Rose would never find out if the Torchwood team's quick acceptance of her choice was due to something Jack did or said, or if it was simply a result of them going home, cooling off, and thinking about it logically.

Jack was denying all involvement, and she didn't want to rock the boat by questioning the others, so Rose left it alone and things swiftly returned to normal in the hub.

Ianto's early morning visits were coming less frequently, as did his nightmares, letting him sleep for longer more often, and as a result, Rose began finding herself with more spare time on her hands.

Used to waking up early now, the time she had once spent working with Ianto, she now spent buried in Torchwood files and by the time Jack came out of his room every morning she'd usually manage to pick out two or three potential cases for him to look over.

The damage to her shoulder healed quickly, and it was only about a week before the bruises that stained her jaw were faint enough to hide behind makeup.

The discolouration and pain along her ribs took longer to heal, and Jack insisted that she avoid driving until she could move without discomfort.

Said discomfort didn't stop her from insisting she come along when the next serious case fell into their laps. Although Jack argued with her for longer than she would have liked, when the next case took them out of Cardiff, Rose found herself in the back seat of a Torchwood SUV watching grey skies and brown fields fly past them.

"I hate the countryside," Owen grumbled for around the third time in the last hour. Easily the eighth time since they'd left Cardiff central, and Rose turned her eyes from the landscape outside the car to grin at the look of utter disgust on the doctor's face.

"It's dirty, it's unhygienic... and what is that smell?" He demanded, and Rose couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled up at Gwen's dry answer.

"That would be grass," she told him, and he slumped in his seat.

"It's disgusting," Owen muttered, and Rose nudged him with her elbow.

"Look on the bright side, my fellow Londoner, at least we've not been roadblocked by a herd of sheep yet," she teased, and he shot her an entirely unamused glare.

Just after lunch, they saw a burger van parked on the side of the road and Jack pulled over so they could grab something to eat and check the maps while stretching their legs.

While Owen paced the grass beside the road impatiently, and Ianto went to place their orders with the burger van, Rose hopped onto the bonnet of the car, watching Tosh and Gwen fight against the wind to spread out the large map of the local area.

"Seventeen disappearances within the last five months," Jack started, hands on his hips as he stared around the open countryside with a speculative frown, "the police are clueless."

"Now there's a surprise," Owen grumbled, "no offence, PC Cooper!" he added, raising his hands in a conciliatory manner in Gwen's general direction, and the woman just shook her head at his antics, grinning.

Ever since the doctor had heard about the location of their latest mystery, he'd done nothing but find things to complain about and Owen was beginning to get on everyone's last nerve. Even so, Rose could almost understand.

While he hadn't spent much time with the man since being released from his hawk-like care soon after her arrival, she'd seen enough as his patient to see exactly why he preferred working on the dead instead of the living.

Owen liked the clean, clinical approach to medicine, and as soon as you added sick or injured humans to that equation things became messy. All evidence to the contrary, Owen didn't like messy, so placing him in the middle of a field with no modern conveniences was probably not far from his worst nightmare.

Rose often found herself thinking that the doctor would have been better suited to a hospital more like the one she'd seen on New Earth, so she tried not to begrudge him his complaints.

"The last known whereabouts of each missing person is somewhere around here," Jack's voice interrupted her thoughts. He'd approached the car and had begun to circle a small area on the map that Gwen and Tosh were still struggling to hold flat, one edge of the paper trapped under the edge of Rose's leg.

"All within a twenty mile radius," Tosh noted, her eyes scanning over the area on the map that Jack had indicated, and Gwen looked up, glancing between Rose and Jack for answers.

"Anything else linking them?"

They had all started to look to her on cases, to some degree, and Rose didn't quite know how to feel about the slow shift. The team seemed to see her and Jack in the same light, leaders, but Rose didn't have any intention of running this team. That was Jack's job and she intended to let him keep it.

It worried her that they were starting to look to her as often as Jack for their orders, because at some point she was going to ask them to do one thing, while Jack asked for something different, and then it would become a matter of whose orders they decided to follow.

The problem was she and Jack were equals. They'd been partners on a team long before Torchwood, and they were used to listening to each other's opinions. She met his gaze, and he was already waiting to see if she had anything to add, before responding to Gwen's question himself when she held her silence.

"None of the bodies have ever been found," Jack answered Gwen, "these people just fell off the radar. No patterns in age, sex, race... One minute they're here and the next, pfft. Gone."

"The rift doesn't spread out this far, does it?" Gwen asked, frowning, and Jack shrugged.

"We can't be sure," Rose explained, expanding on Jack's non-answer, "We don't know enough about it to be sure, but we don't think so."

"It's increasing in activity all the time though," Jack added and Owen spun to face them at the end of another rotation of pacing.

"Oh come on," he cried, clearly frustrated, "aliens aren't gonna bother hanging around out here. Probably some sort of weird suicide club with people choosing the same spot to end it all. God knows, if I had to spend too long up here I'd want to top myself," he added miserably, and Rose couldn't help but offer him a reassuring grin.

"You might be right," she said, "but where're the bodies?" Rose raised an eyebrow, and when Owen couldn't come up with an answer, he went back to sulking and pacing, muttering under his breath.

"Here you go," Ianto cut in, handing a wrapped burger to Owen who took it with the first grateful look he'd worn since they'd left Cardiff. Ianto moved over to the car, handing out the rest of the orders.

"Careful, they're hot," he warned, and Rose accepted the Cheeseburger and tray of chips with an appreciative hum.

"You sure you don't want anything Tosh?" Ianto asked, but the woman shook her head firmly.

"Really sure. A friend of mine caught hepatitis off a burger from one of these places," she told them all.

Ianto's burger froze on the way to his mouth, Jack's got placed on the bonnet of the car, and Gwen and Rose froze mid-chew.

The only person unaffected by the woman's admission was Owen, and then Rose started to laugh.

"We fight aliens for a living, I think my health's more at risk from that than a burger van," she managed to force out before continuing her meal. Gwen followed her a moment later, but Ianto and Jack had been permanently deterred, throwing their food into a nearby rubbish bag.

"We'll start with the most recent victim," Jack said once he had come back to the car, leaning against the front with his arms crossed. "The last record we have of Ellie Johnson is a phone call she made. She dropped out of signal mid-call, but the coverage map placed her somewhere about here," Jack told them, pointing at the map again and they all stared at the location he indicated as they ate.

"Looks as good a place as any to set up camp," the Captain added, and Rose quickly swallowed her mouthful of food when she saw Owen freeze, his mouth wrapped around his burger before he pulled it away sharply, his face stiffening into a disgusted glare as he turned steely eyes on Jack.

"I'm sorry, did you say 'camp'?" The doctor asked, as though he didn't quite understand the meaning of the word, or hoped he didn't, and Rose could see the glimmer of amusement in Jack's eyes as he turned to offer Owen a smile that drew a sneer from the doctor.

Her own eyes narrowed, and she glared at Jack. "You never mentioned campin'," she told him and his smile widened into a grin.

"Didn't I? Ah, well. Consider it an adventure."

Rose shared a glance with Owen and, despite her own distaste for the idea, the look of absolute horror on his face drew soft laughter from her that merely prompted Owen to ball up the tissue from around his burger and lob it at her head.

After lunch, it only took them another couple of hours driving to reach the area Ellie Johnson had gone missing in, and it didn't take Jack long to select a site to set up camp on.

Protected from high winds on two sides by steep hills and with a nearby patch of forest for firewood, he parked the car on the grass and set them all to work.

"What's the matter with a hotel?" Rose heard Owen ask Jack as they were pulling all their equipment out of the back of the SUV and she moved closer to listen to Jack's answer.

"People are going missing around here. Do you really wanna stay in a place run by strangers?" he asked, and Rose glared at him again.

"Oh, because we're going to be so much safer out here," she interrupted sarcastically and Owen flung an arm around her shoulders.

"Exactly. Thank you, Rose!"

"We Londoners have gotta stick together, yeah?" She offered, smirking before hugging him briefly and moving away to grab another crate of stuff while Jack sighed.

"No other race in the universe goes camping," he told them, "celebrate our own uniqueness."

"Do you know why we're the only race in the universe to go camping?" Rose asked sweetly, unable to resist one last jab at the ex-time agent. She batted her eyes with forced innocence, and let her tongue creep out the side of her mouth as she grinned at him, watching the wariness flood over Jack's face in response.

"It's because it's shit, and the rest of the universe knows it," she told him, enjoying the snort of laughter her words drew from Owen almost as much as the exaggerated eye-roll she got from Jack as he ruffled her hair in retaliation.

"Just get your tent up," he told her, eyes glittering with well-hidden amusement.

Between Owen's continued grumbling, setting up tents for the night, preparing a cooking area and the seemingly unending task of unloading various pieces of scientific and electrical equipment, it didn't take long for Gwen to start throwing around some 'classic camping games'.

Rose thought they sounded far too much like the girly sleepovers she'd been dragged to as a kid, but the woman was determined, even in the face of Owen's foul mood.

Ianto had tried helping him put up his tent for a while, but the doctor's frustration with it had ended with Ianto leaving him to it. The only part the doctor actually had together was half the metal framework, and he threw another pole onto the ground as he argued with Gwen.

"Oh come on, it's just a bit of fun," she defended her newest game, eyes sparkling cheerfully. "Who was the last person you snogged?" she asked, and Rose snorted in amusement before she thought about the question, and her smile slipped.

It might have sounded like innocent fun to Gwen, but it was a loaded question and Rose let her eyes close for a long moment, letting their bickering wash away the sudden pain in her chest.

Cassandra may have been in the driving seat, but the feel of his thick hair sliding between her fingers still made her skin tingle.

The way his body had rocked towards her in response, even though the force Cassandra had put behind the kiss should have, by all rights, pushed the Time Lord backwards—

"You sound like an eight year old, who the hell says 'snog'?" Owen snapped, clearly not interested in giving an actual answer, and Rose focussed on the conversation to distract herself from the memories, while Gwen continued to push the 'game'.

"Mine was Rhys," she announced, and any other time Rose would have found the woman's happy marriage sweet but she was trying not to let herself sink into memories of the Doctor, and she didn't mean the grumpy one still struggling with his tent.

"Yeah well, that's a surprise," Owen muttered darkly and Rose forced her eyes open when she felt someone come and stand beside her. Turning her head slightly, the brisk wind drying her unshed tears, she found Ianto watching her carefully, offering her carefully.

"You okay?" He asked, and she took a moment to consider his question, before offering him a sad smile.

"Probably about as well as you," she conceded, seeing the pain Gwen's game had brought up in his eyes and he nodded his acceptance of her half-answer, offering her a one-armed hug before he moved back to the camp beds he'd been putting together.

"Your turn Tosh!" Gwen announced cheerfully, and Rose watched the technician startle at suddenly being singled out.

"It's easy for you—" she protested, but Gwen just rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, spill the beans!"

"Owen," Tosh said quickly, keeping her eyes on the kitchen supplies she was sorting. Rose could almost feel the startled silence, and she shot Jack a look to see if he was going to stop this game before the team imploded and they were all at each other's throats, but the man didn't even seem to be listening.

"Really?" Gwen asked, sitting down on a large box, and Owen glared at Tosh.

"Tosh, love, in your dreams," he muttered, and the technician offered a tight smile before taking a deep breath and expanding on her confession.

"Three am, Christmas eve, in front of the millennium centre. Waiting for a cab. I had mistletoe."

"Christmas?" Owen all but demanded, "You've not had a snog since Christmas?"

Rose could see the embarrassment on Tosh's features so she drew the focus off the young woman quickly.

"Who says 'snog', Owen? You sound like you're eight," she teased, throwing his own words back at him as she came over and took a seat on one of the beds Ianto had put together, using it as an impromptu bench.

She grinned when Owen flipped her off, and turned back to Tosh and Gwen, making a small effort to smile.

"Lucky me, eh?" He offered, and Tosh smiled tightly, tucking her hair behind her ears before taking a seat next to Gwen.

"So, who was yours," she asked, and Owen paused just long enough for Rose to suspect that things were about to go sideways.

"Gwen, actually," the doctor said and Rose's eyes widened. She glanced over to Jack again and found him watching them all intently. He met her concerned gaze with one of his own and flipped closed the folder he'd been reading.

"When was this?" Tosh asked, and Rose wished she hadn't.

"It was complicated," Gwen defended quickly, and Rose cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Didn't take you long to get your feet under the table," the technician muttered, and Gwen's head whipped around to stare at her, her mouth falling open in shock.

"What?"

"So, was it just a kiss, or—"

"Tosh, leave it," Rose warned, frowning at her and she saw Jack stand and start towards them, ready to help her mediate what looked like it could quickly turn into a genuine fight.

"Jack," Owen said when the Captain took a seat, and Rose couldn't help but groan, somehow knowing where this was going.

"Are we including non-human lifeforms?" the man asked, and the mood lifted slightly.

"Oh, you haven't!" Gwen said, looking to Rose for a denial, but she just shrugged.

"Jack's never been what you'd call prejudiced," she offered weakly, and Gwen's jaw dropped as the Captain grinned across the table at the blonde.

"You're a sick man, Harkness. Disgusting," Owen offered, shaking his head.

"I never know when he's joking!" Gwen exclaimed, and Rose shook her head with a smile.

"Assume he's never joking, and you won't be far wrong," she offered, and Jack laughed easily.

Rose's smile widened to a grin at his laughter, until she realised that they were all looking at her and her amusement died quickly. She let her eyes lower to the table as she tried to prepare herself to talk about the Doctor with these people when she felt a light touch on her back and whipped her head around to stare at Ianto as he took a seat beside her.

She knew, just from that light touch, what he was about to do for her and her eyes widened in surprise and awe and a deep gratefulness that she didn't know how to express.

"It's my turn, is it?" he said, and everyone instantly sobered. "It was Lisa."

The silence was deafening, and Rose felt her heart break for him as guilt welled up in her mind.

The Doctor wasn't dead. Her reluctance to talk wasn't the same as the pain Ianto felt, and yet he was doing this for her so she quickly took his hand in hers and squeezed in silent gratitude.

"Ianto, I'm sorry—" Gwen started, but her voice failed and he offered her a tight smile that didn't quite manage to reach his eyes.

"Sorry she's dead, or sorry you mentioned it?" He asked, and Gwen just shook her head.

"I just— I didn't think—" she tried again, and Ianto shook his head.

"You forgot," he corrected. There was no judgment in his voice, just honesty, and that almost seemed to hurt Gwen more.

Rose saw Jack turn a glare on Ianto, and tightened her hold on the man's hand in silent support before Owen broke the tense moment.

"We should get some firewood," he announced and Gwen leapt at the chance to escape.

"I'll give you a hand."

Tosh excused herself to play with her electronics, leaving Rose, Ianto and Jack seated at the table, with Ianto staring down at his hand in Rose's grasp and Jack's glare boring into the top of his head.

"Ianto—"

"Thank you," Rose whispered, her soft words silencing Jack's anger instantly, and she watched the realisation flood his face, his jaw tightening before she turned her attention back to Ianto. "You didn't have to do that."

"Rose, they already know about Lisa," Ianto said, offering her a sad smile. "Whoever you were thinking about... You shouldn't have to share that just because they asked," he told her gently and Rose hugged him tightly.

"Still, thank you," she said again, before taking advantage of the team's distraction to hide out in her tent for a while and reign in her emotions.