The following morning, Ianto woke up with an unfamiliar feeling of excitement churning in his belly. Captain Jack Harkness was coming to work in his book shop for...well for as long as it took to break the case he was working on. Jack had explained that he was not able to give Ianto any detail about the case but had assured him that his cooperation was vital to a satisfactory conclusion. Given that Ianto had been rendered almost breathless by the beauty and intensity of the man before him, his cooperation was very much a done deal even before Jack began to speak.

In fact, Ianto could not remember any time that he had almost instantly been drawn to and comfortable with a new acquaintance. It had looked as if the Captain, or Jack as he had insisted Ianto call him, had felt the same. He had seated himself on one of the store sofas and Ianto had made coffee for everyone. It was only when he looked around to offer another cup that he and Jack realised that Tosh had left them and they had been talking for nearly seven hours. To Ianto it felt as if Jack was really seeing him, looking past the wheelchair and treating him as a person who deserved attention and respect but did not require pity – Ianto found that extremely refreshing. Then, as Jack had made to leave, he had placed a warm and friendly hand upon Ianto's shoulder and the frisson of sexual arousal that shook his body had amazed him. As he manoeuvred himself out of bed and into his wheelchair to head to the wet room for a shower, Ianto was aware that he was looking forward to working with Captain Harkness very much indeed.

Jack and Toshiko were strolling arm in arm across the plas, taking pleasure in the unseasonably warm breeze blowing off the bay. Jack was holding a carrier bag, which contained various pastries from a very up market, expensive and popular bakery; he noticed Tosh noticing and gave a small laugh.

'Just want to make a good impression on our new boss.' said Jack

'With pastries from Jacksons? They're on the other side of the city. You must have been up pretty early to get those,' observed Tosh wickedly.

Jack blushed, 'yeah...well...' he blustered

Tosh smiled and squeezed Jack's arm, 'you two really seemed to hit it off last night. You didn't even notice when I left, did you?'

For a long moment Jack said nothing but developed a real interest in the view over the bay, then he gave a grimace and said, wistfully, 'he's an interesting young man, easy to be with. I like talking to him. It would be nice to have him as a friend.'

As she looked up at him in surprise, it occurred to Tosh, for the first time, to wonder if Jack was lonely. To break the awkward silence, she dug the new piece of kit that Jack had given to her out of her bag and inspected it' it looked like an intricate bracelet made of a dull grey metal. 'So, how does this work?'

Jack took it from her. 'We know that their operation is being run from one of the units opposite Ianto's shop but we have no way of telling which one just by watching. We can't draw attention to ourselves, if they suspect they are under observation they will just up and move their operation somewhere else in the city and we will be back where we started from. I won't leave sentient creatures in that hellish situation any longer than I have to. So we have to be sneaky, the plan is that we will work in the book store as regular sales people and keep a low profile watch on the place but if they use any type of alien tech to access whichever building they are using, the bracelets will vibrate to alert us. At the same time the bracelets will try to identify and triangulate the signal to pin point location and hopefully quantify life signs. I've got Gwen monitoring the bracelet telemetry back at the Hub and the programme you set up will give us location, floor plans, CCTV, whatever we can find.'

'Gwen?' asked Tosh dubiously

'Yeah, I know' said Jack uncomfortably, 'but what choice do I have? I can't trust her in the field. I'll need Owen fresh to deal with any prisoners we rescue and he won't be if he has to spend all day staring at a computer screen and if we are to stay off their radar it needs two pairs of eyes on the target. The tracer program you wrote for this is fool proof right?'

'Jack, nothing is fool proof to a sufficiently talented fool.' Jack gave a snort of laughter. 'And why are we assuming alien tech?' said Tosh curiously

'There is no technology on this planet that can cloak an entire building or hide large volumes of traffic going in or out. This is either a cloaking device on a massive scale or a time slip device.' said Jack, he frowned, 'I'd be inclined to think they are using a time slip device. I've seen people cloaked as a sort or party trick but nothing on this scale, it would need an immense energy source too whereas a time slip...' he trailed off and stopped with a thoughtful look on his face.

'A time slip device?' prompted Tosh

'Hmm? Oh yeah.' Jack focused on her again, 'a time slip device creates a sort of bubble around the target, a building or encampment or whatever and moves everything inside the boundary forward in time by two seconds. From the outside of the perimeter everything looks normal. It's very clever and almost impossible to identify without specialist equipment. If that is what this is then these guys have access to some very serious shit. The problem with time slip tech is that the access signal fades really fast, so we need to triangulate almost as soon as we pick it up '

'Ok, that makes sense, I guess' acknowledged Tosh, 'but you and I are only here from 8 to 7, who watches after we leave?'

'Look around you Tosh,' said Jack gesturing at the early morning shoppers and tourists who were wandering around the quay. 'This is a commercial area; anyone attempting to enter one of these shops after dark is automatically suspicious. It's quite clever when you think about it, the place keeps the same hours as all the other businesses on the block, nothing to make them stand out.'

'So, we pick up the signal frequency and Gwen, Gwen of all people, gives us the intel we need, then what?' asked Tosh

'Then' said Jack with a smile, 'we destroy the bad guys and save the aliens'

'Just the two of us?' Tosh was sceptical

Jack stroked her cheek, 'have some faith, Toshiko.' His face brightened as he spotted Ianto at the window of the shop trying, unsuccessfully, to look as if he wasn't anxiously waiting for them to arrive.

Jack entered Celtic Mythos with his usual flair, 'Morning boss,' he tossed the bag of breakfast goodies onto Ianto's lap, 'I bought breakfast.'

'Good,' Ianto tossed the bag right back at Jack who caught it without a fumble, 'I made coffee – shall we adjourn to the lounge area?' Skilfully he turned his chair, tilted back and wheelied across the shop to the sofa where three mugs of steaming coffee were waiting. Jack watched the small display with a thoughtful expression then, not to be outdone, he backed up to the door, ran a few steps and slid the rest of the way acrossed the floor on his knees. Both men were laughing hard and clearly delighted with each other.

Tosh lingered in the doorway watching the antics of both of her friends with a soft smile on her face. Something good was starting here, she had rarely seen Jack so taken with someone on such a short acquaintance and she had never seen him trying to build a relationship which was not based upon flirting and sexual innuendo. Jack and Ianto were setting out the pastries and playfully arguing about who would get the cinnamon swirl, Jack was smiling at Ianto whose face was flushed and animated. She hadn't seen Ianto this happy, well, ever; he was always so sombre and serious. Apart from her, Tosh wasn't sure he had any other friends, and she only saw him occasionally. Sometimes, when he was unaware he was being observed Ianto looked to bleak and lonely. Maybe Jack would be good for him. Jack was saying something in a low tone and whatever it was put a wide smile on Ianto's face turning him from a merely attractive man into a stunningly gorgeous one. Tosh had a feeling that she was going to be surplus to requirements over the next few days, as far as those two were concerned but observing their fast developing friendship she decided that she didn't mind one bit.