Chapter Two

"Take a seat." He motioned to the sofa instead of the chair in front of his desk, signifying that the conversation they were about to have was less formal then I had expected.

"What do you want to talk about?" I asked him curiously.

"I was wondering how you were coping with it all?" Jack asked sitting next to me on the sofa.

"The aliens, the fact you can bring a man back to life or the secret organisation part?" I asked him in turn.

"All of it." he responded seriously.

"Well, I already knew aliens existed. I've had months to come to turns with the fact that we aren't alone in the universe. I knew UNIT existed, and back at Canary Warf I learnt about Torchwood's existence. At the time I assumed that they were another government sector who hunt aliens but where more secret then UNIT. I'm not sure what I think about the whole bringing John Tucker back to life thing. Life is sacred, and when it's over then you shouldn't bring people back. That's unfair and wrong; no one should have the power to decide who lives and who dies. But I don't know why you chose to bring him back, especially since you knew it wouldn't be permanent, so I can't really judge."

I finished with a light shrug, hoping that Jack wouldn't look into the fact that I knew more about Canary Warf then a normal civilian, but by the look in his eyes, I knew that he had caught the meaning behind the words and wanted me to expand.

"You keep mentioning Canary Warf. What were you doing there?" Jack asked concerned.

Civilians weren't meant to know what had actually happened that day, and yet here was a young women (he doubted she would appreciated being called 'girl' again) claiming to know exactly what happened; Yvonne had been very big on secrecy so he couldn't think of a way she had learnt about Torchwood before the battle, which means that she had to have been involved in the battle to believe that aliens had really tried to take over the world.

"I had been living in London for about two months, the ghosts were something that I never liked. I hated being near them, refused to let them touch me because they made me sick." I told him after a moment, hesitantly. "They felt wrong, like they didn't belong."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked leaning forward sharply.

He knew that the cyber-men didn't belong in this universe from the video that they had been able to retrieve off Torchwood's data base. But he hadn't met anyone who could feel how wrong they were. The only exception possible being the Doctor, but he didn't stay around long enough to talk; which Jack understood because when he had been writing the list of the dead and the missing (with the aid of CCTV footage and the Torchwood facial recognition software), he had come across Rose and Jackie Tayler which would have devastated the Doctor.

"I don't know, but they didn't feel right." I sighed frustrated because I didn't know why I felt that way about them. I just did. "Anyway, one of the ghosts touched me one day. I hadn't been quick enough to move out of the way when the ghost shift started. When it touched me, it was like someone had sent electricity flowing through me and I collapsed." I took a deep breathe, the next part of my story was something that had haunted my nightmares.

"When I woke up, I was in some kind of lab. I don't know how, but Torchwood had realised that I didn't respond to the ghosts like everyone else did. They thought I would be able to help them find out what they were. And stop them because they thought it was just a consequence of opening… the rift… I think they called it?"

"The rift." Jack confirmed. "It's a tear in time and space. There's one in Cardiff as well. The one in London wasn't meant to be there but something broke through the walls of the universe, leaving a crack behind it. I told Torchwood One to leave it alone but they wouldn't listen to me. Yvonne was a very stubborn woman."

"How did the one in Cardiff form?" I asked him curiously, trying to delay my story.

"It's always been there." Jack shrugged. "No one knows why or how. It just is."

"Right."

"Why did they think you could stop the ghosts?" Jack asked, bringing them back on topic.

"They showed me CCTV footage of when the ghost touched me. Just before I collapsed the ghost was surrounded in some kind of light and disappeared." I explained.

"What did they do to you?" Jack asked concerned.

He knew that Torchwood One killed aliens, scavenged and used what they left behind and that their ex-employees were killed. He didn't know what they did to those they held prisoner, but he had seen (and done) a lot of things in his life and he wouldn't put it passed Yvonne to allow torture – even that of a teenager – in the pursuit of knowledge and her 'Great British Empire'.

"They ran tests. Made the ghosts touch me. Asked questions." I answered vaguely not wanting to go into detail about what exactly had been done to me but from the darkening of Jack's eyes he had probably taken an educated guess. "They had me for about five weeks when the Doctor arrived. I don't know how he managed it, but he convinced Yvonne to let me go."

"Yeah, the Doctor can be very persuasive." Jack agreed, relaxing slightly back into the sofa.

"You know him?" I asked curiously, noticing the affection that Jack spoke with.

"I met him a long time ago. Travelled with him for a while." Jack explained.

"Is that why your Torchwood is different?" I asked him curiously, it had been nagging at me since I had seen their van the day before. That was one of the reasons I had stayed and gone out of my way to see what was happening. The other torchwood had come in, like a black-ops group and taken over a crime scene. Whereas this torchwood had simply asked the police to temporarily clear the scene.

"What makes you think we're different?" Jack responded challengingly. He had been thinking about expanding his team for a while, and this young woman had been slowly proving herself to him since the night before. Like all the team before her – except for Suzie – she was damaged in some way, and she was smart, intuitive and willing to believe. She would probably fit in well with the others, and she didn't seem to be responding negatively to the alien-ness around her.

And then there was what he had seen on the CCTV footage. He knew that there had been a woman, hidden from the cameras by her hair or the Doctor's body, who had helped in defeating the cyber-men and Daleks. That women had clearly been through a lot, their hair was a mess and mated, and what he could see of her body was stick thin under the white linen long shirt she had been wearing. When the dust settled, and the Doctor was gone, he had not been able to find the women because he never got a view of her face. Now it would appear that she didn't leave with the Doctor like he had assumed, and she instead chose to remain on earth.

"Because you have a pet dinosaur. Because you haven't killed either of the Weevil's you've capture. Because your team is smaller." I told him, listing just a few of the reasons I had noticed since I entered the hub a few hours earlier, ignoring the small things I had spotted from the night before since the differences were far more pronounced inside the hub.

"You're right, we are different." Jack conceded with a pleased smile that Raven had identified some of the biggest differences between them and One. "We don't kill aliens unless we have to. We help the non-hostile ones who come through the rift by accident. We collect artefacts and stuff that has come through, make sure that the public don't get their hands on it. Use it to help defend the public from threats they don't even know are there yet. I made it this way in memory of the Doctor, to honour his name." Jack explained.

"Right. Are you part of the government, like UNIT?" I asked curiously now that someone was willing to answer my questions.

"No. We're outside the government, beyond the police." Jack shook his head. "We answer directly to the Queen. No one else can shut us down."

"Right." I nodded my understanding. It made sense why Torchwood was a better kept secret since they didn't answer to the government and didn't have to deal with as much politics.

"Sir?" Ianto knocked at the door, drawing their attention.

"Yes Ianto?" Jack called him into the office.

"I've brought you both some coffee." Ianto explained, handing the two cups he was holding over.

"Thank you Ianto." Jack said before taking a large sip of the coffee and moaning in pleasure. "Still the best coffee I've ever tasted."

"Thank you, sir." Ianto gave a slight smile. "Also, the police women, Gwen Cooper, is hanging around outside the tower."

"Right. Go up top, keep an eye on her. Tell the others to bring her up on their security feed, but otherwise get on with their work unless she finds her way to the tourist office. If she does, Ianto, let her in." Jack ordered, moving over to his desk and hitting a few buttons on his keyboard to bring up the CCTV before turning the screen so it could be seen from his sofa.

"Of course, sir." And with that Ianto left them.

"Are you going to tell me why you're actually talking to me?" I asked him curiously before taking a sip of the coffee and sighing softly in pleasure. I didn't drink coffee very often – mostly because it was more expensive then tea – but this was the best coffee that I had ever tasted.

"I was wondering when you were going to get to that." Jack smiled. "My team is quite small; I hand pick every member because they need to have certain qualities. And, from what I have seen, I think that you will fit into this little team very well. So, I'm offering you a job."

"Seriously?" I asked him shocked.

"Seriously." Jack confirmed.

"What would I do?" I asked him, tilting my head. Jack didn't know very much about me and I doubted that he would have had time to research who I was and find any useful records considering I hadn't given them my last name and Jack had been with me since just before mid-day or out hunting Weevils.

"Well, you could help Tosh with her computers since you've proven yourself capable of using them. And you would be a field agent, stopping aliens from hurting people." Jack shrugged.

"I would love to work here." I answered after a moment of thought. I wasn't getting anywhere with my current job, and working for Torchwood would mean I was helping to protect innocent people which was something that I had been thinking about doing.

"Great." Jack got up and moved over to his desk. From within his draws he pulled out a thick booklet. "Here are the rules and regulations of Torchwood. You have a month to learn them. I'll take you down to firearms training at some point. And you'll need to fill some forms out with Tosh to get you on the system."

"Right." I nodded my head and accepted the book. "Gwen's coming this way with Pizza." I warned nodding at the screen.

"Right." Jack smiled brightly in anticipation before leaving his office.