Tosh and Owen jogged across the plas, heading towards Celtic Mythos. As they got close they slowed to a walk so as not to draw too much attention from the passers-by. Owen was wearing a substantial rucksack containing his field med-kit whilst Tosh had a large canvas bag on her shoulderwas concentrating hard upon a piece of kit that would pin-point the source of the time slip and give them the frequency they needed to trigger the lock for themselves.

Jack joined them in the front of the bookshop. 'Hey team'

Tosh smiled, 'Jack'

Owen wouldn't make eye contact, contenting himself instead with a brief, 'hey'

Jack looked at Tosh and raised his eyebrow. Tosh had been afraid of this, Owen was still freaking out about her sporadic dom/sub relationship with Jack so she responded with a quick shake of her head, a sort of non-verbal don't go there message. Jack pulled his mind back on the job.

'Tosh, what do we have?'

'I've got what we need; we can get in at any time. Let's go grab a coffee and I'll talk you through what we have.'

As the three of them entered Celtic Mythos, Jack noted that Ianto was on the gallery discussing the provenance of a complete first edition set of "The Barchester Chronicles" with a potential buyer. Ianto glanced up and caught Jack's eye, a brilliant and affectionate smile swept across his face and he lifted a couple of fingers in a salute of acknowledgement. Owen cleared his throat and dragged Jack's attention back to the matter in hand.

As the three of them settled on a sofa in a secluded corner of the store, Tosh opened her lap top. 'The tracer programme worked perfectly this time,' she reported, 'I have the frequency that will get us in through the time slip bubble, so we can get in anytime we want. I tried to do a thermal scan but the bubble made the results unreliable, especially as some aliens have a much lower or much higher body temperature than humans do. At a guess I'd say we are looking at around twelve or thirteeen bodies inside right now, but how many of them are slaves I can't tell.'

'Good work, Tosh' Jack patted her knee, affectionately, 'did you bring the equipment I asked for.'

Tosh heaved a large canvas messenger bag onto the low coffee table, 'everything you wanted and a couple of other things that I thought might be useful.'

Jack placed an enthusiastic kiss on her temple, 'you anticipate my every need.' Owen choked on his coffee. Jack waited until Owen had finished coughing, then got to his feet, 'right let's do this' he said, 'I just need to have a quick word with Mr Jones before we leave.'

Ianto had just completed the sale of the Trollope when he became aware that Jack was standing beside him. He looked up and smiled, 'hey'

Jack ran his finger gently down the side of Ianto's face, 'hey' he replied, 'are you OK?'

Ianto's eyes filled with tears at the tenderness in Jack's voice, 'better than OK,' he whispered, 'a beautiful man has told me that he loves me and very soon, I hope, he will take me out to dinner and I'll be able to tell him that I love him too.'

Jack grinned, 'really?'

'Really'

Jack got down on his knees so that he and Ianto were face to face, 'I want to kiss you' he said quietly

'I want to kiss you too'

Gently, lovingly their lips touched briefly and they pulled apart still gazing into each other's eyes until the applause from the customers and sales assistants from the floor below filtered through to them. Ianto leant back blushing, Jack laughed, 'you are adorable.' he kissed Ianto's nose, making him blush harder, 'I gotta go but I'll come back as soon as I can, it might be quite late, is that OK?'

'Yes please' said Ianto, 'I don't care how late it is, just come back'

Jack kissed him one last time, 'count on it.'

With the frequency data that Tosh had provided to him, Jack was easily able to get the three of them through the time slip bubble. Once inside, Owen gazed with fascination at the pearlescent grey fog that obscured the plas from view. He pushed it with a cautious finger and was surprised to find it solid and slightly chilled. Jack grinned,' everything outside the bubble is 3 seconds in the past, you can't see the past.'

'Huh'

The two men turned as if to approach the innocuous looking shop front but Tosh held them back, 'wait' she commanded, digging around in her satchel, 'ah ha!' She pulled a small oblong object out with a flourish and placed it on the ground at their feet.

'And that would be?' enquired Jack

Tosh smiled wickedly, 'just a little something I've been working on in my spare time,' she said pressing a concealed button on the top of the little box. It let out a low continuous him and a bright purple beam of light shot out of it and transcribed an arc on the ground in front of the Torchwood team and then swept up to a height of around twenty feet. 'It scans for cameras, trip wires, booby traps – anything at all really.' the box gave a satisfied beep and the edges turned green. 'All clear,' announced Tosh.

'Right,' said Jack, unfastening the holster containing his Webley, 'we go in fast, we go in armed, shoot at the slightest sign of resistance. These people have got hold of some serious off world kit here and I don't want to take any chances with either of you or their prisoners. Are we clear?'

Both Owen and Tosh nodded, Owen with some reluctance, Jack knew he struggled to reconcile his role as a healer with the violence that the team often faced, but once Tosh had opened the door with the lockbreaker Owen was at Jack's back as they entered.

Behind the shop's innocuous facade the decor was clean and bright, they entered in a sort of waiting room which consisted of a couple of comfy sofas, a receptionist's desk and an impressive collection of pornographic magazines. A large and belligerent man appeared from behind the desk.

'Who the fuck are you?'

Jack gave him his most insincere smile, 'Hi there' he said, 'I'm after a tutu and my friends here,' he waved vaguely at Tosh and Owen, 'need new tap shoes. We heard that Dance-a-palooza is THE place to come for that kinda stuff...' he trailed off hopefully.

'How did you get in here?' demanded the large man, who was obviously some kind of caretaker

Jack waved the lockbreaker in the air, 'bit of alien tech,' he confided, 'maybe I got it from the same place you got your time slip device?'

The large man pulled a gun from under the desk and pointed it at Jack, 'fuck off' he snarled.

Jack turned to Tosh and Owen, effectively shielding them from the angry man's sight as he carefully eased his gun from its holster, 'You know?' he asked them causally, 'I don't think this gentleman sells tutus. That is such a disappointment.' Then, with barely a pause, he turned and shot the threatening man in the shoulder.

Owen rushed to where the thugs was writhing on the floor, 'he shot me' the man roared in outraged surprise, 'he fucking shot me'

Well to be fair,' said Owen as he cuffed the man's hands behind his back, making him squeal in pain 'you were gonna shot him.'

Jack knelt down and took hold of the wounded mans chin with fingers of steel, 'are you on your own here?' The man tried to spit at Jack who transferred his grip to his wounded shoulder and squeezed hard making the man scream. 'I'll ask you again, are you on your own here?' he squeezed again

'Yes, yes. I came in to feed the stock. No clients today, the animals need some time to heal. We had a...special event a few days ago and some of the stick was damaged.'

Jack was already on his feet, he kicked the caretaker, hard in his wounded shoulder and then took off, striding down the corridor kicking doors open to reveal empty bedrooms, some with ordinary bedroom furniture inside but others tricked at as dungeons or torture chambers. Tosh followed behind him double checking that he hadn't missed anything in his rage. At the end of the corridor he turned to face Tosh, running his hands through his hair in despair, 'where are they? Where the fuck are they?' He turned to go back to the reception area clearly ready to beat some answers out of the man he had already shot only to find Owen in his way.

'Move' growled Jack

'You are wasting your time, Jack. He's passed out; he can't tell you anything right now.'

Tosh was frowning, 'These shops have basements don't they? To store excess stock and stuff?'

Jack brightened and looked around. An ornate and expensive wall hanging decorated the wall to Jack's left. He grasped it and ripped it from the wall, exposing a small door. It was unlocked, opening easily and switching on the light, Jack, Owen and Tosh descended the stairs and entered into some kind of hell.