Tosh sat on her sofa, gazing sadly at the bottle of wine and the glass that were resting on the low table in front of her. She could not summon up the will reach across and open it. Even though Jack and Owen had tried to shield her from the worst sights of the nightmarish cellar, the horror of what she had seen just would not leave her. Once the Doctor had arrived; he, Jack and Owen had gently and carefully transferred all of the injured aliens into the state-of-the-art medical centre within the Tardis. She gave a weak smile; Owen had looked like a little boy in a toy store as he started around the Tardis med-bay until one of the prisoners began coughing up purple blood and then Owen was back to full on medic mode – all professionalism.

Tosh leant back on the couch, tears welling up in her eyes for the suffering of the aliens they had found and gods...Gwen! Toshiko had not particularly liked the Welshwoman, she had thought her self-centred and selfish, apart from he fact she made it very clear that she would have dropped her knickers at any moment if Jack had asked her to, she had also gone all out after Owen, only really taking an interest in him after Tosh had, unwisely as it turned out, confided her attraction for Owen to her but she would not have wished her to die in that hellhole, nor to be discarded like a piece of trash.

Whilst the injured prisoners were being moved into the Tardis, Tosh had gone back up to the reception area, the man that Jack had shot earlier was lying still with his eyes closed, either asleep or unconscious, Tosh neither knew nor cared. She began to go through all of the computer files hoping to get some information about the men behind this operation. The names she had found earlier were merely men who had joined the club and visited regularly, they were unimportant in the wider scheme of things. The names she really needed to find were the bastards who had kidnapped these alien kids and to find out where they had found the alien tech to enable them to do that. It had broken her heart to see the look on Jack's face when she had to admit that she had found no records of the people behind the brothel. Financial records were brilliantly obscured and however the owners of the building communicated with each other and their clients, there was no electronic trail to find. The guy they had encountered on entering the building really was just a caretaker and was retconned by Owen before being handed over to the police. Tosh had had to content herself by inserting a divert programme onto all the computer communication systems which meant that if anyone tried to contact the organisers the message would automatically divert to Torchwood. It was a long shot but it was all she could think of to do.

In the end, Jack had virtually forced her out of the building with the strict instructions to go home and get some rest. He had promised her that they would both tackle the problem again in the morning and that they would both be better for a nights sleep. Tosh would rather not have had to be alone but Owen had gone off in the Tardis with The Doctor and although Jack was adamant there was still some clearing up for him to do the way he kept glancing wistfully over to Celtic Mythos gave Tosh had a fairly good idea of where he really wanted to be.

She rubbed her eyes, she was exhausted but she knew she would not sleep if she went to bed. She stared hopelessly at the bottle of wine and tried to find the energy to lean forward and pour a glass for herself. Suddenly the silence of the flat was broken by the sustained ringing of the doorbell, almost as if someone was leaning on it for support. Tosh glanced at the clock on her microwave 2.30 a.m, frowning she drew her gun and glanced through the spy hole. Then with a big smile she tucked her gun in the back of her jeans and threw the door wide.

'Owen!'

The medic stood on her doormat, blinking and looking confused, 'Tosh. What time is it?'

Tosh grabbed his arm and pulled him, unresisting, inside the flat. 'You turned up in the middle of the night just to ask me what time it is?' she teased gently.

Owen blinked again, 'The Doctor just dropped me off on the plas,' he said, 'I er...I didn't want to go home to be alone and I wanted to see you, make sure you were OK.'

Tosh smiled happily, 'it's only been about 6 hours since you last saw me,' she said, 'what trouble did you think I could possibly get in to in that time?'

To her surprise Owen pulled her into a tight embrace, 'it's just good to see you, that's all' he whispered into her hair

Tosh looked closer at Owen, his hair was longer and he wasn't wearing the same clothes as he had left in. Oh, 'how long were you away?' she asked, softly. She felt him relax against her, happy she had worked it out.

'Six months,' admitted Owen, 'we went to a medical facility in the 48th century, The Doctor reckoned it was the best time and place to treat a disparate group of injured aliens . God Tosh it was amazing, I learnt so much.'

'What about the captives?' asked Tosh, feeling quite content to stay in the circle of Owen's arms for as long as he allowed it.

Owen sighed, 'we liberated twelve, we lost two on the way to the med centre and another one once we were there.'

'Oh, Owen,' cautiously Tosh stroked Owen's hair.

'We saved nine,' said Owen quickly, 'those are the ones the Doctor said we should concentrate on. We got nine of them back to health and back home to their own time. That's what counts.'

'It is, you did good, Owen.'

Owen pulled back slightly and looked searchingly into Toshiko's face. 'God it really is so good to see you.'

'Owen!' Tosh blushed self-deprecatingly, 'you said that already.'

'No' Owen was still holding her, 'I mean to see you, really see you, to see you for the incredible, beautiful, talented woman that you are. How did I miss that for so long?'

And to Toshiko's joy and amazement, he kissed her.

Ianto awoke to the sound of someone moving quietly through his apartment. He had a brief frisson of trepidation, before he heard a familiar American voice whispering, 'Ianto? Yan?'

Ianto struggled upright and switched on his bedside light, he glanced at his phone, 2.25.a.m. 'Jack'

Jack appeared in the doorway of Ianto's bedroom, he looked exhausted. He had black shadows under his eyes, his skin had a greyish tinge to it and his voice sounded raw as if he had been crying or screaming for a long time. His coat was stained with various fluids and his whole body language was sad and defeated. He could not look more different to the confident and well groomed man who had kissed Ianto good-bye the previous morning.

'Gods, Jack' Ianto pulled the duvet to one side; 'you look awful, get undressed and get in here.'

'Are you sure?' said Jack uncertainly. 'I didn't...I didn't want to wake you. I just needed to see you, to be sure you were safe.'

Ianto cursed his useless legs, he wanted nothing more than to leap out of bed and pull Jack into his arms instead he was stuck in bed. He tried again, patting the mattress invitingly, 'come on Jack, please. You are too far away from me and I can't get to you'

Jack was swaying with tiredness as he slipped his coat from his shoulders draping it over a nearby chair; he fumbled at his shirt buttons with clumsy fingers,almost sobbing with frustration as he struggled. Ianto held out his hand, 'come here, Cariad, let me help you.'

Jack gave a small laugh and moved to sit on the bed, submissively allowing Ianto to remove his shirt and undershirt. Ianto chucked them over to the chair where Jack's coat lay discarded, 'now take those boots off, get out of those pants and come here where you belong.'

Once Jack was naked and under the duvet, Ianto switched off the light and pulled Jack into a close embrace. 'Tell me' he said simply.

Jack shook his head, 'I can't, it was unspeakable, I don't want you exposed to stuff like that.'

Ianto kissed Jack's hair, 'if we are going to be together,' he murmured, ' and I hope we are you don't have to carry stuff like this on your own anymore.'

'Someone was running an alien sex ring in Cardiff; the main brothel was across from your books store. Fifteen aliens, most of them adolescents, caged, beaten, abused and used for extreme sadistic sex by a bunch rich perverts. '

'But you stopped them, right?' said Ianto, making a mental note to take Jack up on the whole "aliens" thing at any time.

'Yeah' Jack's sigh sounded as if it was dragged from the depths of his soul, 'in a way we did. Only twelve of the prisoners were still alive when we managed to get in there, three were dead. They had been just...dumped in a corner of a room like so much rubbish.'

Ianto was stroking Jack's back, moving his hand in slow soothing circles, holding him tight so that Jack could feel the heat of their adjacent flesh, by the way of Jack's breathing steadied he found it soothing.

Ianto thought for a second, 'Jack, you don't have to answer this if you don't want to but...if you guys are special ops you must have seen terrible things before, this is upsetting you on a more personal level isn't it?'

Jack nodded, his breath hitching once more against Ianto's skin, he took a shuddering breath. 'I was captured by a similar group, once,' he admitted quietly, 'they held me for seven months. That was seven months of being drugged and abused physically and sexually by people who paid highly for the privilege. I remember how it feels to be paralysed, screaming in fear and agony whilst someone cuts into your body or fucks you with a barbed penis. The people that took me had some kind of accelerated healing chamber so we could be quite badly injured but still fit to be fucked by the following day. Soem prisoners took their own lives in despair. Eventually I escaped but it took me a very long time before I managed to see myself as an innocent victim – in a situation like that, confused and medicated, it's easy to be made to believe that everything that happens to you is what you deserve, or is your own fault.'

Ianto kissed Jack on the cheek, 'I understand that feeling' he said with a grimace, thinking of his mother.

'Anyway,' said Jack, 'It's behind me now, not worthy of thought.'

'Is that what you do?' asked Ianto curiously, 'just lock it away and never think about it?'

'I have never spoken of it to anyone,' said Jack, 'until you Ianto Jones'

'Were you the only one to escape?'

'No I managed to get another six people out with me, had to leave five behind.' he paused, 'I do feel bad about that.' Jack's voice had become a monotone that did nothing to show the depth of his feelings until Ianto kissed him and said quietly, 'it's OK to cry'

Those four quiet words, repeated with same loving inflexion that Jack had used only 36 hours or so before, undid him in a way that nothing had for a very long time. The emotions of the day and the powerful memories they had triggered in him, swamped Jack completely and he broke down, sobbing.

And Ianto held him close the entire time.