Captain Jack Harkness heard the unmistakable sound of the TARDIS's engines as the Doctor left the Hub. He turned on his heel and walked casually back to where the strange, white-haired girl was standing. Her spine was straight; her only movement was that of her hair as the breeze created by the vanishing TARDIS blew it back. Jack watched her for a moment. When she showed no signs of moving, he cleared his throat quietly. She turned and fixed him with a piercing blue stare. Jack could already tell that this would be one hell of an interesting day.

"So," he began. "I don't know if the Doctor told you, but I'm Captain Jack Harkness, and this," he gestured to the space around him, "Is Torchwood."

"What's Torchwood?" the girl asked dully. She was staring into space, clutching something tightly in her small hand. Jack knew she didn't care about him or Torchwood or what the organization was, but he answered her anyway.

"Sort of a secret service," he said. "We're beyond the government, the police…any organization you can think of, they have no control over us. Our job is to monitor alien activity on Earth. This town—Cardiff—is sitting right on top of a rift in time and space. Stuff from other time periods and planets has a tendency to fall through the rift, and when it does, we deal with it."

The girl nodded absently and looked at the object in her hand.

"Um, this is a little awkward, but the Doctor didn't tell me your name," Jack said to break the silence. She looked up at him, her expression guarded and weary.

"It's Alice," she said.

"Alice," Jack repeated, relieved that she was at least talking to him. "How long have you been with the Doctor?"

"For as long as I can remember," Alice said. She looked down. "He found me when I was a baby, and he raised me. This is the first time we've ever been apart." She met Jack's eyes, and her expression was almost pleading. Jack approached her and tentatively touched her shoulder.

"It's okay," he said when she flinched away from his hand. "Come on, sit down over here." He guided her to the couch that was shoved in a corner, out of the way of any potential foot traffic. As she sat down, he caught a glimpse of the object clutched in her hand.

"The Doctor gave you a TARDIS key," he said. Alice's eyes narrowed as she looked at him through a chunk of white hair that had fallen across her face.

"You're surprised."

"A little," Jack admitted. The Doctor had told him some of Alice's powers, so he knew lying was no use. "He doesn't really give those out to most people."

"I'm different," Alice murmured. "I'm practically his daughter." Her voice grew hard and cold.

"I know you're angry with him," Jack said calmly. "Believe me, I understand."

"Hardly," Alice snapped. "I don't suppose the only father you ever knew was a time-traveling alien who suddenly decided to dump you on a strange planet with some strange apes to ease his own conscience."

"No," Jack conceded, "But I did travel with the Doctor, once. And I'll tell you a secret." He leaned towards her conspiratorially, even though there was no one else in the room. "Because of him, I can't die."

His revelation surprised Alice at first. Then, as she read his emotions, she understood.

"You hate him sometimes," she said quietly. "Because he gave you this gift and then flew away in his blue box without so much as a goodbye. And now you only ever hear from him when you're in a situation you can't get out of…when you're desperate and he's the only one who can save you."

"Yes," Jack said softly. Alice glanced at him. He was staring at something she couldn't see, lost in some far away memory. Suddenly, he snapped back to the present, turning quickly to face her.

"So you're an alien," he said, standing up. "But the question is, what kind of alien."

"Yes," Alice said, standing as well. She tried to read his emotions again, and received a shock. It was as though he had completely shut down; she could detect no traces of anger or happiness or anything at all, really. He was like a dead man. Shaking off her discontent, Alice followed Jack to a bank of computers near the center of the Hub.

"Lucky for you," he was saying, "We have the biggest alien database on the planet. Since we don't know what you are, we'll have to search for aliens that share similar characteristics as you. White hair, blue eyes, mind and emotion reading…"

"I can hear heartbeats," Alice added. "And I can reproduce the desires of any creature on paper." Jack nodded and continued typing into one of the computers.

"Now we just enter what we're looking for aaaaand…we have aliens!"