With a dazzling smile, Jack opened the door of Celtic Mythos Books and ushered his latest satisfied customer out onto the quay then he sidled up to Tosh as she finished serving her customer, both of them giving their, by now habitual, glance out of the shop window at the buildings opposite; the board walk was thronged with tourists and shoppers but there did not seem to be anything suspicious going on.' can I have a private word with you?' he asked quietly.

Tosh looked round, it was still quite early, barely 10 a.m. and the store was not very busy. Ianto was in his office co-ordinating the list of books he was hoping to source at the big antiquarian booksellers convention he was attending the next day; of the other sales assistants, Adam was running a story telling circle for a class from the local school, Gemma was dusting shelves and organising new stock and Cathy the barista was serving a couple of customers.

'Yeah, OK' she said before turning and catching Gemma's eye and making a drinking motion before pointing to Jack too. Gemma nodded her understanding that the two Torchwood operatives were going to take a quick break.

Tosh settled herself on their usual sofa as Jack collected their coffees from Cathy. For a while there was silence as they manipulated sugar packets and wooden stirrers then Tosh started. 'What did you want, Jack?'

Jack was concentrating on stirring his coffee, 'I just wondered...er...what the deal is with Ianto'

Tosh stiffened, 'what do you mean?'

Jack waved a vague hand in the direction of where their erstwhile boss was working, 'erm...the wheelchair thing' he stumbled, 'how did...I mean..was he born like..or...'

Tosh blushed, 'Jack, I don't think it's my place to...'

Jack grabbed her hand, 'please Tosh, I'm not asking out of idle curiosity.'

'Then why are you asking?'

Jack looked uncomfortable, 'I really like him, you know? I mean really like him. We are becoming such close friends so quickly and the last thing I want is to accidentally hurt him by asking stupid questions.' he looked at Tosh pleadingly and gave a self deprecating laugh, 'not like me to be so sensitive, is it?

Tosh took hold of Jack's restless hands, 'Jack, are you sure you concern for Ianto is purely platonic?'

Jack shrugged, 'I dunno. I'd like more, obviously but he seems oblivious to the attraction between us. He lights up when he sees me but he never seems to want to move things to a different level but if being my friend is the most he can offer then I'll accept that.' He gave a weak smile, 'hell, I'm not even sure he swings that way. He's pretty hard to read, you know?'

Tosh frowned, 'If you are asking me if he's gay, then I can't help you. Ianto is a very private person. I've certainly never seen him with a boyfriend or a girlfriend for that matter; in fact I don't think he has many friends at all to be honest. I know he was interested someone at the time of the accident but I don't know if it was Lisa or Tristan so...'

'Accident?'

Tosh bit her lip, damn she really wanted this thing with Jack and Ianto to work but she was going to have to be careful not to be disloyal to Ianto. On the other hand, Jack seemed to really care about her friend. She gave a heavy sigh and made the decision to betray her friend, it was for his own good she told herself. 'Ianto was in a really bad accident, oh... about three years ago. He was in a car being driven by his...well I guess you'd call her a close friend, Lisa and a mutual friend of theirs Tristan was a passenger in the back. Lisa pulled out of a junction straight into the path of a petrol tanker. By some bizarre miracle Ianto was thrown clear, got away with barely a scratch but the Tanker ploughed the car with Lisa and Tristan still inside into the side of a building. By all eye witness accounts, Ianto was so brave; he was running back to the car to try to rescue his friends when the whole thing blew.'

'Oh goddesses' murmured Jack, his eyes closed in sympathetic pain, 'and Lisa? Tristan?'

Tosh shook her head sadly, 'Ianto got caught in the blast and was taken to the hospital unconscious; when he came round he couldn't walk.'

'So...what... spinal injury from the blast?' asked Jack

'Well, no...that's the weird thing' Tosh had completely overcome her earlier reticence but she was keeping her voice low. 'They can't find any physical cause for the paralysis, the doctors think...'

'TOSH!' the voice was like a whiplash of ice. Both Jack and Tosh gave a startled jump and turned identical guilty faces to Ianto who had come up silently behind them. Ianto looked furious, 'I'll thank you, Toshiko Sato, not to gossip about me, behind my back and in my own shop.' Tosh blushed and looked away but Ianto was not done, 'and you, Captain Harkness, I thought...I thought you were my friend.'

Jack looked stricken, 'I am your friend, Ianto' he said desperately

Ianto raise a sceptical eyebrow, 'really? Well in my experience friends don't talk about other friends behind their backs.'

Jack reached out an appealing hand but Ianto wheeled himself out of his reach, 'Yan!'

'Don't, Yan me' replied Ianto coldly, 'I liked you, I thought you liked me but obviously you just wanted to keep me sweet so that you could use my shop as you own personal look out. I wish you really were one of my employees so I could fire your sorry arse. You know what's really funny? I really, really liked you, more than I have ever liked anyone in my entire life. I would have happily let you use the shop without you pretending that there was a, a connection between us. You didn't have to use me like this to get your own way.'

'No, Ianto, no. That's not true.' Jack looked crushed

' No? Then what possible reason could you have for this? What on earth would a man like you see in someone like me?' Then Ianto's face cleared as the light dawned, 'Oh, you are one of those then are you?' he sneered, 'well, you aren't the first one I've come across'

Tosh rested a gentle hand on Ianto's leg, 'Ianto, wait, are you saying?

Ianto gave a bitter laugh, 'look at me Tosh, I'm handicapped. Do you know how many people, men and women, want to fuck the cripple?'

Jack buried his head in his hands and Tosh looked horrified, 'What? Ianto, no! Jack is not like that.'

'You know what?' snapped Ianto, 'I don't care what Jack is like. You can both stay until whatever it is you are doing is over, keep interaction with my staff to a minimum, stay well away from me and when this over I never want to see or hear either of you ever again. '

As Ianto wheeled himself away, Tosh gave Jack a sideways glance. He was pale and silent and he stared hopelessly at Ianto's retreating back before putting his head back in his hands in despair. As she was desperately racking her brains for something to say to him, the bracelet on her wrist cooled appreciably and began to vibrate against her skin. Jack instantaneously switched into professional mode.

'Tosh get to the window, see if you can spot any of our suspects,' he ordered as he fumbled in his pocket for his phone and his PDA. Tosh hurried over to the window and began to rearrange the display, her sharp gaze on the street outside. She thought that she saw the back of a man fading out of view from the corner of her eye but she had not been quick enough to be able to identify the man from the list she had drawn from the darknet chat room. Turning to Jack she gave a quick and disappointed shake of her head, noting that Jack had his PDA in his hand out obviously waiting for Gwen to send him the information from the trace monitor – he didn't look happy.

Gwen was bored. Tosh had left very detailed instructions about how to run the monitoring program she had set up, which as far as Gwen could see could be condensed down to -

1. The monitoring program will beep if a signal is detected

2. If the program beeps, type the word "locate" into dialogue box

3. Send all information to Jack's PDA

Three days now she had been staring at the damn screen and fuck all had happened. Every night Tosh and Jack came back to the Hub and it seemed to Gwen they were getting closer than ever before as they laughed and shared stories about the funny customers they had dealt with over the course of the day. This was not a development that Gwen was too thrilled about, in fact she was firmly of the opinion that she was the one who should be working in the cripple's book shop with Jack; Tosh would have been happier in the Hub and she would have been happier giving Jack a blow job in convenient cupboards throughout the day. Just the thought of having Jack's cock in her mouth was making her feel hot and tingly. She looked around the Hub; Jack had not called in, probably busy flirting with Tosh thought Gwen, bitterly. Owen was asleep on the sofa having long given up any pretence of working so Gwen reckoned she was due some 'Gwen' time. She made her way up to Jack's office and from there she lowered herself through the trap door into Jack's sleeping quarters.

Resisting the temptation to poke around Gwen stretched out on the small bed, turning her head into the pillow she inhaled deeply; it was almost like having the man himself lying next to her. She unfastened her jeans and pushed them down over her hips. Sliding her hand inside her scanty knickers, she began rubbing her clitoris hard, closing her eyes and pretending that is was Jack's fingers working busily to give her pleasure. In very little time orgasm began to coil low in her belly and with a muffled cry of 'oh Jack, Jack' she came hard, soaking the bedding upon which she was writhing.

Upstairs at the deserted workstation, Tosh's tracer program was beeping an urgent alert as the time slip access signal was detected. Two seconds later, Gwen's phone began to ring.