Picking Glass with Bleeding Fingers

08:03 am - February 23rd, 2008 – The Hub – Cardiff

It was disorienting for reality to be rewritten as the time streamed rewound. Harry, Ianto, Tosh, and Owen collapsed to the floor as a year's worth of memories were mercilessly imprinted on their brains. It was surreal standing in the Hub as the commentator panicked about the US president's assassination and the loss of contact with the Valiant blared on the monitor.

They were all in shock. The last thing Tosh and Owen remember was being in the War Room within Sanctuary, watching the Master's broadcast as he prepared for war with the universe. The last thing Ianto remembered was pain, just darkness and agony. Ianto sat on the floor, shaking uncontrollably as he felt the echo of the all-consuming pain and felt himself reach for a pill bottle that wasn't there. Harry's last memory was of meeting Death and euphoric peace, but she couldn't remember anything past stepping on the train.

They looked at one another from their places on the floor, realizing that they all remembered and that it wasn't a hallucination.

"What just happened?" Tosh gasped between panicked breaths, the first to find her voice.

"Bloody fucking hell," Owen swore, picking himself up off the floor and rushing over to Ianto's side, who was trying to stop the shaking.

"I'm fine. Check, Harry." Ianto crocked out, trying to have Owen off, even as he felt the familiar pain of a migraine form behind his eyes as tremors racked his body.

"Shut up, tea boy." Owen snapped as he checked over Ianto as the tremors started to dissipate.

Owen had spent months caring for Ianto as they fought to keep him alive. Owen had spent too much time keeping the stubborn fool alive for him just to be able to wave the doctor off. For his own sanity, Owen had to know that Ianto was healthy, mainly because he had declared him brain-dead three days go. Harry was next on Owen's list. She had died for real, and he remembered what had happened the day of the purge. Everyone remembered that day. It was one of those historical events that you will never forget that day.

"And you, stay where you are," Owen growled at Harry, who was making motions to get up off the floor.

Harry stayed on the ground but desperately rummaged through her pockets. She felt her hand brush her invisibility cloak's familiar icy, silky material. Her hands shook as Harry pulled it from her pocket, checking over the material, feeling relief that it was intact. She then flicked her wrist, and the Elder Wand dropped into her hand, a familiar weight. Harry used the wand to dispel the glamour on the ring holding the Resurrection Stone. They were all intact, and Harry wasn't exactly sure how she felt about it because it meant she was immortal again, the Master of Death. The last time Harry had seen the Hallows, she had hidden their broken forms deep in her closet, where no one would find them. She could remember the horror vividly when she found the Wand in splinters, the Stone dust, and the Cloak threadbare and motheaten. Harry's hands then dropped down to her womb as she remembered her loss. She focused inwards and found the magic pooled in her womb, protecting the life growing there. Harry felt relief that they were still safe within her.

Harry slipped the Cloak back into her pocket, forcing herself to focus on the present. More pressing matters had to be attended to before she could let herself break down. Harry turned towards Tosh, who had gotten up off the ground and was typing away at her station, a serious look on her face. Harry then looked towards the cog door and caught Gwen's eyes as she stared at them while on her cell phone. Gwen's face paled when their eyes met, and she disappeared from the window.

"Tosh, if my magic fries the cog door, you can fix it, right?" Harry asked as she got up and stalked towards the door, wand still in hand, ignoring Owen's protests from his place next to Ianto.

"Yes, this last year, I had lots of practical experience," Tosh answered as she paused her typing to watch the show about to unfold.

The exchange between the women caused the men to focus on Harry. Owen stopped his fussing over Ianto to watch Harry. The whole team held their breath in anticipation as Harry when after Gwen. There was no sympathy after Gwen had betrayed them to the Master.

"Alohomora." Harry cast, causing the locks on the cog door to screech as they were forced open. Harry didn't need to use the spoken spell, but mundanes always seemed to find it more intimidating than silent casting, reverse to Magi.

Harry then flicked her wand, using pure power to force the door open. Harry then calmly walked through the door. Gwen was at the end of the hall at the elevator, frantically pushing the elevator button as if it would make it work faster. If Gwen had gone for the stairs, she might have had a chance, but there was no escaping Harry now. `

"Incarcerous." Harry cast.

Thick ropes shot out of the tip of her wand, binding Gwen and causing her to fall to the ground, hog-tied.

"Let me go!" Gwen yelled as she struggled against the ropes; however, unlike traditional ropes, these were one solid piece meaning there were no knots to loosen.

Harry was tired of listening to Gwen, and after what she had done, she wasn't all that concerned about scaring her coworkers; after all, they had seen just why her people were so feared. With a swish and jab of her wand, she partly transfigured Gwen. Long ears sprouted from her head, and Gwen started braying like a donkey. Harry calmly walked over to the fallen woman and looked down at her, relishing as she struggled in futility. Harry had to suppress a laugh as Gwen brayed in panic.

"If you are going to act like an ass, you might as well look like one," Harry said with a sadistic smile before turning her wand on the woman. "Locomotor Donkey-girl." Harry cast unsympathetically, the magic reading her intent and causing Gwen to lift from the ground and trail behind Harry like a piece of luggage.

Harry walked back into the Hub with Gwen trailing behind her, baying at the top of her lungs.

"Bloody hell, what is that racket?!" Owen yelled as he stood up to see over the console, finally releasing Ianto from his clutches.

Owen caught sight of Gwen; he buckled over, laughing despite the seriousness of their situation. Even Tosh held a hand to her mouth, hiding her smile. Ianto's termors had finally subsided, and he shakily pulled himself into a chair and suppressed a laugh as he saw what Harry had done. It was a moment of levity in the cluster that they were in.

"What should I do with her?" Harry asked as she contemplated silencing Gwen.

"Take her down to a cell," Ianto ordered, failing to keep the smile off his face as he tried and was unable to stay professional.

Harry nodded before turning and heading down into the vaults. The sound of baying slowly quieted until a phone ringing from Jack's office drew their attention because the ringtone was for the emergency line. Ianto rushed into the office and picked up the line.

"Director Jones," Ianto answered, sitting at Jack's desk, cursing himself internally, remembering that he was only acting director. It would have been a couple days from now that he was made Director by King William.

"This is General Roland Price, UNIT." A man's voice sounded through the phone before there was a moment of pause before he spoke again. "Have we met?"

Ianto paused for a moment, thinking about how to answer, but figured if they remembered, the others might too.

"Not yet, but we would have if the Master had succeeded," Ianto answered cautiously.

"Oh, thank God." General Price said with relief. "I thought I was going crazy when I remembered the last year, and a Coven chain appeared on my neck."

Ianto's mind raced as he thought over the implication of everyone in the Coven remembering the last year. Over a thousand people remembered the horror of the previous year in a world that didn't remember. But there was a more pressing matter.

"We all remember too. The magic of the Coven must have caused us to keep our memories. If so, Martha must have succeeded in her mission. Have you had any contact with the Valiant?" Ianto asked, trying to keep professional.

"No. The Valiant has gone completely dark. There had been no contact, and we have the US breathing down our neck for answers. The whole world just saw the Master, our Prime Minister, kill the President. We will be lucky if this doesn't turn to war." General Price said grimly.

Ianto grimaced, knowing that the fall out of this would be great. There would be no way to cover this up.

"That's not all. We've been trying to get a hold of anyone in Saxon's government since the Master announced the Toclafane. Knowing what we do now, it's likely everyone is dead." General Price informed him.

"So, our government is crippled, and the US is a hornet's nest because their President was murdered on live international television." Ianto summarised while rubbing his forehead as his migraine grew.

"Yes, that's the situation. We are scrambling a team, but it's going to be at least an hour before we can get boots on the Valiant. I have an official request from UNIT for Torchwood to secure the Valiant. I'm assuming that Agent Peverell can get you there." General Price said.

"She should, but we will need the exact coordinates for the Valiant," Ianto said.

"I have them for the main hangar." General Price said before rattling off the coordinates.

Ianto jotted them down on a piece of paper.

"We'll contact you once we have the bridge," Ianto said.

"Good luck. I'll see you soon." General Price said.

"Thank you," Ianto said before hanging up.

Ianto walked back into the bullpen and handed the piece of paper to Tosh.

"Here are the coordinates for the Valiant," Ianto told her.

"I'll translate them," Tosh said before getting to work; over the last year, she had gotten very good at base seven math.

While Ianto had been on the phone, Harry had returned from lodging Gwen and was quickly forced into a chair by Owen before he started to check her over. The pair had been whispering, and Owen looked unhappy with Harry. When Ianto moved towards them, they stopped talking.

"As soon as Tosh has the coordinates, we will deploy to the Valiant. We have UNIT permission to board the airship. I just got off the phone with General Price; he also remembers. He is familiar with Harry's teleportation and knows we can get there before them. He says they have lost contact with the Valiant, so we might face some resistance." Ianto told them.

"I can create a portkey to take us there once Tosh translates the coordinates," Harry said.

"Is that safe?" Owen asked Harry pointedly, his eyes dropping toward her abdomen.

"As a precaution, we shouldn't use portkeys in the Hub unless there is an emergency. The Rift can cause problems with the magic." Harry answered, purposely misinterpreting Owen's question.

Owen shot her a glare; it was apparent on Owen's face that he wasn't happy with her evasion of the question. Harry pointedly ignored Owen. Ianto looked between the pair; it was apparent that Harry was hiding something and that Owen disapproved of her actions. Ianto would have to corner Harry later, but there wasn't time now. There were more pressing maters.

"Am I free?" Harry asked Owen, raising an eyebrow in question.

"For now," Owen said reluctantly, allowing Harry to get up.

Before Ianto could press the pair on what was going on, Tosh spoke up.

"I have the coordinates," Tosh said, handing a piece of paper to Harry.

Harry looked over the coordinates and made the portkey while the others grabbed their bullet proof vest and the extra ammunition for their pistols. The others were ready to go when Harry was done with the portkey. The team made their way to the garage and into an SUV. By taking the vehicle, they could get to a safe portkey zone faster than walking. There was an apparition spot across the plass, but it wasn't large enough for all of them.

"What's the plan?" Owen asked from his place in the driver's seat.

"Harry will go in first and clear the landing zone so we can portkey in," Ianto said; he had gotten much better at making tactical plans in the last year.

Owen looked like he was about to protest by Harry cut him off.

"Do I have permission for lethal force?" Harry asked from her spot in the back.

Ianto thought it over for a moment.

"Try to take them alive, but don't put yourself in danger to do so," Ianto said sternly, turning to look at Harry from the front passenger's seat. There was a pained look on his face.

Harry nodded solemnly, knowing that her death had caused Ianto much pain. It must have been torturous if it was anything like Jack's deaths. The couple would have to speak soon and try to work through the hurts that had happened over the last year. But now was to the time for that conversation.

It was a quick five-minute drive, but it felt like forever before they arrived. They piled out of the car with efficient precision and completed their finale preparation.

"Ready?" Harry asked, pulling out the portkey, a long piece of rope and handing it to Ianto.

"Yes. Once I get the signal from you, we will portkey in." Ianto said, taking the rope.

"The activation work is Valiant," Harry said as she slipped the Elder wand into her right hand while holding her pistol in her left.

"Understood." Ianto acknowledged.

Harry turned on her heel and apparated into the main hangar bay of the Valiant. She appeared between two helicopters where several uniformed men were preparing to take off. With one glance, Harry knew that the Valiant hadn't reverted with the rest of the world. The soldiers' uniforms were the familiar and hated of those of the Master's private Gestapo. The soldiers froze in surprise, but before they could react, Harry was moving. With a flick of her wand, the metal of the floors and helicopters came to life, restraining the men before they could react. She shot those further away with her pistol, causing them to collapse unconscious.

Once the other soldiers in the hangar realized what was happening, screaming and gunshots filled the air. It was easy to put up a shield surrounding Harry, causing the bullets to ricochet; the few that did get through impacted her basilisk hide trenchcoat harmlessly. There was even more screaming, this time painful, as the ricochet bullets tore into the shooters. With efficient movements, Harry went about incapacitating and securing the Master's goons. In the end, about 50 men were either unconscious or secured by ropes or metal. Several were moaning in pain on the ground, bleeding out from the bullets that had ricocheted. Harry made sure that they wouldn't bleed out but didn't care that they were in pain; after all, they were those that willingly worked with the Master.

The last thing Harry did before she called for the others was to disable all the aircraft in the hangar. She didn't want anyone escaping. Once Harry was sure the area was secure, she reached out mentally to Ianto and gave him the all-clear. Within seconds, the team appeared. Though they had experienced a portkey before, it was still jarring, and they stumbled to the ground. It was good that Harry had acted as a vanguard, or they would have been quickly taken out by the men in the hangar.

"Everyone good?" Harry asked as she helped the others to their feet.

"Yes," Ianto said as he was helped to his feet because Harry moved over to Owen.

Ianto took a moment to look around the hangar, taking in the carnage.

"I take it they didn't cause you too much trouble," Ianto stated, looking over at a man struggling against the metal that held him.

"It was easy," Harry said with a smile as she pulled Tosh.

"You are terrifying," Owen stated as he nudged a bound and unconscious body on the ground, his gun drawn.

Harry just gave him a dark grin, feeling a bit bloodthirsty. She had no sympathy for the crew of the Valiant. These people willingly followed the Master and were complicit in the horrors that had occurred both on the ship and on the ground. Those that weren't loyal to the Master were quickly weeded out and killed in the first weeks of the Master's reign. Besides Jack, the Rebellion had never been able to get one of their agents onto the aircarrier. The Master had the uncanny ability to tell who was loyal to him; their best guess was his low-level telepathy allowed him to tell who was disloyal.

"Should we secure them?" Tosh asked, moving towards Owen and the unconscious man on the ground.

"No." Harry shook her head. "Without their own magic, they can't fight off the stunner. They won't wake unless I wake them."

"Convenient," Owen said before moving back toward the group.

"Harry, you have point; I'll cover you," Ianto said before looking towards Tosh, who had holstered her pistol and tablet in hand, typing away. "Tosh, are you in their system yet?"

"I'll need to get to a terminal on the bridge to access the complete system, but I have the updated ship map," Tosh said as she quickly memorized the route to the bridge before slipping the tablet into the pocket in her vest.

"You'll be behind me, and Owen will take up the rear," Ianto ordered.

The others acknowledged the orders and moved into position. The Torchwood team left the hangar relying on Tosh to navigate them through the confusing uniform corridors of the airship. They met minimal resistance. It seemed like most of the crew had been in the hangar, trying to abandon the ship. They made it to the door of the bridge without significant incident. Harry took her place in front of the closed door, ready to breach, with Ianto and Owen taking either side of the door. Tosh stood behind Owen; she would be the last to enter.

"Ready?" Ianto asked, hand waiting on the button to open the doors.

"Yes." The team answered.

Ianto pushed the button, and they heard the hissing of the pneumatics as the door slid open into the wall. Harry stepped in, quickly assessing the room. Three people were armed with rifles, two women on the bottom floor and a male up by the controls.

"Torchwood! Drop the weapons." Harry called to the figures in the room.

"Don't shoot! We're friendly!" A young woman called before turning towards an older woman. "Mum put the rifle down."

The Torchwood team took in the scene, which was a contrast to the rest of the ship. It looked like a storm had rolled through the room. The bridge seemed to have been commandeered by three people in stereotypical servants' uniforms, two women, one older, the other young, and an older male around the age of the older woman. From the intel they had received, these must have been the Jones, Martha's family and the Master's hostages. There were several soldiers bound by zip ties on the ground. The last person was easily recognizable; Lucy Saxon was zip-tied to a chair, staring off into space, seemingly in shock. The last thing that drew their attention was the large pool of red-orange blood, obviously not human.

"Where is the Master?" Harry questioned firmly as the team cleared and secured the room.

Tosh and Owen made their way to the bridge to take control of the aircarrier and make contact with UNIT. The male Jones, who must have been Clive, made his way down to his daughter, Tish, and ex-wife, Francine.

"We don't know; the Doctor took his body," Tish answered from her place next to her mother.

"He's dead?" Ianto asked, surprised, lowering his weapon as he moved towards the Jones, who were now huddled together on the lower floor.

"Lucy shot him, and he refused to regenerate. Good riddance." Francine spat, rage at the Master clear.

"Where are Jack and Martha?" Ianto asked the family.

"They left with the Doctor." Tish answered, "His ship is two floors down from here."

"I've taken control of the ship's systems, and we've made contact with UNIT. They are twenty minutes out." Tosh called from the central control console.

Ianto thought over their next move, but before he could, he felt the familiar feeling of the muting of Jack's side of the bond. The soulmates shared a look; Jack had left with the Doctor again. They couldn't focus on that now; more pressing matters were at hand, and they had faith that Jack would find his way back to them.

"Harry, secure the door, then keep guard on the prisoners," Ianto ordered before heading up to the bridge.

Harry spelled the door closed; it would take them cutting through the door for it to open. She then stood guard. Ianto went up to the communication station and contacted UNIT ground control.

From there, things moved very quickly. Within an hour, UNIT had arrived and had taken control from the Torchwood team. The Torchwood team let UNIT take charge of the operation before they had the resources that the team lacked. The Jones were ushered off, where they would receive medical attention and be interviewed by the UNIT brass. Torchwood would contact them after they were released. The Master's men were taken into custody, where they would be interrogated and then put to trial.

It was several hours later that the team was finally able to leave. They were offered a helicopter, but Ianto declined, preferring to travel by portkey. They were all exhausted, and instantaneous transportation was preferable to the two-hour travel time back to the Hub using conventional means.

The team moved to a secluded location in the hangar.

"I'm going to be transporting us to Sanctuary," Harry told them.

"Bloody hell, finally," Owen said with relief, like the rest of the team looked haggard.

"Why?" Tosh questioned, wondering why they weren't returning to the Hub; she was exhausted and couldn't wait to fall face-first into one of the bunks.

"It's the Sanctuary wards. They have been pinging since we've been here." Ianto explained he had become very entuned with the wards; even though time had reset, he seemed to still be tied to them.

"The only way anyone could enter the tent would be portkeys," Harry explained to them. There was the possibility that someone could have stumbled into the area of the tent, but unless they had some psychic ability, they wouldn't make it past the repealing wards.

"So, the others must also remember," Ianto concluded, a severe look on his face at the possible consequences.

"Do you think that it's only those in the Coven or everyone in Sanctuary?" Tosh wondered, somewhat hopeful.

"We won't know until we go there," Harry answered

Harry had been feeling out the Coven bonds, and they all seemed to be intact, but she didn't know how the magic of the tent would have interacted with what had happened. There was a reason Time Magic had been removed from public knowledge and was highly restricted. Harry could only imagine the work and strings Dumbledoor must have pulled to get that Time-Turner in her three years. There had never been anything like the Paradox machine in her home reality, and she didn't know how it would have reacted with magic. That said, the Paradox machine had broken something fundamental in the universe, and there was no telling of the effects.

"How do you want to do this?" Ianto asked Harry, as she was the source of their transport.

"The Coven jewellery acts as a portkey. It would be easier to use them instead of me creating a new one." Harry explained.

A silent consensus came over the group, and almost at once, they activated their portkeys. They arrived in the Receiving Hall, also commonly known as a floo room. The Hall only had one purpose, for the arrival of people via portkey, apparition, or floo. Most magical homes had one or a designated area of arrivals. This allowed better control of the flow of people in and out of the wards and made it easier to lock the wards down in emergencies.

The tent's Receiving Hall was grander than most by also having a sitting room attached. The room had a large clear area for apparition and portkey arrival. The entire left wall was a window, looking out on the extended garden and grounds. On the right wall was a massive fireplace that was made for large numbers of Magi arriving together. The size of the fireplace was comically large to non-Magi. Above the fireplace was an empty portrait that belonged to her grandparents; they were rarely there, preferring to stay in the portrait hall with the other paintings. On either side of the fireplace were thick gold drapes used to close the floo if they were unavailable for guests. The only thing on the mahogany mantel was a couple of pots of floo powder. The walls were a rich burgundy, complimenting the mahogany floors and trim of the room. The room was illuminated by a large golden chandelier with hundreds of candles. The furniture was also made from mahogany with plush velvet cushions. Around the mahogany coffee table were two love seats facing each other, as well as two plush chairs that were also opposite.

The team landed, this time keeping their footing, getting used to the jarring mode of transport. They had barely gotten their bearings before they were surrounded by people.

"Ianto!" A female voice called in relief before Ianto was enfolded in a hung.

Harry could see Ianto's sister Rhiannon hugging Ianto like he would disappear if she let go. The siblings had collapsed to the floor in each other's arms, crying and having a hushed conversation. Owen and Tosh were also surrounded by people calling their names. Harry stepped away as they reunited with the people they had survived hell with, bonded with shared trauma. Harry slipped from the room, leaving them to their reunion. Harry didn't belong there and didn't feel the need to linger. After feeling the familiar magic of the tent rise and greet her, overwhelming her with a sense of home, she was barely holding it together.

Harry ghosted through the familiar corridors and felt out of place with these people in her home, but she did not know them. She had allowed them in her home when the world seemed to be falling apart, but it felt wrong to have humans walking the halls of her people's last safe haven. It made her fingers itch for a wand to remove them, but she forced herself not to. They were not people who had hunted her or the ones who had tried to hurt her. She had allowed them under her protection in her Coven and was responsible for them. Harry was still keyed up from the months on the run with Martha and the final showdown in Japan. She had to remove herself before she did something she regretted, like forcibly ejecting them all from the tent.

As she made her way through the halls towards her room, she noted that the tent was no longer in war configuration and the wards were as they were before the invasion. The only significant difference was that the wards were more robust, and the magic of the tent seemed content. Harry could only guess it was because the tent was once again filled with people, even if they were humans. Much like Hogwarts, the tent was more content when filled with people because of the emotions and energy they left off. This allowed more interaction in the innate magic of the structure, allowing the magical construct to evolve.

When Harry arrived in the master suite, she barely made it to the bed before she collapsed, finally allowing herself to feel for the first time in months. She was shaking so badly that she struggled to strip out of her clothes. Once nude, she burrowed into the blankets, making a nest in the middle of the bed, trying to ground herself in the soft heavy blankets as she shook and cried.

It hurt so much, being alive. After finally having felt true death, it was painful to be back in her undying body that felt too small for her soul. Death magic, the magic that granted her immortality, was scorching. When the Master had activated the Paradox magic, breaking something fundamental in the universe, it had ripped Death's magic from her leaving a void. The loss of that integral magic had felt like a cold hand slowly squeezing the life out of her as the chains of mortality weighted her down, but she had adapted quickly. Harry couldn't say the same for the opposite. Before she had come into her immortality slowly, so much so that she hadn't felt her magic change, it was only once Harry noticed that she wasn't aging that she had become aware. But now that the magic had returned all at once, she was acutely aware of it. It crawled just under her skin.

Harry's attempts to ground herself physically were not working, so she turned her focus inwards, trying to balance her magic. Her focus was soon drawn from her own magic to the small but strong ball of magic safely tucked into her own. She curled into herself, running her hands over the soft skin above her womb, feeling the solid curve that was barely there. She wasn't surprised she had missed it; with no symptoms, her people's low fertility and her previous history, she hadn't been expecting it so soon. She was also surprised that the pregnancy had survived her being blown up and dying, but she could feel her magic and Death's magic intertwined and surrounding the tiny spark. It was odd. She had never felt Death's magic protect a pregnancy before, not even the only child she carried to term but ultimately lost. The magical midwife she had consulted before finally giving up on trying to become pregnant had told her that the death magic was too caustic for a fetus to survive.

Harry didn't know how long she had been curled up on the bed. At some point, she must have fallen asleep because Harry was awoken sometime later by Ianto slipping into bed and pulling her into his arms. Ianto was also nude, and Harry revelled in the skin contact. She had been feeling skin starved after months of being locked within her armour shell and cut off from the world.

They drew together without words, chastity kissing as they ran hands over the warm, soft skin. Nothing about it was about sexual gratification; it was reassurance that they were alive and reaffirming their bond. Harry found herself on her back between soft kisses, Ianto slotted between her thighs. Ianto pulled away from Harry's kiss and took her hands in his, pinning them beside her head. They stared into each other's eyes before Ianto gently side into her. Both moaned in pleasure as their bonds sang in harmony, and they became as physically close as they could. As Ianto rocked into her, they gazed into each other's eyes, the love so apparent.

Harry felt tears leak from her eyes and roll down her face; she was crying at the overwhelming feelings rising in her. Ianto leaned down to kiss away her tears as he continued his slow, measured thrusts. They shared a soft kiss before Harry broke it, gasping and arching as she climaxed. Ianto's thrusts became hurried and erratic as he lost his rhythm, dropping his head to her shoulder as he chased his own pleasure in her spasming channel. Ianto shortly followed Harry, groaning into her shoulder as he came deep within her. They kissed sweetly as Ianto gave small shuddering thrusts, extending their pleasure.

Ianto released Harry's hands and pulled her into a hug, crying into her shoulder as everything overwhelmed him. Harry wrapped her hands around him, holding him tightly as she joined him in tears. They stayed joined, neither wanting to pull away in case the other disappeared. The tears from the emotions and pain from the last months finally exhausted the pair as their tears finally ran out.

"You died," Ianto mumbled into her skin as the tears dried.

"I know," Harry whispered hoarsely, her throat tight.

"You weren't supposed to die, Annwyl. You and Jack are not supposed to leave me." Ianto sobbed even though he had no more tears.

"I was already dying, my love," Harry admitted softly as she stroked his hair.

"How?" Ianto asked, raising up on his elbows to look her in the eyes.

It was something that Ianto never understood. Harry was supposed to be immortal, but she had died and hadn't returned like she was supposed to.

Harry looked up at him with sorrowful eyes; she had never wanted to cause him such pain. She slipped her hand down and cupped his jaw. He closed his eyes and turned his cheek into the hand, leaning into the contact.

"The Master broke something fundamental in the universe, which in turn broke something in me. It shattered my connection with Death's magic which granted me my immortality. From the moment he activated the paradox machine, I was mortal." Harry explained.

"But you could have still escaped in Japan. You didn't even try." Ianto accused, looking down at her, hurt that she hadn't even tried to survive.

Harry shook her head sadly.

"No, I couldn't. I was dying, Ianto. My people are closely tied to the magic of the planet. Without being the Master of Death, there was no way that I could survive the planet dying, and it was dying, my love. I was getting progressively more ill, and I had a couple weeks, maybe a month, before I would have been too weak to even move on my own. I wanted to go out on my own terms and not die in agony as my body shut down and drowned in my fluids." Harry explained in a hushed tone.

"It hurt so much after you died. The wards were tearing at my very soul as they grasped for any wisp of magic." Ianto said, curling in on himself, remembering the pain.

"I'm so sorry, my love." Harry chocked out through tears from the pain she caused him, pulling Ianto into her, hugging him close.

Harry knew the pain of pushing past natural limits and drawing on your life force to power a spell. Unlike Harry, Ianto didn't have magic, so the wards must have drawn straight from his life force. She wouldn't wish that pain on anyone; it was an unimaginable pain that Ianto should have never felt.

They stayed tied together for a moment longer before Ianto slipped from Harry's body. He slumped on his side and pulled Harry into his arms so they were face to face. Harry's head was pillowed on Ianto's arm, and holding her had to Ianto's chest, taking comfort in the beat of his heart. Harry waved her hand, cleaning their bodies. They lay together in comfortable silence, enjoying each other's presence. Ianto was enjoying Harry in his arms and was lazily tracing up and down her spin, occasionally breaking off to trace a tattoo.

"There is something I need to tell you," Harry said, breaking the silence after a moment.

"What?" Ianto asked, lifting his head to look down at her, even though he only saw the top of her head.

Harry took his hand in hers and moved it, so it rested on the small, nearly unnoticeable bump.

"I'm pregnant." Harry chocked out as tears reappeared in her eyes, but these were of joy.

Ianto froze, staring at his hand in shock, before pressing down softly, feeling the small, solid bump. Ianto pulled away from Harry, pressing her on to her back so he could move down her body and place both hands on the skin above her womb. He stared at his hands, feeling the small bump firmly under them.

"Really?" Ianto asked with wonder, looking up at her with fragile hope in his eyes.

"Yeah," Harry confirmed, smiling down at him, placing her hands over his over her womb.

Ianto looked back down at the bump that safely held his child and kissed the warm skin that protected their child.

"Hello, Cyw. I'm your Tad. Your Mum, Dad, and I and very excited to meet you and will always love you and try our hardest to keep you safe. You're Dad doesn't know about you let, but he'll be so happy about you." Ianto whispered into the skin as he ran his hands over the taut skin.

"Our little miracle child. They've already survived much." Harry said softly, watching her lover fall head over heels for their unborn child.

It took Ianto a moment to get what she was referring to. Ianto realized she was talking about the bombing in London and Harry's death. It was odd to think that what happened a year ago was only yesterday now; a year had disappeared.

"They survived your death?" Ianto asked with surprised awe, looking down at where his child rested.

"They did. My magic protected them, but I lost more than my immortality when the Master activated the Paradox machine. I lost them before I even knew about them. I think losing my immortality and its protective magic caused me to miscarry." Harry told him, remembering the painful loss.

Ianto's hands curled in anger. Ianto forcibly relaxed, not wanting this moment to be ruined by negative emotions; this was supposed to be a happy time. Just when he thought he couldn't hate the Master more, there was always something else.

"Is this what you and Owen were arguing about this morning?" Ianto asked, thinking back to the strange interaction between the two earlier in the Hub.

Harry nodded in confirmation.

"He treated me after I collapsed after our escape in the other timeline. He knew about the miscarriage and wasn't happy I was avoiding medical attention and going off guns a blazing." Harry said, causing Ianto to worry and sit up.

"I should go get Owen to check you over properly," Ianto said, moving to get up after realizing that Harry had been in combat today.

Harry grabbed him and pulled him back down.

"We'll be fine until morning. I can feel them with my magic, and they are fine." Harry reassured him.

Ianto searched Harry's face, looking to see if she was being truthful. He searched their bond and felt it open and warm, her intentions clear. Ianto settled back down beside her, resting his head on her belly. He ran his hand along the small bump, reassuring himself they were both alright.

"Alright, but we are going to Owen first thing in the morning, Annwyl," Ianto said firmly.

"Of course, my love." Harry agreed easily.

The pair settled into the first restful sleep either had in months.

04:27 pm - February 24th, 2008 – The Hub – Cardiff

Unfortunately, much to Ianto's consternation, they hadn't been able to break away to have Owen check Harry over until later in the day. They had spent the morning dealing with hundreds of civilians who now remember the Year that Never Was, as they were calling it.

It was quickly discovered that only those taken into the Coven remembered what had happened during the paradox. This promptly caused problems for those who did remember. They had survived the end of the world, and their loved ones and friends had no idea; all they knew was that something had fundamentally changed with their loved one. Nearly all in the Coven had portkeyed to the Sanctuary, but several hadn't. With the help of UNIT and local police, they discovered the missing Coven members had either been committed to the psych ward or committed suicide. This had caused the second layer of hurt.

The Torchwood team had to speak with each member of the Coven and give them the option to forget. They would have to give up the protection of the Coven, and Harry would remove the memories of the last year, allowing them to go back to their lives like the previous year had never happened. Many took them up on the offer, mainly those that had lost everyone in the initial attack and had lost their found family because they didn't remember the last year as not everyone in Sanctuary had joined the Coven.

Harry spent the morning removing memories after they had given her back their Coven jewelry. After she had taken the memories, they were handed over to UNIT, who would relocate them to a UNIT hospital with a story of chemical exposure. They would spend several days in the hospital to make sure the memories didn't return before being released.

After everything was said and done, 617 people elected to keep their memories of that year, just over half taken into the Coven. Nearly all wanted to work with Torchwood in some capacity to prevent something like the Year That Never Was from happening again. This left the Torchwood team with a logistical problem of what to do with all of them. Torchwood Three was not set up to have such a large staff, so it would be a process to roll them all into their underequipped organization. For now, they had a choice to stay at the Sanctuary or return home after giving the team a way to contact them. Nearly all had decided to stay in Sanctuary. Only those previously aware of extraterrestrials before The Year That Never Was had elected to leave needed to return to their own organizations.

It wasn't until the afternoon before the soulmates managed to carve out time to see Owen. Owen had retreated to his medical bay, busy doing inventory. Even though he knew that his medbay was fully stocked, it had been a year, and he had difficulty remembering what was there and where everything was.

"I see you finally graced me with your presence. It took you long enough." Owen quipped as he put down vials that he had been counting before throwing a gown and motioning Harry to the gurney. "Get undressed, then hop up."

Owen turned around to give her the illusion of privacy as he went about getting the needed supplies. Harry quickly stripped her clothes; she had forgone her usual trench coat and jumpsuit. Instead, Harry had dressed for comfort. She wore her old red, ratty pullover that Molly Wesley had made her; it was only held together by the magic woven into it when it had been knitted. Under the sweater, she wore a tunic tank top and black yoga pants.

Harry handed the clothes to Ianto before jumping up on the gurney. Harry was glad that Owen had turned up the temperature, or she would be shivering. Harry had trauma related to medical settings after her time at Torchwood One. She was still nervous about 'modern' medicine. She usually avoided going into Owen's territory unless necessary. Her aversion was apparent enough that only Gwen hadn't picked up on it. Owen never pushed her to come to the medbay, he was willing to go to her, but he had told her yesterday that to do a complete exam, she would need to come to the medbay. Sometimes she missed her youth. There would be no reason to undress if she was in her home reality; everything would have been done in seconds with magic, at least in early pregnancy.

Harry hopped up on the cot, and she tried to focus on the feel of the paper over the firm cushions, forcing herself to stay in the present and not remember the cold hard metal slab from One. Once Harry was seated, Owen made his way over, and the first thing he did was go about drawing blood.

"Does teaboy know?" Owen asked softly as he drew blood.

"Yes, I told him last night," Harry said as she held pressure on the gauze after Owen removed the needle.

"Then congratulations and whatnot," Owen said as he started the physical, it had been years since his OG/BYN rotation, but he still remembered the basics. "Is there anything different about Magi's pregnancies that I need to know about?"

"You are not going to write this down anywhere, are you?" Harry asked, concerned as she nervously shifted her weight on the stiff cot, causing the paper to crackle.

It would have been unthinkable to her a centenary ago to share medical information, but she had no other options. Her people were very secretive, especially when it came to outsiders. Pregnancy was the time Magi were the most venerable, and the information was tightly guarded; even her own people didn't write about it, paranoid that the information could be used against them. Midwives and mothers passed the information down, but it was never written. Men were told only by their parents before marriage or after by their wives.

Owen gave her a strange look but saw how nervous the usual calm Harry was. She was more agitated than she usually was in a medical setting.

"I promise that I'll keep everything confidential, and nothing will be written down. I'll let you know if I do have to note something." Owen reassured her.

Ianto, who was standing near the gurney, reached over and gave Harry's hand a reassuring squeeze. It took a moment for Harry to force the words out; this was never spoken to outsiders. Even though she was no longer held to the secrecy oath, it was still ingrained not to talk to mundanes about Magi.

"Our pregnancies last about a year. We are at risk of miscarriage until about the six-month mark because, until that time, we have access to our magic. About halfway through the pregnancy, the mother loses their ability to use magic as all the magic turns inwards to protect and develop the child. If the mother tried to use magic in those last months, it would cause damage to the fetus's magical core, causing late-term miscarriage, stillbirth or Parasitic Core Disorder. PCD is when the fetus's magical core is ruptured and will either drain the mother of their magic until both die or when the child is born it hemorrhages magic until they die in horrific pain hours after birth." Harry explained, wincing as Owen performed a breast exam.

Owen took in the information professionally while Ianto came up behind her and squeezed her in a half hug.

"Is that why you are so concerned? You can't use magic?" Ianto asked, worried.

"I can right now, but soon I won't be able to," Harry said before continuing her explanation. "Pregnancy is one of the most vulnerable times for a Magi. We cannot defend ourselves or escape because magic used on us, like Portkeys, can be damaging. When simple household charms are damaging. We become essentially human. Traditionally women would spend their pregnancy safe behind manor wards, surrounded by family who could defend them. It's part of why we formed Covens in the past, before the invention of wards and safe manor houses. It was protection against humans who could easily overpower us and often hunted us."

The men shared a concerned look. It was tough to think that a people as powerful as the Magi could be so powerless. It was understandable that Harry was nervous and somewhat scared at being so vulnerable. It was also understandable that the Magi would try and hide this information from Humans, who they were rightly weary and fearful of, rightly so from their fate.

"What about birth defects or genetic diseases?" Owen asked.

"We don't have them," Harry informed them. "If there was something wrong physically, magic would abort the pregnancy early. Magic wants a strong vessel. The only thing I can think of as a genetic disease would be being born without magic."

"What about your reproductive history?" Owen asked, knowing from her statements after her miscarriage during the Year That Never Was that it wasn't her first.

Harry knew she had to tell him, but it still hurt to think about it. It had been centuries, but her failure to have a successful pregnancy was an old would that still ached.

"I gave birth when I was seventeen; he was stillborn. It was the only pregnancy I carried to term. I've had 23 miscarriages, and I lost all of them around six to eight weeks. I finally gave up trying when I was 62. I couldn't bear to try anymore, and my long-time lover was killed around that time." Harry told them as a feeling of shame and failure washed over her.

Even though Harry knew it wasn't her fault that she lost her first child because she had been forced to fight for her life, it was hard not to blame herself. Her first child had been conceived as the war was kicking off. She had been forced to use magic to defend herself, unaware she was harming her unborn baby. She didn't have a mother to tell her, her best friend was mundane-born, all her knowledge came from books, so she didn't know, and Harry had been on the run when she realized she was pregnant. With no one to tell her better, she continued to use magic even though it had become painful to do so. After the final battle, it was discovered that she was heavily pregnant, and she was informed of the damage she had been doing. Harry had been horrified and had hoped beyond hope that her baby, her last piece of Fred, had survived. A week after the final battle, she had gone into early labour, and she had given birth at the Burrow with the aid of Molly acting as a midwife. She gave birth to a blue baby boy, never living to take a breath.

Harry had been devastated and blamed herself for the loss of her child. Fell into depression and was still suicidal from Dumbledoor's machinations. The only thing that saved her from falling further into a crippling depression and harming herself was Andromeda showing up with the month-old Teddy hours after she gave birth. Andromeda dropped Teddy into his godmother's arms and told Harry that this baby still needed her, needed a mother. Harry still vividly remembered the moment Teddy latched on to her breast, greedily suckling her milk.

For years Teddy was the only reason she had to live, and it took years and lots of hard work from friends to recover. Teddy was the only reason she healed and dared to try again, even after multiple miscarriages. In the back of her mind, Harry knew that it was Death's magic that caused her to miscarry, but Harry had been in denial for decades. It's why it took her so long to speak to a midwife. She had been hoping that she was like many Pureblood women who had trouble conceiving, and with enough tries, she would succeed. But now, with the child growing inside her, three months strong, she couldn't help but wonder if Death did something when they rebuilt her body on arrival in this reality, allowing her to conceive.

"Did your doctors do any tests to find out why?" Owen asked as he moved to take her blood pressure.

"The stillborn was because I used magic during my pregnancy. It had been unavoidable. I was fighting in a war I had no choice but to be a part of. I had to fight for my life because I was being hunted by the other side." Harry explained, somewhat defensive.

"The miscarriages were because my magic rejected the fetus. It was a common problem for those of my people who didn't have much human ancestry. Those with more human blood were more fertile but were magically weaker, and their children were more likely to be born without magic. However, Pureblood Magi had only a small amount of human blood from several millennia before they knew the risks of breeding with humans. Pureblood often had fertility problems; unlike humans, we don't ovulate regularly. To ovulate, we needed a partner with resonating compatible magic or use Nature magic by performing rituals often during high points on the Wheel of the Year. Then even if they did conceive, they often faced magical rejection of the fetus. Healers and Midwives thought the difficulty conceiving was because of the holdover from when we were longer lived. Before we started interbreeding with humans, my people could easily live up to several millennia. When I was born, the average life span was 156, but those with strong magic could live upwards to 200." Harry explained.

"Longer lives, less fertile. Nature's way of balancing the books." Owen guessed, and Harry nodded in acknowledgement.

"Will Jack and I being human, cause problems with the baby?" Ianto asked, worried.

"It shouldn't. Our species have been interbreeding without major issues for more than ten thousand years." Harry reassured him.

"Even still, I'm gonna be monitoring you closely," Owen told her, and the pair nodded in acknowledgement.

Owen took off the pressure cuff before raising the stirrups from under the gurney.

"I just have to do a pelvic before we do the ultrasound," Owen said as he prepped the speculum.

Harry laid down on the gurney and slipped her feet into the stirrups before sliding down the gurney, so she was exposed. Ianto took one of Harry's hands, squeezing it in support. Harry used her other arm to cover her eyes, not wanting to stare at the surgical lights on the ceiling. The last thing she needed was to trigger a flashback or a panic attack. Her hands clenched tight as she forced down panic as memories assaulted her. She tried to focus on Ianto's warm hand firmly in hers.

Owen was quick and professional, thankfully not saying anything about the residual sperm from her and Ianto's reunion the night before. She hadn't been thinking about the possibility of having a pelvic exam last night. The longer she was in the stirrups, the more panic started to grow, even as Harry tried to fight it. Harry winced in pain as Owen scraped her cervix.

"There all done," Owen said as he pulled out the speculum and stepped away with his swabs.

"Can I get dressed?" Harry asked somewhat desperately, feeling a cold sweat come over her.

Harry was obviously distressed and on the verge of a flashback. All of this reminded her too much of her time at One. The whole thing was too clinical. If Owen didn't allow her to dress, she knew she would bolt and mostly accidentally hurt them in her panic to escape.

"Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem," Owen said, noting her distress.

Owen was actually surprised that Harry had made it this far without panicking. He still remembered that first day, during the physical, how uncomfortable she was with the medbay and himself. Owen had noticed that Harry avoided his workspace as much as possible. It wasn't all that surprising that she had trauma involving clinical or medical settings. Owen had read her file from One, and what they had done to her was horrific. Owen was actually quite surprised that she willingly stepped foot in the medbay.

Owen stepped out of the room into the storage room to get the ultrasound machine and give the couple some privacy. Harry grabbed her clothes and dressed as quickly as possible.

"Are you okay, Annwyl?" Ianto asked with concern as Harry dressed.

"I just want to get back to the tent as soon as possible," Harry said, her voice tight as she pulled on her pants and grabbed her shirt. "It's just too clinical."

"We don't have to do the ultrasound today. We can go home." Ianto offered as he handed her sweater to her.

Harry pulled the sweater on before hugging herself and running her hands up and down her arms, comforting herself in the ambient magic of the knitwear. Aware of her growing distress, Ianto pulled her into his arms, tucking her head under his chin. Ianto rocked her gently as she worked to calm herself down. Ianto saw Owen peek out of the storage room. Owen mouthed for them to call him when they were ready before he slipped back into the storage room.

After several minutes Harry pulled herself together enough to speak.

"I want to do the ultrasound," Harry mumbled softly into Ianto's chest.

"Are you sure?" Ianto asked as he pulled away slightly to look at her face.

"Yes, I want to see them," Harry confirmed, her voice gaining strength.

"Owen, we are ready," Ianto called, though keeping Harry in his arms.

Owen walked back in, pulling the ultrasound machine.

"You good?" Owen asked Harry, not wanting to push her.

"I'm fine, but I just want to get this done," Harry said firmly.

"Okay," Owen said; he wasn't going to push her. He reconfigured the gurney so she would be propped up while lying down. "Up on the gurney and pull up your shirt and pull-down pants down below your hips."

Ianto didn't let Harry go, helping her onto the gurney but always staying in physical contact. Harry reclined on the gurney before rolling down her pants and pulling up her tunic and sweater.

Owen brought the machine to the bedside so that Ianto and Harry could see the screen. Owen took the gel from the side of the cart and squeezed a generous amount on her abdomen. He then took the wand, turned on the machine, and used the wand to spread the gel. He then ran the wand over her womb, pressing firmly and readjusting the wand until he found what it was looking for.

"There we are," Owen said as he moved the wand, and a rapid heartbeat filled the room.

Owen pointed to a spot, and they could see a small shape. The image was black and white and very grainy, but they could make out the head, little arms, and legs.

"There is baby one," Owen said before moving the wand again, "And there is baby two."

The soulmates were overwhelmed, and Harry could feel tears of joy drip down her cheeks. The fact that she carried twins filled her with relief. Twins were always a blessing from Magic, and it was known that they never miscarried. The only danger to her pregnancy would be her own doings in the coming months, and she knew better this time. Ianto was equally moved. He was going to be a father; even if he wasn't the biological father, they would be his. As much as he wanted to jump for joy, he held it together, not wanting to lose composure in front of Owen. Ianto squeezed Harry's hand while sharing his emotions through their bond.

"If you were human, I would say you're about 8 weeks, but if your pregnancy lasts a year, then 1.3 weeks would be equivalent to 1 week for a human. So about ten, almost eleven weeks. Does that sound about right?" Owen asked as he finished his measurements of the fetuses.

Harry was too overwhelmed to speak, her eyes glued to the small screen. Ianto took over, focusing on what he needed to know.

"Are they healthy? Ianto asked, staring at the screen.

"As far as I can tell, but I'm flying half blind here. If I go off what I know about humans, yeah, they're health." Owen told the pair. "Do you want the print-off?"

"Yes," Ianto said hurriedly.

Owen froze the image and removed the wand from Harry's abdomen. Owen tried to give Harry a cloth to wipe up the gel, but she was too hypnotized by the image of her children. Ianto took the rag from Owen and proceeded to wipe up the gel before fixing Harry's clothes. After the photo was printed, Owen handed them to Ianto.

"I want you to come in weekly, to monitor not only your health but the fetuses as well," Owen ordered sternly.

Ianto nodded in agreement. He didn't want to risk either of their health, even if Harry was immortal.

"They'll be better than fine." Harry half whispered as if she spoke louder; the image on the screen would disappear. "Twins are Blessed by Magic. So long as I don't use magic, they'll be born healthy."

"Blessed?" Owen questioned with skepticism.

"It's a Blessing to conceive twins. You never need to worry about miscarrying; they are always carried to terms and born with magic. Witches always prayed for twins." Harry told him distractedly, still fixed on the screen's frozen image.

"Well, like I said, I want you in here once a week just to monitor for any issues that might pop up from mixing species. I don't know what kind of supplements or vitamins you need, but keep a log of anything you take." Owen reiterated.

"Yes, we will. Thank you, Owen." Ianto answered for the couple.

"Well, I'm going to head out," Owen said before making his way out of the room, leaving the pair.

Ianto let the doctor go, knowing that Owen was just going off to get food. Like the rest of the team, Owen wouldn't be leaving the Hub for a couple days as they worked through the enormous task of cleaning up the aftermath of the Master.

Ianto turned his attention to Harry; she was starting to worry him.

"Are you okay?" Ianto asked Harry, retaking her hand.

The question was the last straw and broke Harry's façade. Harry started to sob inconsolably, curling onto herself. Ianto was startled by the sudden breakdown and slid onto the gurney behind her. Ianto pulled Harry into his chest. Ianto patted her hair and ran his hand down her back, trying to comfort the crying woman.

"What's wrong, Annwyl? I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong." Ianto whispered into her hair as he tried to calm her.

It took several minutes before Harry could speak.

"I'm just so happy, but I'm also sad," Harry said between sobs.

"Why, Annwyl?" Ianto asked softly.

"I'm finally going to have a baby, babies. I gave up that dream centuries ago. I'm just so happy." Harry sobbed, "But Jack's not here, and I want him here for this. He should have been here too."

Ianto understood and mirrored her feelings but knew he couldn't fix this. They had no idea when Jack would return and could only hope it was soon. Ianto let Harry cry it out before she collapsed against his chest as she ran out of tears, exhausted.

"Do you want to lie down?" Ianto asked once she had calmed.

"Yeah," Harry said weakly into Ianto's chest, muffling her even more.

Ianto helped Harry up and led her out of the medical bay. She was slightly confused when Ianto didn't steer them down towards the bunk room but to Jack's office. Ianto opened the hatch in the floor before Harry realized Ianto was taking them to Jack's bunker. Ianto helped Harry down into the bunker. The bunker was tiny, barely bigger than a college dorm room. There was a single bed, a small closet, a desk, and a tiny bathroom.

Harry quickly made herself comfortable on the bed, burying her face into the pillow. Even though Jack hadn't stayed in the bunker for months, his scent was still strong. Jack's 51st-century pheromones had saturated the small room after years of Jack living in the bunker. Harry felt herself relax as she burrowed into the sheets. She often forgot that her new body was affected by pheromones, mainly because, other than Jack, everyone else in his century was scent-nulls.

Ianto perched on the side of the bed, rubbing her back.

"I'm going to get us some food if you are okay?" Ianto asked, looking down at his now mellow soulmate.

"I'm good," Harry stated, feeling high on the pheromones. "Just nothing that rich in iron. I have to be more careful about my iron intake."

Ianto nodded, he was aware of her iron intolerance, and large quantities could make her sick. After he had found out, he did a lot of research on what she should be eating.

"I was thinking about getting macaroni and cheese from that place down the road," Ianto told her.

"That sounds good. Can you get me a lemonade?" Harry asked sleepily, barely staying awake.

"Of course, Annwyl," Ianto said before getting up.

Ianto climbed out of the bunker before making his way out of the Hub. It was a short walk to the restaurant. He was back in the Hub within the hour, carrying their food. It was a bit of a challenge to climb down into the bunker carrying the food, but he managed not to drop anything. When he returned, Harry was sleeping, curled up in a blanket nest. Ianto pulled the desk close to the bed and pulled out the food before sitting beside Harry.

"Annwyl," Ianto said softly as he shook her shoulder to wake her. "I have food."

Harry blearily opened her eyes, barely waking up. Harry sat up, barely awake enough to eat. The pair ate in silence. Harry almost fell into her food several times. After eating, Ianto helped Harry strip out of her clothes before she fell back asleep. Ianto took out his phone and sent a text to Owen and Tosh, letting them know that he and Harry would be gone for the day. After, Ianto stripped before joining Harry on the bed. There was barely enough room for the two of them, but Harry sighed in contentment in her sleep as Ianto wrapped around her.

Ianto knew that there were still things to be done, but he could bring himself to care now that he was wound around his soulmate. Ianto rested his hand over her womb, taking comfort in the small bump. Everything would have to wait until morning. Ianto trusted Owen and Tosh to hold the fort until the morning.

09:14 am - February 28th, 2008 – Conference Room – The Hub – Cardiff

It had been a hectic few days for the Torchwood team. They had been in and out of meeting with multiple agencies. Everyone was trying to work through the mess the Master left behind. Torchwood had taken control of the Archangel network to push the official story. The official story they were going for was that Prime Minister Saxon had been recruited by a terrorist cell and had been on a mission to take out high officials in the British Government and other world leaders if possible. Unfortunately, many terrorist groups were willing to come forth and calm credit to further their causes. It sounded crazy, but people seemed to accept it better than the truth: Saxon had been a psychotic time-travelling alien hellbent on galactic domination through nuclear war.

The team was working with UNIT on a plan to take down the Archangel satellites as soon as possible. After Bilis and the Master, it was clear that it was too dangerous to leave them up because any psychic with moderate talent and time could take control of them. The last thing Earth needed was another psychic using the human population to increase their power. Currently, Harry was networked in with the satellites so that no one else could take control of the psych field.

As it stood right now, the British Government officials' positions had been filled by temporary members until they could be filled permanently. The United States Government was up in arms, rightfully so, and was now pushing for more control of UNIT, even though it had its own agency, Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistic Division, or as most other agencies call them, SHIELD. While Torchwood was the oldest agency dealing with extraterrestrials, they had lost a lot of influence with the fall of One, and UNIT had replaced them as the leading agency. UNIT was pioneered by the British Government, and they had a lot of influence in the agency, even though it was officially under the overview of the United Nations. Both Torchwood and UNIT had more experience dealing with extraterrestrials, mainly because of the Doctor's preference for the United Kingdoms. Neither British-based agency was happy about the proverbial new kid on the block trying to take power as the leading agency.

It had been a headache dealing with SHIELD and the United States. They had wanted the Archangel network as compensation, and Torchwood and UNIT had fought that tooth and nail. Both agencies made concessions to keep the Archangel Network away from them. UNIT agreed to give SHIELD the blueprints for the Heli-carrier and allow them to increase American personnel at UNIT.

On the other hand, Torchwood was not about to hand over alien technology to the United States Government, so they proposed an exchange of personnel. Ianto had argued that they did not have the personnel to do a proper exchange, so they agreed to take on two SHIELD agents. The team was hoping that the agents would be those that joined the Coven during the aborted timeline. Ianto had been tempted to hand Gwen over to them, but he could only image the level of damage she could do there, both physically and for international relations.

The Coven was why negotiations were not as bad as they could have been. Instead of only those on the Valiant remembering the Year That Never Was, nearly all the Master's goons, there were over 600 people, most of whom had survived that year, who remembered the horrors that had taken place. Those agents had gone back to their agencies and governments and helped smooth the ruffled feathers.

After several days of frantic meets and putting out fires, the team, minus Gwen, finally had time to sit down together for a meeting. Ianto had prepared coffee for everyone but Harry, who was drinking one of the herbal teas she preferred.

Ianto sat down at the head of the table. Harry was to his left, Owen to his right, and Tosh beside Owen."

"Tosh had SHIELD send us the files of the agents they are sending us," Ianto asked, starting the meeting.

"Not yet. From what I gather, they have an internal issue with who to send. Mainly the CIA is not happy that SHIELD is not considering one of their agents, only their own." Tosh reported before sipping her coffee.

"That, unfortunately, makes sense. SHIELD was originally an offshoot of the CIA, and the CIA has been trying to get one of their agents into Torchwood since its conception," Ianto said, remembering the dossiers Jack kept in his office.

"Either way, we are going to have to monitor them closely. The last thing we need is the Americans to get a hold of anything from the secure archives." Harry stated.

The others nodded in agreement; it was indeed a horrible idea. There was a reason Torchwood was under the preview of the Crown and not the government. Even UNIT was monitored by several commissions staffed with people from governments from all over the world. This kept one nation from jumping ahead with the help of alien technology. Not many in their community trusted SHIELD.

"I've spoken to the Queen, as well as the King. They have agreed to allow us access to more funds to expand the Hub and take on more employees." Ianto told them.

"How does that work anyways? With the timeline and whatnot, is William king or not?" Owen pondered; it had been bothering him.

"They don't really have protocols for aborted dystopian timelines, so the Queen is still the Queen, and William is a Prince again," Ianto said, having had to ask the same thing when he had asked about the protocols when he went to the Palace. "However, the Queen had included him because of his experience."

"So you think that he is going to be more involved with us now?" Tosh asked.

"From what it sounded like, the Queen will be handing off the overview of Torchwood to Prince William and Prince Harry," Ianto said.

"This past almost year was a giant wake-up call, and they realize how vulnerable we are without One. I have no love for One, but they were this country's first line of defence. If they had still been around, the Master would have never been able to get the foothold he had. After all, they had been trained and trained government officials to resist a psychic more powerful than the Master." Harry said, referring to herself.

Harry had no love for Yvonne or the previous leadership of One, but even she could admit that they had severed a vital role in Earth's defence.

"So what? We are bringing back One?" Owen asked skeptically.

"It won't happen right away. Bring back One is going to take years. As of now, we are the only people who can train new agents. Right now, we will focus on building up Two and Three." Ianto told them.

"Us, I get but Two? They're just an archive." Owen scoffed.

"It's only Archie up in Two. With more personnel, we could have people studying and developing new tech for us instead of it just being a giant storehouse. We also have many Coven members who want to join Torchwood but would not do well as field agents. This is a good alternative with the added bonus of restarting the Research and Development." Ianto explained his reasoning.

"It would be nice to have someone else with tech knowledge," Tosh added, liking the idea. "If I had more time, I could work on refining the Rift prediction program."

"I suppose it would be nice to have someone help out when bodies start stacking up in autopsy." Owen pondered, not having thought of the perks of having minions.

"Speaking of the Coven, we have to start relocating them from Sanctuary," Harry said; there was an edge to her voice that only Ianto noticed. He knew that having humans in the tent was causing her anxiety.

"What is the issue?" Tosh asked.

"We have to start reintegrating them into society. They can't stay hidden away forever." Harry told them.

"Yeah, but that's the issue. They're scared, even though everyone knows everything is back to normal." Owen said.

"Some have tried to go home, but there is too much trauma. A lot of them were saved by Harry after watching their families, friends, or coworkers being murdered by alien invaders." Tosh said.

The two had been speaking to the other Coven members. Unfortunately, there had been several more suicides in the past week, and several others had changed their minds and wished to forget. It was hard for all of them to accept that that year didn't happen. There was no way to explain the trauma without sounding absolutely crazy. How do you explain to family and friends that you suddenly have PTSD seemingly overnight?

"Then we must find somewhere else for them. It's not healthy for them to keep cut off from the world." Harry said.

"What if we buy up houses here in Cardiff?" Ianto proposed. "After Abaddon took out several neighbourhoods, there is a flood of houses on the market. We could buy them up."

"And make what? A Torchwood community?" Owen questioned, giving Ianto a look like he was crazy.

"That could work," Harry said, turning the idea over in her head. "It would work. They are already a community, and if they don't feel like the rest of the world will accept them, living separately together would help them integrate into society. Close enough to venture out but have a safe place to retreat to."

"Why don't we just build a village while we're at it," Owen said with derision.

"No, I think it's a good idea as well." Tosh agreed. "If Harry can place wards, then it will allow them to feel secure. Monitoring them and setting up medical and mental health services would also be easier. A village would be too removed; a neighbourhood in the city will allow them to reintegrate into society."

Owen saw that he was outvoted and just shrugged. He thought the idea did have some merit, but he knew that he would never live there. With that resolved, Owen forced the issue that they were all avoiding.

"How about we face the elephant in the room?" Owen stated because he knew that they were all dancing around the subject. "What are we going to do with Gwen?"

Tension filled the room before Ianto broke it.

"The main issue is that Gwen did not actually do anything wrong. She had received orders for our elected head of state." Ianto sighed, rubbing at his head as a headache set in, he had Harry had gone over this and still didn't know what to do. If they were going to make this decision without Jack, Ianto wanted the team to agree with what was to happen.

"But we answer directly to the Crown, not the British Government," Tosh argued.

"True, but after Canary Wharf, there were changes in our mandate. If the Prime Minister feels we are going against the interest of the Crown or the country, they can investigate. Even though Gwen was working against us, legally, she did not do anything wrong." Ianto told them, feeling exhausted.

"The better question is, do we trust her not to do it again? Let's not forget she trapped us in the Hub and left us to die." Harry argued.

There was silence as they thought over the question because they all knew that Gwen would put her own interests over the team. She had done it several times before, and she didn't look like she was going to break that pattern of behaviour.

"What have we been telling her boyfriend?" Tosh asked.

"As far as Rhys knows, Gwen is being held under suspicion of aiding Saxon," Ianto told them.

"We could work with that. Have her on monitored release, with an ankle tracker and everything. That way, we know where she is and can watch her." Owen proposed.

"Do you think that she's going to be cooperative and want to work with us if we do that? She barely conforms to standards as it is. She doesn't respect Ianto's authority, or anyone's for that matter. What do you think she will do, just happily work with us? No, she's going to throw a temper tantrum and do what she wants anyways." Harry said she had never been quiet about her option on Gwen.

"Then what do you suggest?" Owen asked Harry.

"We already have people in the UNIT hospital with memory loss. We wipe her memories of Torchwood. I can remove specific memories instead of the whole year and a half like Retcon would. If anyone questions why her memory loss is more extensive than the others, we can say that she was closer to the chemical spill." Harry proposed.

"What would we tell Rhys?" Ianto asked, thinking over the idea.

"We tell him the same thing, but we can say that she was in custody for so long because Gwen has been unconscious. We kept her in custody until she could be questioned, but she doesn't remember anything." Harry said.

"Shouldn't we wait for Jack to get back until we decide this?" Tosh questioned, feeling a bit unsure.

"We don't know when he is getting back, and we have to decide this sooner rather than later. We can't keep her locked up forever." Ianto said. "I think we should all have a say, so we should do a vote. Anyone for just letting her go?"

No one raised their hands.

"Anyone for Owen's plan?" Ianto asked.

Once again, no one raised their hands; not even Owen voted for his own option.

"I'll ask anyways. Harry's plan?" Ianto asked them.

They all raised their hands, and with that, Gwen's fate was decided.

"Okay." Ianto sighed with relief that Gwen would finally be gone. "Owen and Tosh, I need you to search her flat and her devices to ensure that she doesn't have anything from here. I'll arrange for a UNIT team to meet you as backup. Harry and I will deal with Gwen and her transfer to the UNIT hospital. Is there anything else anyone wants to add?"

"I do," Harry said before focusing on Tosh. "Tosh, everyone else here knows, but I'm not going to be going into the field anymore. I'm pregnant."

"Oh my god, congratulations," Tosh said excitedly as she moved around the table to hug Harry.

"Thank you," Harry said, smiling as she returned the hug.

"I'm so happy for you guys," Tosh said before moving to hug Ianto as well.

"Thank you, Tosh, but if you can keep it to yourself. We are keeping it quiet until Jack gets back, or we can't anymore." Ianto said.

"Of course. When are you due?" Tosh asked Harry.

"December," Harry answered before continuing after she saw Tosh counting back in her head. "My people carry for a year."

"Oh," Tosh said as she flushed in embarrassment at being caught trying to figure out who the father was.

"It's okay. You won't be the only one." Harry said with an amused smile. "It doesn't matter who the father is. They're all our children."

Tosh flushed even more red with embarrassment. Owen took pity on her and got up and grabbed her arm.

"Come on, let's go before you stick your other foot in your mouth, too," Owen said, pulling Tosh out of the room.

The soulmates sat in silence for a moment before Harry started laughing. Smiling, Ianto moves to hug his lover.

"Something funny?" Ianto asked as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Just realizing that everyone is going to awkwardly try to ask if Jack was around when I got pregnant every time we share the news." Harry was laughing at the sheer amount of amusement this would bring her.

Ianto chuckled, seeing the funny side of it, but he was also a bit hurt. It didn't matter to him that he might not be the biological father; he would love them because they would be his children. It was hard to think that it would matter to others. He knew that his sister wouldn't care, but it would be another thing that Johnny would use against him. He and his sister had repaired their relationship in the Year that Never Was, but Johnny still was too keen on him even with agreeing to keep his memories of that year.

"Are you good, Annwyl?" Ianto asked after Harry finally calmed down, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Yes, my love. It just stuck me as funny." Harry smiled up at him before giving him a kiss.

"I'll go call UNIT and make the arrangements; I'm assuming that you can take care of Gwen by yourself?" Ianto asked, a bit concerned for her to be alone with Gwen.

"Yes, it should be easy enough to petrify her and force eye contact; I don't think she will cooperate unless retrained. I won't even need to be in the cell with her." Harry answered, reassuring him.

"Don't torment her too much, Annwyl," Ianto told her.

Harry's expression turned stormy.

"She didn't care that Jack was killed in front of you; if anything, she enjoyed the pain it caused you. She says that she loves Jack, but she happily stepped over his corpse to save her precious Rhys. She doesn't care for anyone but herself. I was done with her after Abaddon. Her apathy to everyone who was lost, too busy trying to cry over our soulmate. She left us to die, Ianto. Jack might be able to forgive people over and over even as they tear him apart, but I'm not him. I can't forgive her anymore." Harry told him firmly.

"I know, I haven't, won't, forgive her either. It might be better that we have taken this from Jack. He won't have to tear himself up over the decision or have Gwen sink her hooks into him again." Ianto agreed; he had never been a fan of Gwen.

Neither soulmate cared for the woman. Gwen had always been hostile and suspicious towards Harry and demeaning and condescending towards Ianto. It didn't help that both soulmates had felt the hurt Jack felt as he continually forced himself to forgive Gwen, even when she hurt the trio. The pair had spoken about it and believed that Jack felt guilty for bringing Gwen into this world and felt responsible for her.

"Be careful, Annwyl," Ianto said before giving her one last kiss before disengaging from her.

"I will, my love," Harry said, giving him another smile.

They parted ways, Ianto going to Jack's office to start making calls. Harry made her way down to the Vaults. She made her way to the Vault that housed Gwen; she was alone in the block, and they had been nice enough to keep her away from the Weevils. Harry unlocked the door causing to door to bang as the magnetic locks disengaged. She then turned the wheel on the door, retracted the bolts, then pulled open the door.

Gwen must have been awoken by the door before she was just rolling out of the cot, looking dishevelled. The transfiguration had worn off a couple days ago, so she was back to looking fully human. Gwen was still in the clothes she had been wearing when she had been put in the cell, having refused the changes of clothes because they had been prisoner scrubs. Gwen had a hopeful look until she saw Harry. She had most likely been hoping that Jack was back and was going to let her out.

"Let me out of here!" Gwen yelled at her, slamming her hand on the transparent aluminum barrier.

"No," Harry said flatly, enjoying the rage that it caused Gwen.

"Let me out, you freak! You'll all regret this when Jack gets back!" Gwen screeched, kicking at the barrier.

"And just what are you going to tell him?" Harry questioned, keeping the same flat tone.

"You're controlling everyone with that magic of yours. Jack will see that and set me free and throw you in this cell where you should be." Gwen spat.

"Do you truly believe that?" Harry asked, wondering just how far her delusions went.

"Jack loves me. He chose me. You're not even human. You're an alien using her freaky powers on innocent people." Gwen spat, glaring at her.

"I think that there is something truly wrong with you, Gwen. I'm not controlling anyone. Jack doesn't love you. Jack is mine and Ianto's soulmate, and he married us out of his own free will." Harry said with a hint of pity for the delusional woman; she wondered if losing her soulmate as a child had irreparably broken something in Gwen.

"That's not true!" Gwen denied. "You're just jealous of what we have."

Harry hadn't realized how truly twisted Gwen was; probably none of them had. Gwen had hidden it well, but she was spiralling after several days of solitary confinement. Harry was going to suggest to Ianto to have Gwen undergo therapy after they released her. Even without her memories, they should have someone monitoring her mental state because if she was this obsessed with Jack, she might turn those feeling on someone else without the memory of Jack.

"It doesn't matter anyways," Harry told her in the same flat tone.

"What do you mean?" Gwen spat, glaring at her.

"You won't remember any of this anyways," Harry told her calmly, with a smile finally breaking over her face.

Gwen's eyes widened in fear and denial. Harry would admit to herself that she was enjoying Gwen's panicked look.

"You can't do that!" Gwen screamed in denial.

"You will find that I can," Harry said, reaching out with her magic, paralyzing Gwen.

With a flick of her wrist, the Elder wand dropped into her hand. Her crystal wand did not allow fine enough control for what she needed to do. Harry locked eyes with Gwen and raised her wand.

"Obliviate." Harry cast and began digging through Gwen's mind.

It was an arduous task to comb through her memories. Snape was right when he said that the mind is not like a book. Harry couldn't just rip out pages without leaving Gwen a vegetable. Harry had to carefully go through each memory and obscure or remove it while redirecting the emotions that couldn't be erased. When Harry finally broke the spell, she stubbled from exhaustion. Before Harry could fall, arms pulled her into a firm chest as Ianto caught her. Gwen was not that lucky and collapsed to the ground. She would be out for hours.

"Are you okay, Annwyl? You've been down here for two hours." Ianto asked her, worry evident in his voice.

After Harry hadn't returned in an hour, Ianto had gone looking for Harry. He found her in a staring contest with Gwen. Neither was blinking, and both were as still as stone. Ianto had been worried since it hadn't taken this long with the others, so he had kept vigil.

"Just tired," Harry answered, leaning into Ianto as exhaustion weighted her down. "Lockhart, one of the worse teachers I've ever had, was right. Memory charms are tricky."

"Oh? I thought you said that it would be easy. You weren't this tired with the others." Ianto questioned as he led her out of the Vault.

"They weren't fighting me the entire time. Typically we're only removing a couple minutes or hours of recent memories. It was easier with those who wanted that year removed because it was a solid chunk of time. It's more challenging with long-term memory removal because of the emotions attached to them; with the others, I just tied the emotions to the fake chemical spill. With Gwen, I had to go through a year's worth of memories and carefully remove or rewrite them and make sure that the emotions associated with the memories made sense. If I wasn't careful, she wouldn't have remembered anything and wouldn't have been able to form any new memories.

"On the other hand, if I wasn't careful with the emotions, she might try and unlock the missing memories. Doing so might cause her to have a psychotic break. I might not like her, but I'm not about to erase or maim her." Harry explained as they made their way to Jack's office so she could lie down.

"But she doesn't remember Torchwood anymore?" Ianto confirmed.

"She doesn't, and she doesn't remember the last month to reinforce our cover story. As far as she knows, she's been working in an office that deals with security issues. She had an affair with a coworker that ended when he moved away. I've tried to explain away any scars from injuries and left a suggestion to ignore them. We'll have to keep her on medical leave for a couple of months to monitor her and ensure she doesn't break the memory charms, then we can dismiss her." Harry said after lying down on the couch in Jack's office.

"Try a get some sleep. I'll arrange Gwen's transport." Ianto told her before kissing the top of her head.

"She'll be unconscious for a couple of hours, and let them know she might be confused when she wakes," Harry said as her eyes closed.

Ianto left Harry to her nap and went to arrange Gwen's transfer to the UNIT hospital. Hopefully, this would be the last time he had to deal with her.

11:27 pm - May 12th, 2008 – Torchwood District – Cardiff

It had been almost two months since the timeline reverted, and the Torchwood team hadn't stopped.

Gwen had been successfully handed over to UNIT and had spent several days with them before she was released. She strangely ran into them quite often but didn't seem to recognize the team. Gwen got a job as a clerk at the police station, and she was in the process of returning as a constable. After getting a job, they cut off her medical leave but continued to monitor her because of her eery ability to run into them. They had been in contact with her UNIT therapist, and he had reassured them that she didn't remember. Her working at the police station actually made that easier because Detective Inspector Kathy Swanson, their liaison, was willing to keep them informed.

The two agents from SHIELD had arrived two weeks after Gwen's removal and were settling in nicely. They were lucky that both were Coven members, which made their integration easier. Thankfully they were picking things up quickly and soon would be signed off.

Annie Grey was 27 years old and had worked for the CIA before being recruited by SHIELD. She was tall, five foot eleven, with long golden blond hair, blue eyes, and light skin. She had been working as a field agent and slid quickly into the hole that Gwen had left. She was thankfully more competent than Gwen had been because Ianto would often have to work behind Gwen fixing paperwork and reports. Annie was shaping up to be one of the best field agents in years. Annie had broken up with her boyfriend in the aftermath of the Year that Wasn't.

Graham 'Gram' Ramsbottom was 30 years old doctor who was married with a one-year-old daughter, both of who had moved with him. He was short for a man, standing at five foot five, slim, with floppy auburn hair that curled on his neck. Gram often wore thick-rimmed glasses that hid his green eyes. Gram had been recruited by SHIELD after his father was murdered. The police believed that it was an accident. Still, Gram had continued to dig until he fell into a SHIELD operation that was hunting an alien serial killer who had been making their way across North America. Gram, like Owen, was in a hybrid position as a doctor and field agent, and Owen was happy to have his help.

It was fortunate for the team that they were already mostly trained because the others they had taken on were not as highly trained as those from SHIELD. The SHIELD agents were already field-trained; they only needed to learn Torchwood policies and procedures.

The team had started the arduous task of building Torchwood up again, and it wasn't as easy as it seemed. Unlike before, when they could recruit people when they needed them, they had a large number of people wanting to work but nowhere to put them.

The first step was to train a small number of people as support staff and start working on repairing and organizing the Hub. The Hub was initially designed to have up to 150 personnel. That number dwindled after One was built in London, and most personnel went there. With the lack of staff, most of the Hub had been shut down, and they were only now in the progress of reopening the lower levels. It was slow going because most of the lower floors required repair. Torchwood Two had been the original headquarters, but after Rift was discovered and the Hub was built, they took over as headquarters. It wasn't until Torchwood One was built in 1906 that the different groups were numbered by priority. So once the support staff was trained and in place, the original team would be freed up to teach others as field agents.

So now there was a maintenance crew working under Elisabeth 'Beth' Ramsbottom (46), Gram's wife, doing the repairs on the Hub that were much needed. Beth was an electrician by trade and was adept at wrangling her crew. Beth had worked at SHIELD as a maintenance worker; that's where she and Gram had met, but she had quit to take care of their daughter. Beth had been harassed about her and Gram's age difference and had been happy to leave for Brittan. She was more than willing to join Torchwood, especially now that they had set up a daycare service for their employees.

Both Tosh and Owen were also busy training new employees. Tosh had three little IT ducklings following her around as she trained them. They wouldn't be field agents and would work solely in the Hub. It was a bit different for Owen; doctor Thomas 'Tom' Milligan and doctor Michelle 'Mica' Ahmed had chosen to join up. Tom had wanted to work in the field in a hybrid position like Owen's, while Mica wanted to focus more on research and the living. So, Tom and Owen started sharing the pathology position while Mica became their on-call surgeon, preferring to set up a clinic. Gram had taken over as the full-time doctor of the Hub, leaving the dead for Owen and Tom. Until Tom was field cleared, Gram was pulling double duty as a field agent, but that would most likely change in the future. There were also several nurses and lab researchers who had almost joined up. The Hub's medical department hadn't been this staffed in half a century.

Ianto was busy running everything, but he was helping Harry train fifteen new archivists/researchers. Not all of them would be staying at the Hub. After they were trained, six were heading up to Two to help Archie with the archives. After they were done training this batch of staff, they would start on the next group, and more would be sent up to Two. They had also hired Emma-Louise Cowell, one of their Rift-ugees, to work the tourist office full time.

Their other big project was building the Torchwood District, a suburb where the Coven could live. Ianto had used funds to buy up a large number of houses. They would be renovated before being rented out at a discount to Torchwood employees or Coven members. This had opened up a lot of construction jobs and would make it easier to entice others to join up if housing was available, seeing as they had been given orders to expand by the Crown.

Mica had opened up a clinic in the community centre, and several restaurants and daycares had also popped up. There was also talk of opening up a private school. It wasn't surprising, considering they had many children with trauma. Ianto was also looking at putting aside some of the houses for when they have to rehome Rift-ugees. Hopefully, this would reduce the number of calls they got from their refugees after they blew their cover and had to be relocated.

Tosh and Owen had refused houses within the community, preferring to stay in their flats, and some from the Coven had refused as well. Ianto and Harry had claimed a house for themselves, a large four-bedroom house with a lovely yard. The soulmates had been looking at homes before the paradox, and with the pregnancy, they couldn't wait for Jack to return. Ianto and Harry had given up their flats and had moved into the house. As much as Harry wanted to stay in the tent, it was too far away once she would be heavily pregnant, especially once she lost the ability to cast magic. With the help of the house elves, Harry warded and renovated their house. She had also placed temporary wards on the houses in the community. She didn't want to strain herself, so more permanent wards would have to wait until she had her babies.

Harry and Ianto had finished work several hours ago and were cuddled up on the couch after dinner. They were watching a movie, not having to get up early because they had the next two days off. Harry signed in contentment as she finally settled into a comfortable spot.

At 21 weeks, equivalent to 16 weeks in humans, she was starting to feel the babies move. Harry counted herself lucky that Magi didn't experience morning sickness. The only times she was sick was when she accidentally ingested too much iron, like she had done earlier that day. For the most part, Harry ate plants and animals that came from Sanctuary because they had low iron content. Not all magical plants and animals were solely used for potions and spells. There were many raised for food. There was a reason that magical animals and plants only lived in isolated pockets; it was because those places had low iron content in the soil allowing magical plants to thrive and, in turn, feed magical animals. As much as Harry tried to be good and only eat the food prepared by the house elves, she still had cravings and would crave human food now and again, though she was now paying for that.

The pregnancy had killed Harry's libido, but she enjoys cuddling with Ianto. Ianto also enjoyed their cuddle time because Ianto was obsessed with her belly. More often than not, he could be found with his hands on the taught skin, hoping to feel something. It was too soon for Ianto to feel anything, but he was still hoping.

"Are they moving?" Ianto asked as they lay side by side on the couch.

"No, I think that they're asleep," Harry said sleepily from her place in Ianto's arms.

"I can't wait until I can feel them," Ianto said softly as he gently moved his hand along her skin.

Harry snorted. "I'm glad you're excited about that, but it's my organs that they will play football with."

"Don't tell me that you're not excited." Ianto teased.

Harry rolled her eyes. "I am, but I'm sure I'll get over it quickly." She joked.

Suddenly Ianto's cell phone started to ring, the familiar tone specifically for the Hub. Both groaned in annoyance as Ianto fished out his phone, dislodging Harry from her comfortable spot.

"Jones," Ianto answered his phone.

Harry was close enough to hear Tosh through the phone.

"I'm sorry, Ianto, I know it's late, and you're off shift, but we need you to come in," Tosh said, sounding apologetic.

"What's the situation?" Ianto asked as he sat up, causing Harry to grumble.

"We've had three fish-like aliens come through the Rift. They have been on a crime spree for three hours, and they just broke into a drug dealer's house, shot the dealer and stole 2 kilos of cocaine. They split after that, and we have been chasing all over the city. But one of them has stolen a sports car and is going around shooting every cat it sees." Tosh explained, sounding exasperated.

"I'll be there shortly." Ianto sighed, knowing that he wasn't getting any sleep tonight.

"Beth is on her way to pick you up. Owen, Gram, and I have already taken out one and have corned another. Once we are done, we'll join you in tracking the last one." Tosh said.

"Okay, thanks, Tosh. I'll be ready." Ianto said before hanging up.

"So, you're going fishing?" Harry joked as Ianto detangled himself from Harry and went over to the gun safe to retrieve his pistol.

"I guess so. I'm sorry…." Ianto started to apologize.

"Don't apologize. I know that we're extremely short-staffed on qualified field agents." Harry interrupted.

Harry was out of the field, but they still had five field agents, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Gram, and Beth. However, they were all pulling double duty with having to train new members, and Gram and Beth were still too new to the area to let out by themselves. Tom was still going through his field agent training and wouldn't be clear for fieldwork for another week. It would be a relief when Jack got back. He was the most experienced in training field agents; hopefully, within a year, they would have multiple response teams.

"I probably won't be back until morning. So don't wait up." Ianto said as he fixed his shirt and pulled on the dragon hide vest Harry had given him before putting his tie and jacket back on.

Harry got off the couch and wrapped her arms around his waist before tilting her head to kiss Ianto.

"Stay safe," Harry said after they broke apart.

"I will, Annwyl," Ianto reassured her as he pulled her close, and she rested her head on his chest.

There was a knock at the door, and the soulmates reluctantly broke apart. Ianto went to the door and opened it to find Beth.

"You ready, boss?" Beth drawled in her southern American accent.

"Yes, thank you, Beth," Ianto said before turning to give Harry one last kiss before he walked to the waiting SUV; he knew that it was hard for her to stay behind.

Beth handed him the keys; she was still getting used to driving on the other side of the road, and it was safer for all of them if Ianto drove.

"Where are we off to?" Ianto asked as he put the SUV into drive.

"Tosh had one of her ducklings send it to the GPS. They are tracking it on the CCTV, but it's driving erratically and has already caused several accidents." Beth told him as she pulled up the GPS on the tablet mounted on the dashboard.

"Just how I wanted to spend my night," Ianto grumbled as he turned on the emergency lights and sped towards the last sighting.

"It could be worse. We could be crawling threw the sewers." Beth quipped, trying to lighten the mood.

"Don't jinx us," Ianto gritted out as he executed a sharp turn, flying through nearly empty streets. The car radio cracked to life, and a young voice came over the air.

"SUV-1 from Hub." A voice Ianto recognized as Vincent 'Vince' Bateman.

Vincent Bateman was a 17-year-old high school dropout who was a tech genius. He had been picked up and joined the Coven about a month into the Year That Never Was. He had been causing havoc for the Master's supply chain, hacking into forms and messing with the system. The Resistance picked him up after he was caught and almost killed. Tosh had taken him under her wing, and he followed her around like a puppy. He was young to be working with them, but with his memories, they counted him as an adult, and a condition for him working with them was to get his diploma.

Beth grabbed the radio. "Copy Hub, go ahead."

"SUV-2 has neutralized the second target and is now rerouted to the pursuit," Vince reported.

"Any update on the target?" Beth asked.

"They've caused like three accidents but stopped to let an old lady cross the road. It's so weird." Vince reported.

"SUV-1, Hub, this is SUV-2." Tosh's voice sounded over the radio. "We've spotted the vehicle, and we are in pursuit."

"Bloody hell, it just shot at us!" Owen could be heard yelling in the background.

"Hold on," Ianto said as he flicked on the sirens.

Ianto sped up and swerved around vehicles as he raced toward the other's team's location. Beth had a firm grip on the grab handle as Ianto narrowly avoided other cars on the road. Soon they could see the emergency lights of the other SUV coming towards them, as well as the headlights of the stolen vehicle.

"Brace!" Ianto yelled as he sped head-on toward the convertible.

Before they collided, the convertible swerved away, hitting a retaining wall. Ianto slammed on the brakes to avoid colliding with the other SUV.

"You okay?" Ianto asked Beth as he turned off the vehicle and unbuckled.

"Yeah, I'm good," Beth answered as she, too, unbuckled.

The pair exited the SUV, drew their weapons, and converged on the stolen vehicle. As they approached the stolen convertible, they were joined by the others. Only the dim streetlight and headlights illuminated the street. It was dark, and it had begun to rain, further obscuring the convertible from its stopped position in the shadows.

"Torchwood! Show us your hands!" Owen called from the side opposite Ianto, closer to the driver's side.

They didn't hear anything or see any movement. They moved closer to the car.

"It's not here," Owen called once he could get a better look.

Their attention was drawn to the house as the lights turned on, and a scream was heard.

"We'll head around back!" Ianto called as Beth followed him towards the backdoor.

The rest of the team moved towards the front door. Ianto and Beth reached the back door in time to hear the others breach the front door. Ianto pulled out a thin flint knife that Harry had gifted him. He held the blade to the deadbolt and heard the lock disengage. Ianto slipped the knife back into the sheath in his vest before carefully opening the door.

Ianto and Beth crept into the house, carefully moving towards the living room, where they heard a woman crying and voices. They came upon a hostage situation. The fish-like alien holds the middle-aged female homeowner hostage with a gun to her head. The fish was monologuing, ranting about Torchwood, and seemed to have some information on them, enough to know their names. The fish had a surprising amount of information on the original team but seemed to be drawing a blank on Gram.

Beth and Ianto moved to flank the talking fish. Owen had noticed them and ensured that the fish was focused on his team. They were still trying to get into a position to get a good shot when the homeowner's cat jumped onto the chair beside the fish, hissing at the alien.

The alien yelped in fright before swinging his gun wildly toward the cat, throwing the woman away from itself. The fish basically through the hostage into Tosh, who grabbed her and pulled her away from the fish. Seeing an opening, Beth took the shot, hitting the fish centre mass, causing the fish to stumble and drop the gun. The team moved in to apprehend the fish when it turned towards the team. Its mouth opened three times its original size, revealing multiple rows of sharp teeth, like something out of a horror movie. The fish lunged towards Ianto, who had unfortunately been the closest.

Ianto stumbled backwards as he pulled the trigger of his pistol, unable to aim, and hoped that he hit the alien fish. Ianto couldn't move away fast enough to avoid the fish's dead weight falling towards him. Ianto crumbled under the weight of the fish. Ianto had the breath knocked twice, once as he hit the ground and the second as the fish collapsed on top of him.

The fish was dead weight and was crushing Ianto. Ianto could feel hard points poking him, but they didn't penetrate his clothes. Thankfully the weight of the fish disappeared as the team pulled it off him, rolling it off and pulling it away.

"You good, teaboy?" Owen asked as he checked Ianto over.

"Yeah." Ianto wheezed out as he tried to get his breath.

Owen helped Ianto to his feet. Ianto checked himself over; his suit was ruined with thick pitch black blood from the alien fish. Ianto noticed several holes in his suit jacket like something had tried to puncture him, but it was stopped by his dragon hide vest.

"Gross," Ianto said, disgusted as he looked down at himself.

"Looks like you'll need to go through decon before heading home," Owen said, looking Ianto up and down.

"Probably won't be getting home until morning anyways," Ianto stated before looking over to the rest of the team.

Gram and Beth had secured the alien while Tosh was with the homeowner, trying to calm her down, having already given her a glass of water spiked with Retcon. Tosh walked the homeowner out of the room. Ianto looked over the scene, noticing the amount of black-ichor blood seeping into the carpet.

"Looks like you killed it." Gram said after looking over the alien.

"Well, that's unfortunate. I was hoping to interrogate it." Ianto said as he holstered his gun and moved towards the fallen alien.

"Huh, yeah, I guess it's a bit odd that it knew our names," Owen said as he pulled out a body bag and began to work with Beth and Gram to bag the alien.

It wasn't uncommon for aliens to know who they were. Just about everyone heavily involved in the extraterrestrial/supernatural community in Great Brittan knew who was a part of Torchwood. So often, they were approached by people who knew their names, but it was odd in this case.

"If they only arrived through the Rift a few hours ago, they shouldn't have known us," Ianto said, concern evident on his face.

"It didn't seem to know who Gram and I were, though." Beth pointed out. "If it did have intel on us, it must be out of date."

"It's still concerning, though," Ianto said as Tosh walked back into the room.

"Mrs. Walton has passed out," Tosh reported as she walked over to the others.

"Did you call an ambulance for her?" Ianto asked Tosh.

"I contacted DS Swanson and advised her of the situation. She said she would get an ambulance rolling and secure the stolen vehicle." Tosh told him.

"Thanks, Tosh," Ianto said before pulling out his phone.

Ianto made a quick call to a cleaning company specializing in crime scene cleanup. They had been working with his company for a couple years since they often unknowingly cleaned up remnants of extraterrestrials. They hadn't told the company what they were cleaning, and when they tried to inform them, the owner declined. The owner of the company didn't want to know and didn't ask questions. All they knew was that Torchwood would pay double, sometimes triple, depending on the severity of the scene, then what they charged for a murder cleanup.

Ianto saw that the team had the scene well in hand and trusted them to handle the cleanup. Ianto slipped out of the house and back over to the SUV. By the time Ianto had stripped out of his suit and dressed in a clean jumpsuit, the ambulance was pulling up. Shortly after, Gram and Owen carried out the body bag and put it into the back of their SUV alongside the two others already there.

They stayed until the ambulance left with Mrs. Walton and the cleaning company arrived. They took off back to the Hub shortly after. Ianto left the rest of the team to deal with the bodies while he made his way to the decontamination area just off the garage. He grabbed his soiled suit and threw it into the sanitizer. The clothes, except for the dragonhide vest that Harry had gifted him were unsalvageable, but they still needed to be sanitized before being disposed of.

Ianto stepped into the decontamination shower and methodically cleaned himself off. Ianto hated the heavy-duty industrial soap; it left his skin dry and itchy. As much as he hated decon, it was protocol if exposed to alien fluids. After Ianto was dried off, he slipped into the spare dress shirt and pants that he kept there.

Ianto walked into the Hub, and it still was jarring to see the changes that had happened in the last months. The major difference was that it was much brighter and cleaner than it had been in years since Ianto and Harry were no longer trying to do the upkeep for the whole Hub. There was now a dedicated cleaning staff. The maintenance team had also finished repairing the damage caused by the Rift opening during the Abaddon crisis.

The desks had been rearranged. They had removed the old desks and replaced them with twelve new ones broken up into four pods. Each pod had four desks. The desks were curved and facing inwards to save space. The first pod was for Tosh and her techs, the second was for the field agents, and the third was for the medical staff. Although Owen preferred to work in his lab and Gram had reopened the infirmary in the lower levels. The only ones that worked in the bullpen were Tom and Mica when she was there. The archivist that Harry and Ianto were training had their own workspace in the lower levels of the Archives.

Much of the clutter had been cleared out, like the basketball net and the gun range. With the help of the maintenance team, they had cleared out an area in the lower levers for a gym and a larger gun range. The old gun range had been repurposed into a locker/break room. The only remaining relatively untouched areas were the kitchen, conference room, and Jack's office.

When Ianto walked in, he saw that Tosh was busy working with Vince on what looked to be a report on Rift activity. Beth was sitting at her desk filling out the report for the alien fish incident, and it sounded like she was on the phone with DS Swanson getting the police files. Gram and Owen were absent from the bullpen, but Ianto was sure they were busy in their respective workspaces.

"Any Rift updates?" Ianto asked Tosh as he approached her desk.

"No, it looks like only those three fish things came through. There haven't been any major spikes since then." Tosh reported.

"Let me know if that changes," Ianto said before walking towards the autopsy bay.

Beth smiled and waved at him when he walked by, but he didn't stop to speak to her because she was still busy on the phone. Ianto found Owen right where he thought he would be, but Ianto was surprised to see that Tom was with him. The pair were elbow-deep in one of the fish aliens they had taken down.

"Anything of note?" Ianto asked the pair from the observation deck.

"Yeah, it was high as fuck." Owen said as he pulled out an unidentifiable organ from the body cavity.

Tom rolled his eyes at the other doctor.

"We are still running tests, but nothing that's come back is contagious to humans, but Owen is right; this one has enough cocaine to overdose ten humans. We found a deadly neurotoxin on it's teeth and spins on its body. You were lucky that it didn't bite you. It's kinda like a puffer fish." Tom explained as he weighed an organ and took notes.

"You would have been dead in minutes, tea boy. Count yourself lucky." Owen snarked, but you could see that he had been worried.

"Anything else?" Ianto asked, ignoring Owen's comment.

"Not that we've found yet, but we've just started. Though, have you gone and seen Gram yet?" Owen asked, eyeing Ianto suspiciously.

"No, that's my next stop," Ianto answered, causing Owen to scowl at him.

"That should have been your first stop, teaboy. Don't make me sedate you and deliver you to Gram tied to a gurney." Owen snapped.

In defeat, Ianto held his hands up and backed out of the autopsy bay. Owen was not making an idle threat. During the paradox, Owen tracked down Ianto and forced him to the infirmary several times. It was often when Ianto was pushing himself through crippling pain. Ianto knew that this was Owen's way of showing that he cared.

Ianto took the stairs down to the infirmary. The elevator was out of service at the moment as they upgraded it with a newer model. Ianto found Gram in the infirmary working at his desk.

"I was expecting you earlier." Gram said as he got up from his desk.

"I was just checking on everyone before coming down. I was coming." Ianto said a bit defensively as he sat on the examination table Gram motioned to.

"Well, at least I didn't have to send Owen after you." Gram joked, causing Ianto to frown.

Gram went about to give Ianto a quick physical.

"Any dizziness or unexplained soreness?" Gram asked as he checked Ianto over.

"No," Ianto answered.

"What about migraines?" Gram asked as he prepared to draw some blood.

"I had one last week. The rizatriptan you prescribed worked." Ianto said as he held out his arm so Gram could draw blood.

"Have you felt like you are craving narcotics recently?" Gram asked as he finished drawing the blood.

"Not for a couple weeks, but I'm worried about becoming addicted," Ianto admitted.

Ianto had seen what addiction had done to his father, and Ianto had always feared addiction. Even though Ianto's body wasn't addicted, he could still remember the feel of it. The memories would always be there, feeding into his fear that he would end up like his father. Those thoughts only seemed to worsen once Harry got pregnant, and he grew worried about what kind of father he would be.

"It's good that you haven't had any cravings. Hopefully, that will continue. Let me know if at anytime that changes. Just to be safe, I've noted on your medical files to not use narcotics." Gram told him as he finished up.

"Thanks for that. I'm just worried that I'll become an addict." Ianto admitted.

"Have you spoken to anyone about that? Your fears of becoming an addict?" Gram asked kindly.

"I've spoken with Harry and Jack about it," Ianto said, adverting his eyes to the ground.

"But no one professionally?" Gram asked, trying to confirm his suspicions.

"No," Ianto answered, feeling a bit cornered.

"If you ever do want to, let me know. I can get you names of therapists and councillors that work with people in our profession." Gram said reassuringly.

"I'll keep that in mind," Ianto answered thoughtfully.

Ianto had been thinking about talking to someone for a while now but still couldn't bring himself to reach out. He was feeling even more pressure now to do something with the babies on the way. He didn't want to be his father, and he would talk to a therapist to avoid that from happening. Ianto would talk to Harry tonight about it.

"Well, you're good to go for now. Just stay in the Hub until I get the bloodwork back. Let Harry know to stay home until we get the all-clear." Gram told him.

"Thanks, Gram," Ianto said as he got up and walked towards the door.

"No problem, Ianto." Gram said as he went about running the blood.

Ianto pulled out his phone and sent a quick message to Harry saying that he would not be back until his test results returned and for her to stay home. Ianto decided to get some paperwork done while he waited and made his way to Jack's office. Ianto spent the next couple of hours doing paperwork until he got an email from Gram stating that his tests came back all clear and that he was free to leave.

Ianto stretched as he yawned, cracking his back. Ianto looked out the window of Jack's office and saw that the others had left. Vince had gone home shortly after the team had returned; he had school in the morning. If Tosh wasn't at her desk, she was most likely in the bunkroom, getting some sleep. Tosh was on call and had to stay at the Hub in case of emergencies. Tom and Owen had most likely gone home because Gram was the on-call doctor on duty and was held up in his infirmary. Beth must have gone home as well, which wasn't surprising because she had worked a full day shift the day before, before being called out of the Rift alert last night.

Ianto debated going home, but he had been up for 24 hours and didn't feel safe driving in his state. So Ianto sent another text to Harry saying that he was medically cleared and would be back later in the morning after he got some sleep.

After sending the text, Ianto slipped down into Jack's bunker. It had changed somewhat over the last couple of months, with it being Harry's preferred napping stop. Even without the enhanced senses like his soulmates, he knew that Jack's scent had faded somewhat, and Harry's unique scent was now present. Harry added several blankets and pillows to the small bed, making a nest for herself. Ianto shed his clothes, folding them and setting his headset and phone on the charger before curling up in the cot. Ianto took comfort in the scents of his soulmates and let them drag him into a deep slumber.

It felt like Ianto had just closed his eyes before he was awoken by his radio chipping at him. Ianto groaned, looked at his watch, and saw that it was just after eight. Ianto groaned again and flopped onto his back. He had only been asleep for just over an hour and wanted nothing more than to burrow back into the blankets. Ianto reluctantly grabbed his headset from the bedside table and slipped it into his ear.

"Ianto here," Ianto said, answering the radio.

"Ianto, where are you?" Tosh's voice sounded through the earpiece.

"In Jack's bunker," Ianto answered with a yawn.

"Get up here now. We just spotted the TARDIS on the cameras in the plass." Tosh told him in an urgent voice.

With that, Ianto was wide awake and scrambled to get dressed. Ianto knew he looked like a mess, but he didn't care. Ianto climbed into Jack's office, where Tosh was waiting for him.

"The TARDIS is right on top of the invisible lift. You'll need to go up through the tourist office." Tosh informed him.

"Thanks, Tosh," Ianto said before rushing out of the Hub.

Ianto rushed out the cog door. It was already open, likely by Tosh. Ianto didn't bother with the elevator; instead, he ran up the stairs. He was out of breath by the time he reached the office. Ianto was sure that he scared Emma-Louise when he burst into the tourist office before speeding out the door. Ianto sprinted towards the plass.

Ianto soon saw the blue police box that he had only seen in photos, but it was easily recognizable as the TARDIS. The door was open, and he saw Jack waving goodbye to the occupants before stepping out of the box. Jack must not have seen Ianto rushing towards him because Jack turned around to watch the TARDIS slowly disappear.

As soon as Ianto was close enough, he threw himself at Jack. Jack was taken off guard, and the pair stumbled, nearly falling to the ground, but Jack managed to catch them. Jack turned to see Ianto clinging to his back. Jack laughed with delight as he turned in Ianto's arms to return the embrace.

Jack held Ianto close as Ianto buried his face in Jack's chest, sobbing uncontrollably in happiness and relief.

"I missed you too, darling," Jack said as he tightened his hold on Ianto, kissing the top of his head.

"I missed you, Cariad. Everything was so horrible and you weren't there." Ianto sobbed into his chest as his emotions overwhelmed him.

"I'm sorry, my love, but I promise I've no plans to leave you anytime soon," Jack said before using a hand to angle Ianto's face so he could steal a kiss.

The pair stood in the middle of the plass as passerby walked by, some staring. The couple didn't care while revelling in each other. Finally reunited after over a year apart, the only thing that would have made it even more perfect was if Harry was with them.

A/N

Hey Everyone,

Thank you guys so much for sticking with me. I've really struggled to get this last chapter out. I was almost done months ago, but my grandmother unexpectedly passed away, and I lost my motivation to write. I've been going better and finally got some of my motivation back. My grandmother was always excited to hear about my writing and was one of my biggest supporters.

But anyways, I am planning on continuing the story following Torchwood season two. Also, some might have been excited to see SHIELD mentioned, but at this point, I'm not sure if I will incorporate the MCU. I'm on the fence right now. I used SHIELD because I couldn't think of anything better.

I know I left this at a bit of a cliffhanger, but I was already getting into the second season, and I couldn't find a good place to end it. Sorry about that.

I hope that you guys enjoy this, and hope to see you for the next instalment.

LLAP,

Atheana8472