Alice woke to the sound of unfamiliar voices.

"Jack, not to be rude, but who the hell is that, and why is she on my operating table?"

"Is it one of your girlfriends? Because that's…well that's just strange."

"Is she even alive? Or am I to make her a cup of coffee as well?"

"Everybody calm down," Jack cut in. "Her name is Alice. A…a friend of mine left her in my care, so she's going to be staying at the Hub for a while.'

"What d'you mean? What friend?"

"Jack, what's going on here?"

Alice shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep. Reaching out with her mind, she tried to get a sense of the people in the Hub, who were undoubtedly Jack's Torchwood team.

There were four of them, two males and two females. They were all agitated by Alice's presence, save for one of the females, who had not said a word, and gave off an air of slight interest but polite removal. She knew that Alice was Jack's business, and she wasn't too ready to meddle with it, despite her curiosity. Alice took this bit of information and stored it away for later; it confirmed her suspicion that Jack was a man of secrets, possibly dangerous ones.

The person who caught her immediate attention was the first speaker. The flavor of his emotions drew her sense like a moth to a flame. They were buried below a devil-may-care exterior and several layers of cold steel; a tough shield that might put off an ordinary person, but not Alice. There, crunched in a hard, compact sphere in his gut was the bitterness and anguish brought on by not one, but two lost loves. He tried so very hard to hide it, but it made no difference to her. She could see it all; the rage, the loneliness, the self-loathing, like a roiling sea spread out before her. She found it delightful.

The second speaker, a female, was a regular firecracker. The openness with which she wore her emotions reminded Alice, with a slight twinge, of her Doctor. Confident and tough, she was, but perhaps to the point of fault. She used her rough-and-ready attitude as a shield in place of being vulnerable. Still, Alice could feel her loyalty and devotion to the team and to Jack.

It was hard for Alice to keep a straight face when she got to the second male. His infatuation with Jack was so overwhelming she was surprised that no one else in the room could feel it. His jealousy at the second speaker's suggestion that Alice was one of Jack's girlfriends spiked through all his other emotions like a great green spear, dripping with malcontent. Beyond that, he seemed a simple man, soft-spoken and submissive except for his fierce devotion to Jack. He seemed the underappreciated anchor of the team, who kept things shipshape in the Hub with his teammates never the wiser as to how much he contributed.

"Look, a very old friend of mine asked for my help and now it's my duty to protect her," Jack was saying. "She's very calm and she won't get in your way. That's all I'm going to say about this so get back to work. The Rift won't watch itself."

"Jack," Alice called without opening her eyes. She felt a swift shift in the emotions of the Torchwood team and she knew she had their undivided attention. "Aren't you going to tell them what I am?"

"What's that, what does she mean?" the firecracker girl said sharply.

"Bloody hell, Jack, don't tell me she is your girlfriend?" This from the second male, the soft one.

Jack's trepidation was visible. For an instant the black wall that guarded his heart vanished, and Alice could see him hesitating, like a man on the edge of a cliff, wondering whether to jump. Then, Jack sighed heavily, and the walls returned.

"She's not human." His voice rang out like a toneless bell, percussive, but with no music to it. "Alice is an alien." He hesitated again. "And…well, we don't know what kind."

"You don't know what kind." The emotions of the first male flickered deep within the well of his heart. Alice watched the flame climb. "Let me get this straight. Your friend, who we don't even know, turns up and asks you to look after this kid. But oh, that's not all. She's an alien. And it gets even better. She's an unknown alien. Jack, this is too rich, even for you."

"Owen—"

"She could be anything! She could destroy the planet and we'd have no warning, no way to fight back because we don't know what she is!"

Alice opened her eyes. It was time, she decided, to make an entrance.

"I'm not a child, Owen Harper, and certainly no threat to you." Once again, they all turned towards her, not just physically, but with their thoughts as well. Alice sat up and slid smoothly off the table.

"How d'you know my name." The way he said it made it sound not like a question, but like a challenge. Alice found him easily with her eyes: middling height, short brown hair, and calf-like brown eyes, but with a certain set to his jaw that made him look anything but innocent. The bitterness she had seen deep inside his heart showed in every inch of his face. He looked hardened, cynical, the kind of man who would take on a challenge purely to keep things interesting, and because he had nothing to loose.

"Because I know you," Alice said with a small smile as she ascended the steps that lead from the medical area to the rest of the Hub. "I know your heart, Owen Harper, right down to those secrets you guard so carefully, tucked away in the way down deep of your soul. I've seen your anger, anger at yourself because you weren't good enough, were you? You weren't good enough for—what was it? Diane? No, even your love wasn't enough to stop her from leaving you."

Alice paused a moment to drink in Owen's memories. Of all the emotions contained inside the beings of the universe, love was the one that fascinated her the most. It could be so warped, so twisted, but also so pure and beautiful. She swam through Owen's memories of Diane, a gorgeous girl from another time, and tasted the love Diane had unlocked in him, rushing like a warm, viscous river from a part of him that had lay dormant for many years. Alice grinned a feral grin as she came upon the first great love of Owen's life.

"But Diane, she was nothing compared your wife, now, was she? Or should I say your fiancé?" Owen flinched backwards as Alice fixed him with her piercing blue stare. His shock was so visceral that it sent little electric thrills up her spine. "Such a shame. So tragic. You're always thinking, alone in your great empty house, your prison full of shadows, that you could have saved her. If you'd just been a little stronger, a little better…"

"Owen, what's she talking about?" The firecracker girl's voice was controlled, but suspicious, questioning. Her voice seemed to shake Owen out of his state of mute disbelief.

"You—" he spluttered, stumbling backwards on shaking legs—"You—how do you know—?"

Alice's grin widened. "Poor, sad, lonely Owen Harper. Don't be frightened. I'm not going to put a finger on you."

Owen's eyes were wide and terrified. His heel caught on the steps leading up to Jack's office and he sat down hard. He stayed there, trembling, and did not speak.

"Alice. That's enough."

Alice turned to face Jack. She could tell by the seriousness of his expression that he was not to be trifled with. She flashed him her most dazzling smile.

"Sorry, Jack, it's only that your kind are so fun to play with." Jack didn't budge.

"He would've expected better from you," he said quietly. Alice felt the blood drain from her face. Her mouth opened but no words came out. Images of the Doctor, her Doctor, rose unbidden from her subconscious. Overcome, she fled to Jack's room, slamming the door behind her and locking it tight.