "I'm trying to find out the same thing myself."

"Yes I know, thank you," I heard Gwen hiss, and assumed Esther had sent her a message through the I5s. "Who employs you?"

"Don't you have any idea?" The man replied smugly. "They told me it was a very long time ago. Don't either of you remember?"

"Who?" Jack stammered. "Who told you that?"

"Do you remember something, Jack?"

"No, not right now."

"This would be so simple in the old days. Tell me what I want…" He said, moving closer to Gwen and me. In a second, he had ripped a knife from his jacket and pressed it next to the skin on Gwen's neck. "Or I'll slit her throat. I keep wondering during these miraculous days, would it be better or worse knowing that her pain will last forever?"

"Get off her, right now!" I screamed.

"Leave her alone!" Jack yelled. "Or I'll shoot!"

"Then tell me!" The man shouted back.

"We don't know." Jack said slowly.

"You're very special to them," he continued, the blade still held by Gwen's throat. "They trust me enough to tell me that. The infamous Jack and Rose,"

"Rose again."

"But I hear rumours of miracles yet to come, of a new society being forged here on Earth, and I'd like to guarantee my place," he leaned slightly forwards. "So tell me. What did you give them so long ago?"

"How long ago is so long ago? Do you mean linear time?" I asked.

"Is that debateable?"

"Yes."

"When?" Jack interrupted. The man paused.

"Tell me who's employing you." Gwen said seriously.

"You'll never stop them, for this is who they certainly are," the man said, running his knife across Gwen's cheek, making me tense. "They're everywhere. They are always. They are no one. They have been waiting for such a long time. Searching the world for a specific geography."

"What the hell does that mean?" Jack exclaimed.

"It means that they've found it," the man smirked, getting to his feet. I let out a breath as he placed the knife back in his pocket. However, in another second he'd revealed a new weapon. He pointed the gun right into Gwen's forehead. "And they've made it magnificent."

"Don't you dare!" I ordered through gritted teeth.

"Who are they?" Gwen asked bravely.

"They once had names," the man began. "Long ago. And those names-" A bullet shot dangerously close to Jack's head and into the man's neck, throwing him back into the other white wall. Blood splattered around him as his body slumped. I stared for a couple of seconds, before turning my head back to find the source: Rex.

"Oh, shit." He spluttered as he dropped to the floor too, clutching at his chest wound.

"He was just about to tell us!" Gwen cried.

"Thanks? Anybody, thanks?" Rex exclaimed, waving his arms weakly next to him.

"Don't you think I would have done that already?" Jack sighed, indicating his own gun.

"Well, he's not gonna die," Rex argued. "We can still get information."

"You shot him in the throat." I snapped.

"Yeah well, dead is dead."

"Anything yet?" Jack asked as he walked back into the base.

"Oh… it's gonna take days, weeks, but I'm rushing through a primary sift for basic patterns." Esther replied next to me. We were sat in front of a laptop with Gwen, researching news and the clues we'd got from the mystery man.

"Good morning." Jack said awkwardly as he noticed Rex in the room.

"Yeah." The ex-CIA man grunted.

"Thanks again for saving my ass yesterday." Jack continued.

"I was saving their asses," Rex replied, pointing at Gwen and me. "You were just gravy."

"I'm sorry I made such a mess of it." Esther muttered.

"That was your final warning." Rex said harshly.

"Rex." I warned. What Esther did was not the only thing that made our plan go a little awry.

"You give it any more thought? That maniac said it was someone you knew." Rex asked, ignoring me.

"Not that easy when you've lived through thousands of years." Jack replied.

"But it must have been something with you both together." Gwen reasoned.

"Yeah, that's the tricky thing about time travel," I said. "He says it was long ago, but for us, it might not even have happened yet."

"Going to keep talking that shit, huh?" Rex sighed.

"Yep!" I grinned. "But not that word, thanks."

"Got it," Esther interrupted, and Jack and Rex sat down with us. "First basic pattern: land prices, estimates dating back years and they're all linked to these construction plans."

"Plans for what?" Rex asked.

"They look like overflow camps." I murmured, examining the illustrations on Esther's screen.

"That's what they're calling them, for all the patients in ICU," she nodded. "Looks like PhiCorp's taking charge of them, like they own them. Sold some kind of strategy to the UN."

"PhiCorp and whoever else is behind them. But what the hell are they up to?" Gwen said.

"Whatever it is, I bet it ain't good." Rex shrugged just as a phone rang.

"Bollocks!" Gwen snapped at herself as she picked up her phone. "Bollocks!"

"Gwen Cooper, I expect that language from Rex, but not you!" I smiled.

"I am so so sorry. I have been so busy, I didn't ring you back," she began. "But look, I'm gonna call you back in half an hour, and that's a promise," she chuckled. "What scheme? Overflow camps? OK, Rhys, listen to me. Do not let them go. Do not let them take my father. I haven't got time to explain. Just… just bloody move!" I looked at Jack worriedly. "Then stop them. OK? This is bloody PhiCorp, Rhys, and they are up to something. Move! Don't let them go! Just get him back! Get him back now!" I jumped up and strode across the room to her at the same time as Jack. "They've got my Dad, Jack," she mumbled, and I could hear the tears being held back. "They've got my Dad."

LunaRoseDiCaprio: Got really behind schedule with this one.. Sorry! Busy couple of weeks, will try my best to get the next one done within a week :) Reviews will make me keep up better! ;) xx