Once the Torchwood team returned to Cardiff, Jack gave all of them a week off work, and Rose promptly disappeared.

Considering she lived in the hub with him, it was the last thing Jack had expected. Despite knowing that it wasn't his fault, that it was in reaction to what she'd just been through, he wasn't ashamed to admit that it hurt, and sent him into a mild case of panic.

It took him three days to track her down, and he only managed it then because the small blonde turned her phone back on, letting him follow the signal to one of his favourite rooftops in Cardiff.

When he stepped onto the roof to see her leaning against the waist-high barrier around the top edge of the building, and gazing out over the city he felt something loosen in his chest, that he hadn't even realised had been tied up in knots.

He could tell that she'd heard him. Ever since she'd stumbled out of the void, no one had been able to sneak up on her, but she didn't turn away from the pale pink light just beginning to glow on the horizon, signalling the imminent sunrise to mark a new dawn.

Slowly, half scared he was dreaming, Jack moved towards her, not daring to tear his eyes away from her. Convinced that if he blinked, she'd be gone.

"Rose?" He asked softly, and she half turned her head, acknowledging his unspoken questions.

"I'm sorry, Jack," she offered quickly when he reached her side, leaning against the same wall she was as he stared down at her, and Rose met his eyes, her expression sad and tired. "I couldn't— I needed to remember that we're not all like that," she admitted, her eyes returning to the skyline, and Jack frowned in confusion.

"What do you mean?" He prompted gently, watching her swallow around unspoken words.

"Humans," she breathed out eventually. "Day after day you can see the worst of us. It's easy to see the worst of us. You don't even need to look further than the news channels or a local paper.

"Rape, murder, violence, hatred, prejudice in one form or another... and then... that village..." She shook her head, and Jack saw her frame shudder at the memories.

"The only thought running through my head was why the Doctor wastes his time saving us so bloody often," she growled, frowning out at the sky now, and Jack sighed, rubbing his eyes wearily.

Rose continued without him prodding her further, and her willingness to talk, to share, and to open up to him soothed his hurt at being left behind again.

"I had to leave. I had to go and find something to remind me why we're worth fighting for," she whispered. "Something that made everything seem just a little less pointless.

She'd left him behind, for three days, without a word. Not a phone call, or so much as a text message, and he understood. He really did, now that she was explaining it, but it didn't stop the hurt, just soothed it a bit.

"What did you find?" Jack asked. He knew she had, he could see it in the relaxed way she was curled against the brick wall, in the gentle way she was explaining. If she'd found nothing, Rose wouldn't have come back.

He was curious too, he admitted to himself, about what kept her inner fire glowing, and she tossed her hair out of her face as she finally turned to him, a genuine smile on her lip and her eyes softened, slowly losing their haunted look as she spoke.

"Chips," she said, and Jack frowned, startled and more than a little confused.

"What?"

"I went down to London," she explained, laughing lightly, "I bought a tray of chips, and I stood in the middle of Trafalgar Square eating that stupid tray of chips, and do you know what I saw?" she asked, waiting until Jack shook his head before she leant into his side, and tugged at his arm until he slid it around her shoulders.

"People," she continued, her head falling to rest against his shoulder as she spoke, her gaze turned outwards once more to watch the sunrise.

"I saw normal human beings getting up, going to work, eating lunch. I saw laughter, and kindness, and love."

Jack stared down at the woman who was the closest thing he was ever going to have to a sister, to real family, and tugged her tighter against his side, pressing a kiss to the top of her head in awe.

She'd faced a village from a horror film, been shot, kidnapped, tortured, beaten, threatened, convinced she was going to die for their pleasure, and she'd come home barely holding herself together. And how had she let herself recover? By rediscovering the beauty of humanity.

"You never cease to amaze me, Rosie," he murmured into her hair, and he felt her laugh softly in response. He took a deep breath, listening to the soft sound of her laughter to help him recover some of his own calm before he continued with a growl.

"But I swear, if you ever scare me like that again, I'll lock you in your room," he told her firmly, and she glanced away from the sunset, tilting her head back until she could meet his eyes.

He let her look, let her see how scared he'd been, and he could see the apology in her warm brown eyes before she nodded.

"Understood, boss," she offered, teasing gently in apology, but he could see in her face that she truly did understand how worried he'd been, and he could read the apology in the way she leant into his frame so he let it go.

"As it is, you were shot four days ago, and then went gallivanting around London, alone, and without having a proper medical done. So, you're on desk duty until further notice," he added firmly.

He saw her lips press together as though she intended to argue, and Jack wondered how far he could push her, but a moment later she surprised him and released a long sigh, nodding reluctantly.

"All right, Jack," she agreed, submitting to his protective streak without her usual fight, and Jack's heart started beating again, finally relaxing now that he knew she would be safe for the foreseeable future.

Tugging her back into his side, and wrapping both arms around her in a hug, they turned their attention back to the sun lighting up the new day, before walking back to the hub together.

Knowing just how badly she'd scared Jack, Rose let Owen check over the pellet wounds from Kieran's shotgun blast without complaint.

Considering her still healing side, she even settled into administration and desk work without complaint, at least for the first three weeks.

Once her gunshot wounds were well and truly beginning to heal, and reaching for files on top shelves no longer tore the scabs off, making Jack panic two or three times a day when her shirt ended up stained with blood, Rose started to get restless.

Jack still had that haunted look of concern in his eyes, however, whenever he couldn't find her inside the hub quickly so Rose pushed the restless energy down and stayed office based for the Captain's peace of mind.

Just over two months after escaping the village of the cannibals, Rose was starting to lose her patience.

"You cannot keep me locked in the hub forever, Jack!" She growled, hands braced on his desk as she leant forward and she spotted his jaw tense as he avoided her gaze, their newest case file clasped in his hands.

"Owen gave me the all clear to get back in the field weeks ago. I've only agreed to stay in the office this long for your sake, but this is getting ridiculous!" She insisted, brown eyes narrowing. "I only went to London!"

"Rosie—"

"Don't you 'Rosie' me, Jack!" She snapped and he flinched like he anticipated the crack of a slap across his face. While Jack had never been on the receiving end of one of her mothers slaps, the Doctor's many and varied descriptions had put the fear of the Tyler-slap into the 51st century Captain.

"Just let me out of this damn office, occasionally," she continued, voice softening and a pleading note entering her tone as she watched Jack waver. When he finally tried meeting her eyes again, he slumped in surrender, his own expression turning pleading.

"Just a few more weeks," he tried, and Rose growled.

"I'll stay here for this case, Jack. Just this case. That's it," she warned, and although she saw him nod a reluctant agreement, she was already stalking out of his office, the glass door shivering on its hinges as she slammed it shut behind her.

Ianto was leaning against her desk when she made it back to her computer and offered her a hesitant smile that she made an effort to return. As his smile shifted from hesitant to amused, Rose suspected her own attempt at a smile had looked more like a grimace.

"Any luck?" He asked, and she sighed, dropping into her chair and running her hands through her hair, distractedly beginning to twist it into a plait as she shrugged.

"Kind of," she admitted, and Ianto took a seat, indicating he was listening and Rose managed to summon a genuine smile for the man.

"I'm staying chained to the desk for this case, but not any longer than that. He's reluctantly agreed, although I didn't actually give him a choice," Rose admitted as Ianto chuckled softly.

Ianto had been the one keeping her company while the rest of them went out to deal with weevil's and other aliens on site, and she knew he'd been watching her more closely lately as she grew more restless and frustrated under Jack's enforced desk duty.

"Just don't let him talk you out of it again," he said. It wasn't the first time she'd tried to break quarantine, but Jack had all but begged her to stay in the office, and Rose had caved, but she shook her head.

"I can't let him talk me out of it, Yan," she moaned, "being stuck here's driving me nuts. If I don't get out of here soon, and do some damn running..."

Rose sighed, and let her eyes drop closed as she forced her shoulders to relax. She'd felt the tension in them rise as she spoke, but took a deep breath as she tried to calm her agitation.

She'd heard footsteps on the catwalk above her head and while she wasn't above making Jack feel guilty about keeping her cooped up, she wouldn't hurt him by letting the man overhear her dramatic ranting.

"Patch yourself into our comms, Rosie, we can pick your brain if we need to then," Jack called as he clattered down from his office, a hand resting on her shoulder lightly as he moved past her and Rose tensed under the gentle touch.

She sat up, Jack's hand slipping away, and began linking her computer into the team's communications.

"I'll go make you a tea, Rose," Ianto offered, and she spared him a small but genuine smile of relief.

"Thanks Ianto," she said before shooting Jack a smile that she hoped hid most of her weariness and exasperation.

"Go on then, Captain, you've got a crime scene to get to," she prompted. Based on the silent apology on his face, Rose didn't think she'd masked her emotions as well as she'd hoped, but it was the closest he was going to get to being forgiven for now.

Jack nodded, just once, apparently willing to take what he could get, and dropped a kiss to the top of her head, before moving away and shouting orders to the rest of the team as they made their way out of the hub for their latest case.

"So, you found the case, Rose. What are we heading into?" Jack asked, his voice clear across the comms as he drove the rest of the team through the streets of Cardiff, and Rose tried not to be jealous as she sighed into her headset.

"A building site. Literally," she told him, following the tracker in the SUV across a map on her screen, as she pulled up the file on screen that she'd dug out for the Captain that morning.

"A construction company's been laying some foundation for a new housing estate, and they found a body. Old, apparently, but the photos taken of a device found with the body is what puts this under our jurisdiction," Rose explained.

She'd gone over this with Jack, of course, before he'd agreed to take the case, but he was letting her brief the rest of the team, and while it didn't assuage her irritation, she appreciated the gesture.

"The body's interesting only because it's been found with what looks like some sort of alien tech, but from the pictures I can't say if I recognise it or not," Rose admitted, pausing just long enough to guide Jack around some traffic that the ATMOS Sat-nav hadn't detected.

"Police and coroners should already be on site," she continued. "This was discovered yesterday evening, and the police file logged early this morning, but I've sent word ahead that Torchwood are taking over, so you shouldn't run into any problems," Rose added as Ianto have her a much of tea and she broke off her explanation to thank him with a grin.

She sat back in her chair a moment later to drink her tea eagerly, while Jack issued orders to the team in the car and if Rose closed her eyes and ignored the whirring fans inside the computers surrounding her, she could almost imagine she was there with them.

"Once, just once, I'd like to walk into one of these tents and find it's a party," Jack whined and Rose laughed in his ear. "You know, food, drink, people dancing. A girl crying in the corner—"

"I'll see what I can do when your birthday rolls around, Jack," she promised, imagining his grin.

"Is it alien?" Gwen asked, and Rose bit her lip as she listened to Jack's analysis of the device, knowing that he'd be leaving Owen to look at the body.

"I'm picking up traces of ilmenite, pyroxene... even dark matter," Jack said. "Definitely alien," he confirmed and Rose found herself nodding in agreement.

"Any idea what it is?" Gwen continued prodding for answers, having learnt the hard way that if you didn't ask, Jack didn't tell you.

"Not a clue," he admitted easily. "Could be a weapon, or a really big stapler. We'll take it back to the hub... let you take a shot at it, Rosie," he offered, and Rose narrowed her eyes at the computer screen.

"Don't think you can keep me busy with an interesting project," she warned, but his easy laughter told her that it hadn't been his intention.

"Owen, how's our friend?" Jack asked.

"She's dead," the doctor responded sardonically, and Rose choked on her tea, laughing, and just managing to clear her lungs in time to hear Jack.

"She?"

"Judging by the size of her skull," Owen confirmed, but just from his voice, Rose could tell that he was distracted. Still studying the remains, then.

"How long have they been here, Tosh?"

"From the depth they were found, a hundred and ninety six years, eleven to eleven and a half months," the technician answered easily. "The earth's been disturbed by the workmen, and the police, so I'm afraid I can't be more accurate—"

"Down to how many months I think is accurate enough, Tosh," Rose teased her gently, eyes sparkling.

"What killed her? The stapler?" Gwen asked, and Rose bit her tongue.

Despite Jack's suggestion, she doubted very much that it was a stapler. On the other hand, Van Statten had found that musical instrument, so who knew.

She briefly wondered if Torchwood would go in and excavate Van Statten's basement after it was filled with cement, but tucked that thought away to think about another time.

"Nah, see those shattered ribs?" Owen was answering Gwen when Rose returned her attention to the team, "I reckon she was shot," he mused, but his voice sounded like he was still half in thought and Rose smothered another sigh at not being there with them.

"Well, let's get her and this back to the hub and find out for sure. Better get a tech-table set up for this device, Rosie," Jack warned. She rolled her eyes, wondering why he thought she didn't already plan on doing that the moment they hung up, but she didn't mention it.

"How big?" She asked instead, waiting impatiently as Jack paused, her fingers rhythmically tapping against the edge of her desk.

"A medium should be enough," he told her and Rose nodded.

"On it, I'll be waiting for it," she told him, standing from her desk and disconnecting from the call. Setting up a tech lab for an unknown piece of alien equipment, or guiding their SUV around traffic, there really was no competition and Rose downed the last of her tea before getting to work.

Rose eagerly moved to begin setting up a small room she could use to examine the device and gathered a work table, an array of tools, and several stacks of paper she knew she'd need to make notes on as she worked to figure out what the object was, what it was used for, and whether it could be utilised.

Rose was almost finished setting up, ready for the delivery to the hub, when she paused, realising in a sudden flash of inspiration mixed with memories that she was turning into the Doctor.

She remembered how he'd loved to sort through tables of alien junk on market asteroids, looking for just the right piece that he could use to complete his latest gadget, and she remembered how her mum had been worried that one day, she wouldn't be able to recognise Rose.

The fond memories were just enough to lift her caged spirits and gave her just enough of a boost to finish her preparations with a soft smile on her face, sharing another tea with Ianto before the rest of the team returned.