We are all at Catalina's house, setting up for her party. Ferdinand and Isabella let us decorate the living room, which is currently the home of gold and black balloons and streamers. Jane and Anne are tying a banner that says 'Happy Birthday' across the doorway. 'How long is it until Catalina gets back?' Jane asks.
'Isabella said it would be another hour, so we have time,' Kitty says as she and Anna walk through with the presents we already wrapped for Catalina. The Christmas tree is standing in the corner of the room, decorated with multi-coloured lights and twinkling tinsel. 'I think it looks beautiful with the Christmas tree, and the decorations we have makes it look lovely.'
'Yeah,' I agree. 'But we need to sort this out before Catalina gets back. She decided to not look at the decorations until we're ready, and she might be back soon.' We continue to sort out the decorations. Anna starts using string to hang the balloons up, and I start hanging the streamers up.
'It's starting to come together,' Jane says, who is now holding a clipboard and checks off the decorations. 'Who brought the cake?'
'I did,' Kitty says. 'I made it myself with a little help from Anna.' Kitty gently pulls out a plastic box containing a two-layered cake covered in a buttercream frosting decorated with yellow fondant flowers. Anne hurries over with a plate and places it on the table. Kitty gently places the cake on the plate, and we all smile.
'That looks great, Kitty,' I say.
'Thanks, Emma.' We all get back to sorting out the decorations and the presents when Anne checks outside the window.
'No sign of the birthday girl yet, but she could be back soon.'
'Right, we'll want to finish up in here,' Jane says as she ticks off the birthday cake and presents on her list. 'I think that's almost everything.' She opens a bag and pulls out party hats for us to wear. 'Catalina's fond of party hats. Every time there is a birthday party, she will insist on bringing party hats.' It doesn't seem like something Catalina would do, but who am I to judge?

'She's coming!' Anna yells once we have our party hats on. We begin hiding and switch the lights off so Catalina won't suspect much. She already knows she's having a party and had a little say on the music and presents, but everything else is a surprise. 'Queens, I know you're here.' She switches the lights on. 'Wow,' she breathes.
'SURPRISE!' We all yell, jumping out of our hiding places. Catalina yells in surprise but then starts laughing.
'Wow, thank you so much! You all outdone yourselves.'
'Well, we couldn't celebrate your five hundred and twenty-first birthday without style!' Cleves says. 'You're a young adult again.'
'Not that young!' Catalina laughs. 'I'm five hundred years past being a young adult!' We all start laughing. 'If anything, Emma is closer to being a young adult than me. She hasn't lived through any of Henry's reign.'
'That's true,' I say.
'But I don't think we're here to talk about our shared ex, are we?' We all shake our heads. 'Come on, let's party!' We all begin dancing as Spanish music begins to fill the room. Catalina is laughing and hugs each of us before she starts dancing. She moves flawlessly, each movement perfect, and her posture is stunning. As Catalina twirls around the room, I stop dancing so I can admire her. She looks like an angel.

Stop thinking like that, Emma. It's Catalina's birthday, and you're not into girls! Focus on what's going on.

I continue smiling, and we start dancing as a group until we can't keep standing. We all flop onto the sofas and other various chairs when Catalina spots the cake. 'That looks lovely! Who made it?'
'Anna and I made it,' Kitty says, looking rather proud of herself.
'You both done an amazing job!' Catalina admires it. 'I almost don't want to cut it.'
'Well—' Anne begins.
'Hey, I said almost.' She jumps up again and grins at us.
'How do you have so much energy?'
'It's called running around with you guys for almost five hundred years. Think of it, in August 2044; it would be five hundred years since we all became best friends.'
'We had our hiccups along the way, don't forget that,' Anna argues.
'I'll never forget the moment when my body sat up, and I realised I was still missing my head!' Anne laughs. 'My body had to deal with the trauma of losing its head!' The others start laughing, while I sit there, slightly confused. Anne then notices my expression. 'Trucs futurs, Emma,' Anne explains.
'You could have just said 'future stuff',' I say.
'Yes, but I find it more interesting to speak in French, particularly when I want to wind people up.' I giggle, and we all start laughing again.
'Anyway, I'm going to get a knife so we can cut the cake,' Catalina says.
'Sorry, we?' Anna asks. 'We thought you'd want to do it on your own.'
'Queens, I would always want to do it with my best friends.'
'Oh, so I'm a friend now?' Anne asks.
'You dumped me fast enough for Jane when I discovered you were the reason why Henry wanted to divorce me.'
'Let's not argue,' Jane says. I continue sitting there, trying to work out what Catalina just said. Anne dumped Catalina. That's not what I read in my biographies, so why would Catalina say something that didn't happen? Unless... Did my biographies lie again? Did Anne not love Catalina?

'I think we confused Emma again,' Anne laughs. 'Let's not talk about our past lives and celebrate what we have now.' We all agree before Catalina walks out of the room to find a knife to cut the cake. She comes back in, followed by her family.
'Wow, you all outdone yourselves, girls,' Ferdinand says. He has twinkling blue eyes, and when he smiles, it feels like the world will want to smile with him.
'Dad! I thought we agreed that we could celebrate my birthday as a family later. This time is for my friends and me!'
'We wanted to have a look at the cake before you cut it.' Isabella says as she takes a couple of pictures. 'Right, we'll head out now.' She has a woolly hat over her red hair, and she waves to us before she and her husband head out.

Then, my mobile rings before we start singing happy birthday. 'I can check it later,' I say, switching my phone off before we start singing. When we have cake, I turn my phone on again. I have a missed call from Jack.

'I need to call my friend back,' I say. 'It could be critical.'
'Of course,' Catalina nods.
'I'll be straight back,' I say, then head outside of the room to talk to him. 'Jack? Is everything all right?'
'Something happened today,' Jack says. 'I just wanted to make sure you're okay.'
'What brought this one?'
'We ran into some cannibals today, out in the Welsh countryside. I thought I was going to lose everything, but we all got out alive.'
'Thank goodness for that,' I breathe.
'Yeah,' Jack agrees. 'But the experience today has shaken me a little. It made me think of you.'
'How?'
'You told me that Qetesh are soul stealers, and today I thought, "If I could stop Emma from hurting anyone, I would" because I don't want you to end up like that.'
'I don't want to end up like that either,' I agree. 'Why did my existence have to be so complicated?'
'The Human-Qetesh hybrid I worked with asked me that, too.' I can hear a hint of happiness in his voice. 'I was in love with her for a while, but then Torchwood found out.'
'You don't have to tell that story if you don't want to.'
'I think it's time that her story was told, but I don't think it's a story I can tell over the phone.'
'Too painful?'
'Exactly. Not only that, but there are things I want to show you that belonged to her. Her memory deserves to live on, even though—' Jack stops speaking, and I could tell that he is trying to stop himself from crying. 'Emma, when do you have work experience?'
'I don't know; I think year ten? I'm in year eight, so they would likely tell us next year.'
'Do you have any friends that might want to work with Torchwood?'
'I'll have to ask.'
'Of course. I guess you want to get back to what you were doing.'
'Yeah, it's Catalina's birthday.'
'Well, tell her—'

'Emma?' Catalina asks. 'Are you—sorry, I shouldn't have interrupted.'
'It's all right,' I assure her. 'Jack, the birthday girl is here.'
'Is that Jack Harkness?' Catalina asks.
'How did you know it would be him?'
'I took a random guess, and he is the only Jack I know.'
'Yes, it is Jack Harkness. Do you want to talk to him?'
'Sure.' Catalina takes the phone. 'Hello, Jack. It's been ages since we've last seen you. How are you doing?'
'Not so great, but Emma cheered me up. By the way, happy birthday.'
'Thanks, Jack.'
'You're welcome. Do you know if your school does work experience? I was just asking Emma.'
'Future Emma says we do, and that we do it at Torchwood.' Jack chuckles.
'Well, thank Future Emma for me. Will it just be you?'
'It will be all of us,' Catalina confirms, then she realises I'm looking at her. 'Emma, what is it?'
'My parents allow me to keep in contact with Torchwood, but they will not be happy if I suddenly decide I want to do work experience with them! Besides, the school will have to make sure that it is safe for us to go into that environment and that Torchwood has all the necessary paperwork to take on students for work experience.'
'yes, I'm glad you pointed that out, Emma,' Jack says. 'I'll get Ianto onto it as soon as possible. We'll use the visitor's centre as a base to show where you'll do your work experience, but we'll keep the Torchwood bit hidden.'
'Hang on, we better discuss this as a group,' Catalina says. 'Shall we call you back once we discussed it?'
'Well, it's your birthday, and you don't have to make a decision for a year at least.'
'I know, but Emma said that we're going to do it, but I still think we should discuss it as a group.'
'I can understand that. Well, I need to go. I think Tosh has found something. So, I'll speak to you soon.'
'Bye, Jack,' we chorus, and we end the call.
'We better go back to the others,' I say, and we enter the sitting room again.

'Who was that?' Anna asks.
'Captain Jack Harkness,' Catalina says, sitting next to her. 'We all worked with him in the 1850s after Ann Walker died.'
'Yeah, poor Ann,' Anna agrees. 'That's the problem when you have three women with the same first name,' she smiles. 'We ended up calling our Anne, Anne Lister and Ann Walker by their surnames otherwise they wouldn't know who we were talking to!'
'You know Anne Lister and Ann Walker?!'
'Yes, we did,' Anne says. 'They were both interesting women, and when Anne Lister asked Ann Walker to marry her, we all celebrated together. It was a glorious day.' We all continue sitting together and discuss what Jack said.
'We should work for Torchwood during our work experience,' Jane says. 'Jack is a good friend of ours, and I would like to see him.' My friends agree, and it seems like we made our minds up for work experience. But we have a long time before then, and things could change. However, I'm prepared to keep an open mind about it. It will be nice to see Jack again.

Soon afterwards, we start leaving. 'Thank you,' Catalina says. 'I enjoyed the party.'
'I'm sure we all did,' I agree.
'Well, it's your birthday and the Christmas party next. At least we don't have to combine them.' We sorted everything on that. Only my friends are coming, as my parents don't want too many people coming, so it will be a small gathering.