A/N: An update! Life has been very hectic for me since I last updated, but that has ended and I shall work to finish the story (we're very close!). Thank you to all who have stayed with the story, you shall not be let down I promise. Standard disclaimers apply with the addition of spoilers for Children of Earth and the Outer Limits episode 'Ripper' (my own take and expansion on them) Enjoy!

"Damnit Doctor..." Max muttered under her breath. Just when she thought she had a handle on things the Doctor had to go and fuck it all up.

Evan set the gun on the counter and stood by it, not knowing what to say or even do. He had finally resigned himself to the fact that she wasn't coming back and then she appears out of nowhere. Knowing that they were going to have to get to it eventually, Evan ran a hand through his hair and walked towards her; sitting down on the other end of the couch. Taking a deep breath he asked, "When did you first start traveling with him?"

Max felt a wistful smile appear as she replied, "About two years before I came to Atlantis...it felt longer though."

"Why'd you go?" Lorne asked quietly. He still had to tell her what happened while she was gone.

"Honestly...I don't know. I guess that I needed to resolve some things I didn't even know needed to be." Max said, looking at her hands while speaking. Looking back on it, she realized that it hadn't been the best course to take off like that; without so much as a note explaining why but you couldn't undo what was already done.

Her travels with the Doctor had taught her than if nothing else.

"Did you get them resolved?"

Max turned to look at Evan and smiled softly, "I think I did." Standing she made her way towards the window and looked out over the night sky. Sighing softly, Max turned to face Evan while saying, "I'm sorry, I realize now that I shouldn't have taken off like that but you know the Doctor; there are so many possibilities with him. He could take you any where any place with a flip of a switch and is the most mysterious person you could ever meet. He just drops out of the sky to waltz into your life and gives you a taste of something you've never experienced before and how is it hard to say no when he offers to take you on a trip through time and space? He's an enigma in a riddle wrapped in a conundrum and the most fascinating man one person could ever hope to meet. You can be five thousand years into the future or five hundred years in the past and no matter where you go everything is happening for the first time." She gave a soft laugh, "I know it sounds silly but that's how I feel when I'm with him; the universe is his playground and anything can happen."

"Then why'd you stop?" The words were out of his mouth before he could stop himself from asking and he saw Max's eyes harden slightly before she looked out the window.

"That story requires a bottle of cheap booze and-" She was cut off by Evan's lips crashing into her.

Slightly taken aback, Max didn't know what to do until she felt herself responding back. Closing her eyes, she leaned against the wall as Evan kissed her neck and pulled her closer to him. "God I missed him." She thought to herself as she let him drag her to the couch.

Evan could see the fondness in Max's face when she talked about the Doctor but also knew that she was truly sorry. He also knew what she meant about the Time Lord; there was something about the man that made you want to follow him. But at the same time he realized how much he had missed Max when she was gone, that's why he kissed her.

No matter how angry he had been at her leaving, he loved her more.

Hitting the arm of the couch he lost his balance and fell over it, Max falling on top of him. They giggled and Max had to take a breath before shushing Evan, "We're gonna wake everyone."

A small grimace flashed across Lorne's face and he knew that the time had come for her to know. "Max…" he said, sitting up and looking at the floor; not knowing how to put it. "there's something you need to know."


Jack stared at the screen in front of him, not knowing if he could accept what he was reading. He could deal with the fact that the Doctor had been off an entire year in bringing them back, but this...

Everyone had done a good job of keeping the Rift from letting all hell breaking loose and dealt with some rather nasty stuff but it was the incident from six months ago that he had trouble getting over.

It had been a normal 'save the world from certain disaster' scenario; the aliens involved were noted for their use of biological warfare and this time was no different. Owen managed to identify the virus and create some kind of antibodies to fight the buggers but not until it was too late; he and Gwen had caught the virus and died before they could get the antivirus.

That's what it said on the official paperwork. However Jack had found Ianto's notes on the matter and saw that Owen had given his up so that Tosh could live.

While he was sad that he had lost two of his teammates, he was glad that Tosh had survived; she had always held a special spot in his heart. He had seen how bright she was and gave her a second chance when no one else would've.

But he also saw that those weren't the only casualties. Ianto's notes had told him the rest of the story; the virus had taken the Lorne twins as well.

Jack glanced through the rest of the notes and saw that they were in a tiny plot just outside the city limits instead of in a cryo-locker while the remainder of the children had been sent back to the States for their own safety as well as giving Lorne some much needed time to figure everything out (both personally and as the temporary head of Torchwood). Staring at the page, he could only start to guess at how Max was dealing with the news. To come back and not only find out that it was a year later but that her family had been decimated would be nothing short of devistating.

But Jack also knew that Max was tough and would bounce back from this. They all would.


"Stop! Torchwood!" Max yelled as she chased the figure running down the street. Running after the man she wondered where the hell Jack and the others were, they should have been here by now.

They were trying to track down an alien object and all signs pointed to the corporate section of the city. Tosh had figured out that the object was particularly dangerous and from the digging she had done it seemed that Habscorp, an international corporation, had gotten their hands on it and intended to use it to their advantage. If they managed to unlock it then the entire world could be in trouble and that was the last thing everyone wanted.

Spotting the man slipping into a construction site, Max followed while activating her headset. "Evan, Jack where the hell are you?"

"A bit tied up at the moment." she heard Evan reply. Then a chuckle and, "Although Lorne seems to enjoy it."

"Jack!" Max hissed as she entered the half-constructed building while pulling out her gun; now was not the time for the man to be flirting. "I'm at the construction site just off of Bute Street."

"Max, wait for us-"

"No. The courier has the information and this might be our only chance to grab it." Max replied as quietly as she could, trying not to make her voice echo across the empty space of concrete and plastic sheeting.

"Max-" Max turned off her earpiece cutting Jack off. They had an opportunity to get the information they needed to take down Habscorp before things got bad and she was going to take it.

Turning a corner, she spotted the man. "Hey!" she yelled, sprinting towards him and just as she rounded the corner a shot rang out and Max dived for the nearest pillar. Narrowly dodging the second shot, she rested against it and tried to spot where her quarry was instead of wasting bullets guessing (and it didn't help that everything echoed horribly). Another shot rang out and this time it hit the pillar she was hiding against, sending concrete chips flying. Heart pounding Max turned and fired three shots in quick succession, hoping that one of them would find its target. As she was moving back he fired again with the bullet founding its mark and digging into her shoulder.

Pain shot through Max's body and she took an involentary step back. Hearing footsteps, Max realized that he was coming for her and that she needed to stall until the calvary could arrive. Holding her breath, Max moved around the other side of the pillar, while pulling back the hammer on her gun as silently as she could. Knowing that she needed to move in order to draw things out, Max took a deep breath and pushed off the pillar in order to seek a new hiding place. However, before she could get any farther, a hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder; pulling her back. Instantly she went into fighting mode and jabbing her uninjured elbow into her attacker's solar plexus, Max caught him by surprise and broke free.

He recovered quickly and shoved Max to the ground while pulling out his gun. Max hit the ground hard and felt her gun slip out of hand, skittering across the concrete floor; she flinched and steeled herself for what was coming next. But before he could pull back the hammer, two shots rang out and Max opened her eyes to see her attacker on the ground with bullets in the back of his head.

"Nice timing." Max said as Jack and Evan reached her. She was coming down from the adrenaline rush with her arm feeling like it was on fire and it was all she could do to stay upright.

"I like to make a dramatic entrance." Jack replied as he made his way towards the body and started to go through the man's jacket, looking for the information on the box while Evan helped Max up. "Get back to the Hub so Martha can patch you up while I deal with this." He found the thumb drive that he was looking for and tossed it to Evan who caught it deftly. "And have Tosh decrypt this and figure out their plans."

"Will do."

As they left Jack knew that he'd have to talk with Max, this was the eighth time in the month since they've come back that she'd been injured or nearly died. It was becoming clear to him that she wasn't dealing with everything and it was getting to the point where she was becoming reckless, not caring at all if she got hurt in the process of taking the bad guys down.

Jack also knew that she wouldn't like it and would try to bluff her way out of it, but they had been through so much that it wouldn't work with him. If it came to it, Jack was prepared to kick her out of Torchwood until she could deal with everything.


"Gregory Swain, 23, and our latest victim." Martha said as she queued up the photo of the latest victim onto the screen in the board room. It had been a few months since coming back and she was finally settling into working for Jack and Torchwood.

Although things were going smoothly now, that first month had been hard. Her family had been thoroughly mad at her for taking off like that, and she didn't blame them, but in the end they were simply glad that she had come back in one piece. Now they were on speaking terms and Tish was even planning to come over for the weekend soon.

However things were rough for her, they had been even harder for Max. Even for Jack to a certain extent; both had come back to find their entire worlds turned upside down. Jack had found that Ianto had met someone new and married her a few weeks before they had shown up. Deep down he must have realized that Ianto wasn't going to wait forever, wondering if Jack would ever come back or not. And it seemed that Jack had come to terms with the fact that Ianto had found someone that made him happy and didn't want to ruin that.

"What do we know?" Jack asked, looking at the screen from his seat and wondering what a bright student from the University had in common with the other murders that seemed to be popping up all over the city.

"Same as the others. He went out with a group of friends, didn't show up for a few days and then turned up dead in his flat; girlfriend dead as well." Evan replied as Martha brought up the crime scene photos.

"Any connection?"

"Unclear." Martha replied, pulling up photos of the girlfriend's body which was mutilated as well as surrounded by shattered glass and blood. "From the looks of all the dried blood around the body, she'd been dead a few days. They ruled it a home invasion and think that whoever killed her also killed him."

"Then how is this our problem?" Jack asked, furrowing his eyebrows together while looking at all the different photos. There was something about all of this but he couldn't put his finger on it, like there was just one more piece of the puzzle that needed to be set into place for the whole picture to set it.

"All the victims were spotted at a trendy nightclub across town; each time their credit card was charged there was a spike in Rift energy and then again when they were killed." Tosh replied, pulling up a map of Cardiff and pinpointing each area where the bodies were found in relation to the club. "Here's where all of the bodies were found, there's no relation to the location; residential areas, the business district, even near the university."

"Any relation between victims?"

"Other than the club, so far nothing. I'm analyzing all of their computer records as well as financials as we speak." Tosh said as she tapped away quickly at her laptop as pages of information sped past the screen.

Jack looked at the screen for a few minutes, silent. Then he stood while saying, "Go over everything concerning the victims; I want to know if there's the slightest connection between them."


"Are you sure about this?" Max asked into her headset as she walked down the deserted street. She didn't mind being out, it was nice to be out at night, but what she did mind was being bait to lure what ever it was that was killing across Cardiff. True she had jumped at the chance to help, finally ready to get back in the swing of things since she had agreed with Jack and Evan to reduce her role at Torchwood for a time, but she didn't think that it would involve her wearing a dress and heels; walking around with the hope that she'd be attacked.

"Trust me." She heard Jack reply calmly. "Tosh is tracking your movements back at the Hub so we won't lose you, Martha's got her kit with so if you do get hurt she can patch you up and I'm here to be your shining knight in armor if you need rescuing."

"I'm sure that you'd love to fill that role." Max replied, ruefully smiling. Shaking her head she wondering how Jack could be so caviler about the whole thing. But then again he was pretty caviler about pretty much everything.

Coming to the end of the street Max realized that this would be her ninth block and her heels were starting to kill her feet. She had made an appearance at the club with Martha, both of them staying long enough for the killer to hopefully mark Max, then they left with Martha intentionally leaving right after they got out and Max heading towards a less populated area.

Pausing at the corner, she slowly surveyed the deserted area; it was that time between dead of night and daybreak, where the late night partiers were starting to leave the clubs and the early risers still had an hour or so before they got up. "There's nothing here, I'm coming back to the SUV." she said, looking down the deserted street. "Shouldn't you be pressuring Tom down at the club?" Max asked as she headed towards the car, which was parked down the block.

"He already knows that we're on to him, so it's only a matter of time before he slips up. Besides Lorne's keeping tabs on him at the club; if Tom so much as sneezes he'll let us know."

"G-" Max started to say but was cut off when something grabbed her and pulled her into the alleyway. Yelling she tried to fight off her attacker but was unable to break free. A rough hand clamped down on her mouth, silencing her, and pushed her towards the brick wall. The figure slammed her against the wall and held her there, no matter how hard she struggled. She then felt the other hand close around her throat and start to squeeze. Heart pounding, she realized that Jack might not reach her in time.

Jack was out of the SUV in a flash and ran towards the alley, gun out and ready should the need arise. "Max!" he yelled as he neared the alley and rounded the corner to see two figures struggling. "Let her go!" Jack said as he raised his gun and pointed it at them.

The pressure around her windpipe eased slightly and Max realized that her attacker had been caught by surprise and she needed to use that to her advantage. Pushing hard, she tried to catch him off balance but the killer had recovered from the distraction by then and pushed her back against the wall. Head slamming into the brick wall, Max's vision swam and she felt her knees buckle.

Jack was about to pull the trigger when Max collapsed to the ground. Momentarily distracted, he moved towards her but was stopped by the figure lunging for him. He hardly had time to dodge out of the way and the attacker clipped his shoulder, knocking him slightly off balance; his headset flying off and hitting the ground with a crunch.

Knowing that he needed to act fast, Jack leapt towards the shadow and slammed him onto the ground, giving him a powerful right hook across the face. He raised his hand to strike another blow but, with what seemed superhuman strength, the figure shoved Jack and he went flying. Jack landed hard and the next thing he knew the shadow was kneeling over him, ready to land a blow.

Just as he was about to strike, there was a gunshot and the figure flinched. Another shot rang out but it missed its target, hitting the ground and perilously close to Jack's head. He flinched while feeling the attacker release his hold and the sound of footsteps retreating told him that the figure had left.

"You alright?" Martha asked as she knelt besides Jack and helped him sit up. She had stayed behind when Jack had first ran out, on his orders, but then Tosh had called over the network that she had figured out a connection between all of the victims and when Jack didn't respond with surprise (as she had), Martha figured that he was in trouble and from what she had seen it was true.

"Don't worry about me…Max took the brunt of it." Jack replied, wincing a little as he sat up.

As Martha went to check on Max, who was still unconscious, he wondered if they had encountered the killer or it was just a random attack. Taking his throbbing head and the fact that it seemed like the shadow could have gone on until both of them were dead made him think that it was the serial killer. But the identity of the shadow was still unknown; the alley was too dark for either of them to get a clear look, however from the force and malice behind the attempted murder and assault made it seem like it was someone they both knew.

But if that was true, then who was it?


"So you're telling me that Jack the Ripper is back?" Ianto said as he stared at the screen with a look of disbelief on his face. "In Cardiff."

"Well yes and no." Martha stated as she clicked through numerous pictures from the nineteenth century as well as photos from the different crime scenes. "Look at the photos from when he first struck and then at the most recent attacks. The wounds on the girls are nearly identical, the throats slashed and the body split open with trauma to their lower regions. There's also an unknown green substance that's been found on all of the victims. Crime Scene hasn't been able to identify it, but from what I've seen from the lab results it's most defiantly alien in origin." She stood staring at the screen for a moment before continuing, "Maybe we've been looking at this all wrong; the Ripper was human but there was an alien inside making him kill. After the public started looking for him, it must have disappeared…but why suddenly show up in Cardiff and not in London again?"

"It's feeding off of the Rift, that's why when ever it kills there's a spike in Rift energy." Jack stated as he walked into the conference room and stared at the screen, which now displayed one of the original crime scene photos from London. "Torchwood One figured out what it was and captured it, and we can thank our friends at Habscorp for setting it free and letting it use the Rift to get strong enough to start killing again; that's what was in the box they have." He stared at the screen for a few seconds before continuing. "But why the club and such random targets?"

"Ah, but they're not so random." Tosh replied, pulling up photos of the victims. "They're all connected by the fact that they've cheated on their significant other. That's the common thread besides the club."

"But why attack Max? As far as we know she's never even met these people." Ianto mused out loud, eyebrows furrowing together in thought. "And why different people, I mean I know they thought the Ripper was actually more than one person-"

"It's jumping from person to person." Jack broke in, the pieces falling into place and not liking the picture. "Find someway to get rid of it." He said, and not waiting for a reply he left the room and clattered down the steps, running towards the exit. If he was right then Max was still in danger…


Max gripped the mug of tea in her hands and stared into its contents; trying to comprehend what had happened. Her entire world had come crashing down for the second time since coming back and she didn't know if the pieces could be glued back together this time. She could feel Jack's eyes on her and wondered what was going through his mind right now and Evan...Max could only guess what he thinking at the moment.

Jack sat at his desk, staring at Max and wondering how they were going to proceed after the events of today. He knew that it sounded cold and calculated but what had just happened threw a spanner into the works. Plus there was the fallout from the whole situation with the 'Ripper' entity; he had raced to their flat on the hunch that Lorne was being used as a host of the alien and had found that he was too late-Max had been killed with Lorne nowhere in sight.

Straighting up in his chair, Jack said, "Go home." He knew that Max needed to finally confront what they had done while on Atlantis, as did he; they had both betrayed someone who they cared about. And he needed to think about what happened today; what exactly all that had happened meant in the long term and how they moved on from there.

Max just nodded and stood, leaving the cup of tea behind and silently went down to the main section of the Hub. As the door shut behind her, Jack wondered if once she was home everything was going to hit the ceiling; both her and Lorne needed to talk about what had happened.

It was only quick thinking by Martha and Tosh that got the entity out of Lorne without harming him and just before he was about to kill Jack. But the biggest surprise had yet to come, with Max coming back to life just as Martha was about to start the autopsy. Clearly there was more to her now that met the eye, but the damage that had been done from the Ripper case took precedence over that right now.


It was nearly ten when the doorbell rang and Lydia wondered who it could be; hardly anyone stopped by this time of night. Lydia didn't move to get it because she knew that Ianto was closer and he could grab it; and she was busy working on a report for the SGC on charging a ZPM with Rift energy that needed to get done. The bell rang again and she heard Ianto call out from upstairs, "Can you get it Lydia? I'm up to my elbows in laundry."

"Alright." A quick glance out the window told her that it was pouring rain again and that only increased her curiosity. Opening it, Lydia was surprised to see Max at the doorstep, drenched to the bone. "Max...what happened?"

Max looked at Lydia and gave her a ghost of a smile, "Short version; mind if I stay here for a few days?"

Lydia saw that Max was still trying to process everything that had happened today (while she hadn't been at the Hub when Ianto had come home he had filled her in on the important details) and knew that before they could talk she needed to get Max out of those wet clothes. "Of course; don't worry about it. Ianto," she called out. "grab some towels and dry clothes for Max."