Jack was prowling his office. It had been five weeks since the young Grammarian had died in his arms and they were no closer to finding the people who had snatched him from his home, held him and treated him so appallingly. Owen was scrutinising all EMT activity across the city and making a real nuisance of himself at all the local hospitals. Tosh was wearing herself to a shadow monitoring CCTV, all other emergency bands and local news reports. It didn't help that they were a team member down because once Jack had revived from Owen's bullet he had suspended Gwen without pay. She was due in for disciplinary interview before coming back to work the following week. The shrieking of the cog wheel door pulled Jack from his thoughts alerting him to the fact that Gwen was on time, for once. With a heavy sigh Jack pulled open his office door and watched impassively as Gwen, dressed in her tightest jeans and lowest cut top, swaggered across the floor of the Hub waving carelessly at Owen and Tosh who stood together, silently observing her progress.

'She's going to try to flirt her way out of trouble' whispered Tosh

'She's got no chance' snarked Owen, 'you and I both saw what was in the building and we both saw how Jack reacted. If she has any sense she'll take what's coming to her with suitable chagrin.'

'Yeah,' agreed Tosh, softly, 'but I don't think she has any sense.'

Gwen sashayed towards Jack's office completely confident that she would get an abject apology and back pay for the time she had been unfairly suspended. She knew she had Jack completely wrapped around her little finger. She raised her eyes to the platform outside of his office, he was watching her walk across the Hub; with a secret little smile Gwen put and extra bounce into her walk to make her tits jiggle – she knew Jack found her irresistible, this was going to be a piece of cake.

Not ten minutes later she was reconsidering her earlier optimism, she had never seen Jack acting so angry. He was striding about the office which was feeling claustrophobic with his fury.

'Do you know how many bodies we found in that building?' Jack asked rhetorically. Gwen opened her mouth to respond but Jack ignored her and carried on. 'Fifteen, Fifteen bodies chained in small cages, fifteen beings who died when the incendiary booby trap that you triggered razed the building to the ground. Fifteen off worlders, fifteen prisoners who had been abused and beaten and are now dead BECAUSE OF YOU!'

Gwen recoiled from Jack's anger, for the first time ever she was actually afraid of him. 'I didn't know there was anyone else in there but the two guys I saw through the window. I knew I could take them down, Jack. It was a situation I was trained for'

'You have worked for Torchwood for thirteen months, you don't know anything' snapped Jack

'That's bollocks,' replied Gwen heatedly, 'I assessed the situation and...'

Jack grasped his hair in frustration as he interrupted, 'and you murdered fifteen innocents.'

'How was I to know?' yelled Gwen, tearfully

'You weren't supposed to know, you were supposed to follow my fucking orders!' Jack was right in her face now, his spittle spattering her face as he screamed at her

For the first time, it occurred to Gwen that Jack really angry with her; he wasn't putting it on to hide his feelings for her from the others, he really was genuinely furious. Time for some damage limitation, forcing more tears into her eyes she gazed up a Jack with a doe like expression on her face. 'You think I'm not sorry?' she whispered brokenly, 'you think I don't think about those fifteen prisoners? You think I don't have nightmares?' She got to her feet and forced herself into Jack's unwilling arms, hiding her face against his chest so that he could not see the sardonic smile on her face as she played on his emotions, 'I'm sorry Jack, you must believe me.' She gave herself a mental high five, this was one of her better performances even if she did say so herself.

Jack pushed her away, holding her at arm's length and staring at her face as if he had never seen her before, 'see the problem we have here, Cooper, is that I don't believe you, I don't trust you to do as you are told and if I can't trust you to follow my orders how can I trust you to have my back?'

Gwen grimaced, 'Jack, I've learnt my lesson, I swear'

Jack shook his head, 'if it meant the death of fifteen people then I'm not sure it was worth the price.'

Gwen snorted, was Jack deliberately missing the point? 'They weren't people, Jack they were just aliens'

Jack thrust her from him with such violence she would have fallen had the desk not stopped her. 'Just aliens?' he repeated in an unbelieving tone, 'what? Like I am "just" an alien? Like The Doctor is? You do know what we do here at Torchwood, yes?'

'Of course!' Gwen was beginning to lose her temper; this was not going how she had planned at all. By now she should be in Jack's bed whilst her murmured how much he had missed her against her naked skin. 'We protect this planet from the scum of the universe!'

'We protect the weak and the vulnerable from the scum of the universe' corrected Jack, 'even if the weak and the vulnerable are from other worlds. If you can't see this, then I can't risk having you working for me in the field.'

Gwen snorted, 'you won't fire me, Jack. Look around you the four of us can barely manage the workload – you can't afford to be a body down.'

Jack gave a pleased smile, the smile of a hunter who has manoeuvred his prey into a long prepared trap, 'I said I can't risk having you work for me in the field,' he said, 'when you return to work next week you will be confined to the Hub. You will run support on our field missions, look after our guests and coordinate and file our reports.'

Be the bloody secretary?' Gwen was outraged, how many times had Jack called her the heart of Torchwood? 'No! I won't do it!'

'Good,' Jack unholstered his Webley and aimed it between Gwen's eyes, 'I was really, really hoping you would say that.'

The dangerous moment was broken as the door to Jack's office burst open and Tosh and Owen hurtled into the room both speaking at the same time.

'A naked blue skinned humanoid, malnourished and beaten, has just been picked up from an alleyway near the High Street Arcade. I've overridden the ambulance instructions and they will be bringing him here. ETA five minutes'

'I've picked up chatter on a couple of S and M websites about a new no holds barred, anything permissible sex service, very exclusive, very secret. I'm following a few leads but should have an address for you by the end of the day.'

Slowly Jack holstered his gun and turned to his two employees, 'Owen, great work. Tosh, you frequent sex sites?'

Tosh blushed, 'only in the line duty, Jack'

Owen's phone beeped and he pulled it from his pocket and glanced at it, 'it's the paramedics, they're on the plas.' he turned to Gwen, 'I'm gonna need a hand, come on Cooper, grab a trolley and meet me at the invisible lift.'

Turning swiftly he ran from Jack's office. Gwen turned to Jack in appeal, 'Jack?' but Jack had already turned from her to pull up the plas CCTV. 'You heard him, Gwen. Get on with it.'

Angrily, Gwen pushed past Toshiko and followed Owen. Tosh rubbed her arm where Gwen had pushed her into the door frame. 'Are you sure about this Jack?' she asked ruefully.

Jack shrugged, 'she is right about one thing, we can't afford to be a person down. I'll keep her out of the field as much as possible and as soon as we have shut this sex ring down I'll retcon her back to puberty and recruit a replacement, may be two'

Tosh smiled, 'whatever you say, Jack' she said softly, 'I trust your judgement and now, I'd better get back to my sex chat rooms.'

With a fond hand on her back Jack accompanied her down to the main floor of the hub just as Owen and Gwen descended from the plas. Jack's heart sank as he saw the body on the trolley was completed covered. He raised a questioning eyebrow at Owen who shook his head sadly. 'He was too badly injured, nothing I could have done.' Carefully Jack pulled the sheet back, flinching as the battered features of the alien were revealed.

'He's a long way from home' said Jack, 'he's a Tolaxsian.' He lifted the corpse's long fingered hand, stroking it gently, 'they are amazing musicians, a most gentle and creative race. They don't have inter-stellar travel, there is no reason for him to be here, someone must have snatched him.'

Tosh reached around Jack and closed the sightless eyes of the Tolaxsian, 'he looks so young,' she murmured.

'Yeah' Jack cleared his throat uncomfortably, 'he looks like an adolescent, no more that about 80 or 90.'

Gwen snorted sarcastically, 'an adolescent?' she enquired cynically

'Tolaxsian's live for around 400 years,' said Jack, stroking the alien's long hair carefully, 'if they are not starved and abused like this poor boy.'

'I take it...no autopsy,' said Owen.

Jack shook his head and returned to his office. Owen and Tosh stared at each other. 'I've never seen him like this,' observed Tosh, 'something about this case is really getting to him.'

Owen frowned, 'yeah, he got all bent out of shape when we picked up the first victim, N'wr. Something he said made me think that he was intimately acquainted with sexual slavery.' He looked at Tosh who was trying to blink back her tears. 'We need to get this cleared up before we lose him completely.'

That got through to Gwen, 'You think he would leave us?' that didn't suit her plans at all – all her goals revolved around having Jack in her bed, the thought that he might leave Torchwood, leave her had never occurred to her before. Maybe I should start making him realise how invaluable I am to him and how much he needs to have me around, she thought to herself. She straightened up, 'I'll transfer this guy down to the vaults, 'she offered, 'then I'll come back and help you with you sex room chatter, if you like Tosh'

'Er...thanks,' replied a clearly taken aback Toshiko. Her eyes met those of an equally perplexed Owen who gave the slightest of shrugs indicating that, he too, had no idea what Cooper was up to now but that both he and Tosh should not trust her motives in any way.

Seven hours later Tosh was ready to scream. Her job had been made several times more difficult thanks to Gwen's "help"; the Welshwoman's computer expertise was pretty much confined to buying shoes over the internet and updating her Face Book status making her pretty much useless to Tosh. After, two hours of being asked to provide coffee every twenty minutes or so (it was the only thing Tosh could think of to get a brief respite from the never ending chatter about Jack) Gwen eventually took umbrage and went home in a huff. Tosh sat back in her chair, removed her glasses and rubbed her tired eyes. Owen came up behind her and, to her astonishment, began to massage the tight muscles of her shoulders and neck. 'You are a saint, Toshiko Sato,' he told her.

'I don't know about that' smiled Tosh, leaning back into his touch, 'I was seriously considering killing her with my stapler at one point.'

'Well, if anyone could, it would be you' Jack's voice came from the walkway way outside of his office. He smiled affectionately at Tosh and Owen, 'have you got anything for me Tosh?'

'Yeah I think I have.'

'Brilliant' the brilliance of Jack's smile was a million miles away from the crushed and distressed expression he had appeared when he gazed at the dead Tolaxsian earlier, 'boardroom in five minutes, please.'