Rhys' eyes went wide. "THE Buffy Summers?"

"You've heard of me?" Buffy asked, a smile forming as her ego got a bit of a boost.

"My cousin's a Watcher. Complains about you all the time. Makes me glad I didn't go into that line of work."

"Wait, how… what are you…" Gwen was in too much shock to finish a question.

"Why didn't you tell me you worked with the most famous Vampire Slayer in five centuries?" Rhys asked. He looked around at all the confused and shocked faces. "Didn't you all know?"

"Slayer, yes; famous, not really," Buffy said. "Am I really that famous?"

"Yeah," Rhys said.

"Wait, wait," Gwen said. "Vampire slayer? What does that mean? Jack?"

Everyone looked uncomfortable. Jack sighed and sat up in his chair to explain. "Not only are there aliens, there are a whole lot of demons indigenous to our world—including vampires."

"I'm the sort of superhero that fights them to protect humanity," Buffy said.

"In every generation there is a Chosen One," Rhys said. "She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer."

"You're really close with that Watcher cousin, aren't you?" Buffy said with a frown.

"Enough to know you aren't really the One anymore," he replied.

"And you all knew about this already?" Gwen asked angrily. "No one bothered to tell me about this? Jack?" She looked to him for an answer.

"Everyone just figured it out on their own." He shrugged.

"And you!" She turned on Rhys. "You give me shit about catching aliens, but you've known all this time about… did you really say vampires?"

They started arguing but Jack cut them off with a large whistle. "Hey! We need to get back to the problem at hand. And you," he pointed to Buffy, "stop distracting us with your celebrity. It would have been nice to know earlier."

She wasn't given the chance to protest as Jack took the meeting in hand. He asked Rhys to explain the layout of the warehouse.

Rhys pointed on the map. "That's where the thing is, that's the sedatives room, that's where they hang and pack all the meat."

"That's good to know," Owen said.

Gwen was pacing. "Yes, that's good to know, but he is not driving us in."

"They're expecting me," Rhys argued. "You lot can hide in the back of the van."

"What is this, Scooby-Doo?" Gwen shouted.

"My life—usually," Buffy muttered.

"I can believe that," Ianto muttered back.

Gwen and Rhys were shouting over them. "Absolutely no way is he getting involved."

"Oh, where was I when you decided to get involved? Did you give me a second thought?"

"Oh, joy, a domestic," Owen muttered.

"Rhys is right," Jack said. "He's our best way in—stun guns only."

"We've handled bigger than this," Owen said. "Why don't we just storm in, guns in the air and arrest them?"

"Those men aren't organized criminals," Jack replied. "If we go in, guns blazing, they'll kill the evidence and run."

"I wasn't suggesting blazing, just waving."

"The last thing we need is a bloodbath." Jack stood up.

"Point taken," Owen conceded.

"I know that," Gwen said.

"Once Rhys has loaded up, he can clear." Jack turned to Gwen. "You don't have to come. You can stand down."

"It might be better," Tosh said.

Jack pointed to Rhys while looking Gwen right in the eye. "You love him. Makes you vulnerable."

"He's not going in there without me," Gwen insisted.

"That's your decision."

"Yes, it is," she mumbled.

"You both have to live by it."

There was a quiet pause in the room.

"If it's just stun guns, can I come?" Buffy asked.

"Fine," Jack said.

"Oh, come on!" Rhys said. "A slayer there, you and me, a team."

"Dammit, Rhys!" Gwen shouted. "This is for real. Do you understand that? This is for real. And if you mess up, I will kill you!"

Rhys sat down and Toshiko stood to get things back on topic. "So, after we've stun-gunned the workers, we put the creature out of its misery."

"No," Jack said with a shake of his head. He looked at Buffy. "We're going to save it. Stabilize it, wait for the rift to open, and phoom, send it back."

There was surprise around the table.

"Guess who'll have to look after it in the meantime," Ianto said to his coffee mug.

"Tell me," said Tosh, "exactly how are we going to use it to arm ourselves against the future?"

"We could always hide behind it," Owen suggested sarcastically.

"Why shouldn't we save it?" Jack asked. "Because it's an alien? It needs our protection."

"You didn't hear its cry," said Rhys. "Heartbreaking."

"Listen to Ahab."

"Jack, it's growing," Owen said. Neither he nor Ianto seemed thrilled at the idea of saving the alien.

"Well, we'll find a way to stop it mutating," Jack said using his this-is-final voice. "We are doing this! That's an order!"

The men nodded.

"I'll stock up on plankton," Ianto said as he stood and left. He was followed closely by Tosh and Owen.

"So you do have a heart," Gwen said softly.

Rhys looked at them over his mug.

"We see enough death," Jack said as he looked at Rhys and Buffy beside him. He left and the others slowly followed.

"Yay!" Buffy said with a smile. "I get to go on the mission!"

"You haven't before?" Rhys asked.

"Long story," Buffy said dismissively.

"She won't use a gun," Gwen said.

"Okay, not that long a story."

"So how do you know about Buffy again?" Gwen asked.

"Um, my cousin, Thom, talks about her all the time."

"Why?" Gwen asked.

"What's not to talk about?" Buffy said.

"She's the Slayer. She's the only one to quit the counsel."

"Counsel?" Gwen asked.

"Watchers Counsel," Buffy explained. "As the name implies, they watch slayers, train them, and record everything."

"Didn't you also die?" Rhys asked loudly. They were now in the central area; Tosh was speaking to Jack at her station, but they both looked at the trio to hear Buffy's answer. There was an odd look on Jack's face.

"Only for like a minute," Buffy said awkwardly. "Stupid prophesy. The Master mojo-ed me with his hypno-voice and left me face down in a puddle. CPR isn't all that unheard of."

"The Master?" Gwen asked. She looked more confused the more Buffy spoke.

"Really ugly, old vampire," Buffy said. She shuddered at the memory. "I can never look at fruit punch the same."

Jack motioned for Buffy to meet him in his office, but as she left Gwen and Rhys, she heard Gwen say, "Sometimes I don't understand half of what she says."

"Is the thing with UNIT done?" Jack asked as he sat in his chair.

"Yeah, for now hopefully."

"They do know you work for Torchwood and not them, right?"

"If not, they will."

He nodded, satisfied with the answer. "We have a lot to talk about. Those reports on you from UNIT left out quite a bit."

"Yeah, well," she said. "After this we'll definitely have some quality father-daughter bonding time."

"Agreed. So what did UNIT need you for today?"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy kept Jack entertained with the morning UNIT debacle until they all were able to call it a night. The next morning Rhys and Jack squared away the van at Rhys' office, and the team met them at the loading dock. Owen helped in Tosh and would have helped Buffy, but she jumped in before he had the chance. Ianto, and then Gwen and Jack followed shortly. Rhys closed up the van and soon they were moving. Stun guns and a torch were passed around. Buffy started to hum the theme from Scooby-Doo. Tosh gave a brief giggle, Owen snickered, Ianto and Gwen frowned, and Jack shushed her, but he had a slight smile on his face.

He gave out the assignments: Jack with Gwen and Tosh, and Buffy with Owen and Ianto.

Buffy, Owen, and Ianto entered the building and soon passed through the hanging meat in the packing room. They spread out. Buffy was nearing Owen when he stunned a worker in a quick move that had her impressed. It wasn't too bad for a man with no superpowers.

Owen then pulled out the gun from the back of the man's trousers. He hits his comm, "Everyone, they're armed."

"See, that's why I don't like guns," Buffy said. She left Owen and started scouting on her own.

Gwen came over the comm, but Buffy tuned it out. She was listening for any of the workers. She walked around and then saw one locking the door. In a flash he was unconscious on the floor… and she didn't even have to use the stun gun. She then swiftly returned to Owen.

"They've got everyone," he said as he was pulling out chemicals and mixing things together.

"Right," Buffy said. "Me to the rescue."

She got to the area with the creature just as Gwen was making the "you don't have to do this" speech. She could have told her that it never worked, but she hopefully already knew that. It was good form to do it anyway.

The man named Dale had his gun out, but she wasn't able to get to him before it went off. But only a second later she knocked it clean out of hand. A punch to the eye, a kick in the groin, and another blow to the head later and he was out cold.

She only gave Ianto a glance to see that he was all right and out of his bonds before she chased after the man watching everything from a second level area. The man was frozen with shock when she made the leap and landed in front of him. Tired of using her fists at a human appropriate level, Buffy pulled out the stun gun and shocked the man till he slumped to the ground.

Buffy looked out at the lower floor. Rhys was shot, but Owen was running towards him. Ianto and Tosh were rounding up the unconscious for detainment. Jack was surveying everything while occasionally putting a hand on the creature's side. Looking at how big it really was, Buffy wondered what they would ever do with the thing.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

When Buffy rejoined everyone Ianto was pulling out little white pills and giving them to the members of the meat operation.

"Nice jumping," Owen said as he was helping a barely conscious Rhys walk out of the building. "I've seen it, so I think I believe it now."

"Jeepers," Buffy said as she looked at the blood soaked cloth temporarily covering Rhys' wound. He only gave an un-lucid smile, and Gwen frowned as she hovered near her fiancé.

Jack came and stood next to Buffy. "And they would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for us meddling kids."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "You, a kid?"

"At heart."

"Right. What's Ianto giving the prisoners?"

"Retcon, our amnesia pill."

"Amnesia… no, no, please don't tell me you use memory altering methods."

"Rules and regulations," he answered firmly. He could see the argument coming and cut it off. "They can't remember any of this."

Buffy took a deep breath. "Fine," she said in a way that indicated it was anything but.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Everyone gathered around to watch Owen sew up Rhys. Buffy didn't join them. There didn't seem much point in crowding a wounded man. He'd be fine, and this was hardly the last time they'd all see him.

Buffy watched Gwen follow Jack into his office. Not long after she left again, and she and Rhys left the Hub. As everyone came up to their computer stations Buffy said, "I like him."

"Yeah," Owen said. "Shame, though."

Buffy thought it was an odd thing to say, but she didn't press it. Instead she asked, "What's going to happen to the great, big space whale?"

"I think I stabilised the protein chains, so it won't get any bigger. We should be able to push it through the rift tomorrow if Tosh's calculations are correct."

That seemed a satisfying conclusion. She finished typing a very firmly written letter to UNIT, telling them to mind their own business because she was no longer one of their employees. Some minutes later Gwen returned alone through the cog door.

"I'm not doing it. I won't drug him."

Buffy put the pieces together quickly. Gwen was supposed to retcon Rhys?

"You have to," Tosh said.

"We can't allow him to remember," added Owen.

"Why the hell not?" Buffy asked.

"It's the rules," Ianto replied.

"But none of you have any partners outside of this," Gwen countered.

"But we understand how you feel," Jack said. Buffy scoffed.

Gwen put in her argument. "No, you don't. No, you don't, Jack. You all think it's cold and lonely out there, but it isn't for me, because I have him. He matters, and I've lied to him for long enough. What he did today was so brave. Braver than any of us, because we signed up for this, but he didn't—he did it because he loves me! And I won't take that away from him! I won't! And if that means I have to quit, or you retcon me or whatever, then fine, fine."

Jack tossed a water bottle at Ianto and approached Gwen. "You really think you could go back to your old life before Torchwood?"

"I wouldn't know anything different."

"He already knows about me, Jack," Buffy said. "What are aliens if he already knows about demons? Don't take his memory from him."

Jack looked at her and then back at Gwen. "Give Rhys my love and I will see you tomorrow." She left and Jack took the water bottle back from Ianto and went to his office. Along the way he shouted, "Buffy! My office, now."

He sat down and pointed to the chair across from his desk for her to sit in. "I want you to explain here and now why you have such a problem with guns and retcon."

"Because I've been shot and had my memory tampered with," she said. With his tone she didn't want to dance around the point with long explanations.

"That's happened to most of us," he said.

"So that makes it right?"

"No, but it's what we do." He sighed. "I saw how you took those men out. I underestimated you before. I need you on my team, but I need you armed and willing to follow the rules. Can you do that?"

She pressed her lips together tightly. "Fine, but I'm not reaching for the gun unless I absolutely have to; I'll do things my way first."

"Fine," he answered. "You can carry a knife and a gun. Now, you hungry? I've worked up quite an appetite arguing with you, so why don't we go get something to eat and you can tell me about being a slayer."

"Sure, but that's a big subject. Where do you want me to start?"

"What about that Master and dying?"

"Ah, the beginning."

Though she could be dismissive about the whole thing, Jack frowned.