"Jack!" Martha's voice was hushed, as if she were afraid of being intercepted.

"There's a woman out there, in the front. Says she knows who we are and she wants to work with us! Ianto's keeping her talking. How the hell would she know about us?"

"It happens." Jack stood up and glanced at the screen where a blond woman stood chatting to Ianto as if completely comfortable in her surroundings. Did she look vaguely familiar? She was in her 30s maybe and looking good too. Now if the Feyad had looked more like her...

He coughed, distracting himself. "Sometimes people track us down. And sometimes they do become employees. No vacancies for this one though. I'd like to know how she found us and what she knows. Ianto knows the drill. Show her around and here..." He handed her a pill. "Slip this in her coffee or whatever before she goes."

"Is it safe?"

"Of course! I designed it!"

Martha looked as if this information wasn't actually answering her question.

"Go on, before she gets bored and leaves. We need to know how people find us." He sighed, rubbing his aching forehead.

"Jack, please tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing! Apart from you asking me every five minutes if I'm ok!" He turned away from her, a crazy desire hitting him to be away from there, as far away from the hub as he could get, in fact, maybe as far away from this whole planet as he could. It was all too much. Everything here seemed to be overwhelming him suddenly, pulling him down, pressing him into the darkness he felt growing around him more and more by the day. If only...

"Jack? Jack!" Martha's voice sounded very far away.

"Yeah. Ok." He wondered vaguely why it felt difficult to speak.

"Lie still for a minute."

"What?" He glanced around, realising that he was on the floor.

"What happened?"

"You collapsed. I knew something wasn't right with you. Hang on, I'll get my kit."

He closed his eyes again as the sound of her footsteps became fainter. Collapsed. That was kind of interesting. He wasn't a collapsing sort of person.

"Ok," Martha's voice was nearer again. "Jack...are you still with me? I'm going to check your heart rate and blood pressure, ok?"

"Don't worry about it." Jack sat up and got gingerly to his feet.

"No...really. It's best to know what's wrong. You don't want it to happen again."

"Really," Jack said firmly, "I'm fine now. Tired, that's all. Go on, see what the story is with our visitor and send her on her way."

"Well, take it easy then," Martha said, looking at him doubtfully. "Look, I really think you should let me take a look at you."

"Oh you'd like that, wouldn't you?" He winked at her. "Go on, I'm fine. Honestly. I'll call you if I need you."

She drifted off, looking back at him once as if she was afraid he'd disappear completely.

Jack walked around the screens, not really knowing what he was looking for. One showed him the Feyad, still sitting motionless in her cell, staring into his eyes as if she could see him through the camera. Maybe she could. He really didn't know that much about them. The next screen was blanked out apart from the screen saver floating up and down.

This computer is the property of TORCHWOOD

He stared at it, amused. Martha's influence. She was clearly taking her new position seriously. She was way off with the logo though. And really, who was going to sneak a look at a Torchwood computer in the Torchwood Hub without them knowing? Especially with Tosh's security systems.

Tosh.

Owen.

He sighed and glanced at the screen to see what was happening with their visitor.

"Oh God," he breathed, and started to run.

*********************************************************************

His face was flushed with excitement and it was completely contagious. Jenny curled her hand around the control nearest to her and felt herself smile. The last few days were something she hardly knew what to feel about. Her instinct was, as always, to analyse and relive but at the moment, the recent memories felt like precious jewels that needed to be stored away and sensed, rather than examined.

This was space travel.

Time travel.

Humans with human lives. She hadn't been sure how being among them would feel like and hadn't wanted to admit that to her father.

Her father. The word felt too fragile to be used carelessly.

Earth had seemed like a dream for so long. Somewhere that she might travel to, to remind herself of him. And then it had become treacherous. A lonely vastness ruled by monsters who would tear her apart and use every piece for their own ends. It had been hard at times, during that lost period, to align those feelings with the knowledge that he loved these people.

He was talking into the console.

"Jack! We're here! In Torchwood! Couldn't knock so we thought we'd give fair warning of our arrival in about...ten seconds! You won't believe where we've been in the last...what...48 hours?" He turned to grin manically at her as he spoke into the console.

She felt the TARDIS settle into position and felt the ship's difficulty as she had done the day they'd landed in Chiswick. Funny, she had been ok while they had done their tour. She watched him close his eyes briefly, concentrating on his ship, attempting to feel where the problem was.

Fear?

Startled, she jumped up and they stared at each other, as if expecting to find something changed.

"Is everything ok?" Jenny asked.

"You felt it too?"

She nodded.

"It's like she doesn't want to land."

He nodded soberly. Despite the sudden worry, Jenny felt a brief exhilaration at the fact of her knowledge of his ship. She felt it, just as he did. She loved it.

"Maybe she needs another rest," she said.

"It's more than that," the Doctor told her. "Mind you, we've never landed in the Torchwood hub before. Maybe she's picking up on...well, it's Torchwood. There's things in this hub that shouldn't be anywhere near Earth at this particular time." He walked over to the door and gestured to her.

"Come on! I'd apologise in advance for anything Jack might say but really, he's Jack. Sooner you get used to him, the better!"

He opened the door...

...and stopped dead.

Jenny looked all around her. For a second, the room seemed to spin around her and she caught her breath sharply. Something reminded her deeply and painfully of the examination rooms on the Viran ship. She lowered her head so that he wouldn't see her. Maybe it was the colours, that bright, unyielding white.

"So this is Torchwood?" Her voice sounded fine.

He didn't reply.

****************************************

"So this is Torchwood?" Jenny's voice sounded shaky.

"It's not right," he muttered after a moment, blinking.

"What?"

"It's different. It's not supposed to look like this." He couldn't articulate why the sight of the hub seemed...almost offensive to him. He had been there, that night after leaving Rose and Donna, that terrible night. He couldn't remember much of it, to be honest. It couldn't have looked like this, he was almost sure of it. Through the TARDIS screen, it had always looked dark and comfortable with all of its complexities hidden behind a dark, cosy little lair of wonders. This was...

Bright.

Modern. Very modern.

"It's like how it was," he said, in wonder.

"I don't understand."

"In London." He clenched his fists.

Jenny walked beside him and stopped at each desk to look at the computer screens.

"I thought there were only five people working here," she said.

"There are."

"But these are set up for individual employees. Look, passwords and finger print security. There's loads of them."

Together they stared around the office.

"There's someone in there," the Doctor said, indicating a small room to the left and moving toward it. He noted how Jenny, who had surely proved herself to have seemingly limitless courage, changed her stance very subtly to stand slightly behind him when there were introductions or small talk to be made. Maybe one day, he would ask her, if her experience on the Viran ship had given her a wariness of humans and how she might be viewed by them. He didn't like to think of it but he would ask.

Gwen Cooper came into view, followed by Martha and a tall, blond woman he had never seen before. Gwen and Martha stood in front of the stranger, looking as if they were waiting for orders. Who was she? Jack had told him that following the recruitment of Martha and Mickey, the team was once again complete. Mind you, she looked like the sort of person Jack might easily make an exception for.

"Martha!" He walked toward her, his arms out-stretched, suddenly delighted to see a really familiar face.

"It turned out to be a hoax," Gwen was saying to the blond woman and at these words, Martha turned around to her, smiling.

"It was a good one, you have to admit."

"That's as may be," the blond woman replied, "but it's also a waste of resources. You've got to know, before you even leave the base, what you're going into and if it's going to be worth your while."

"Hello!" the Doctor called, waving an arm to them.

"Sometimes these people need help," Martha said quietly.

"That's not your problem," the stranger said.

"Are we invisible?" Jenny asked, walking all around them. She stood still and took a deep breath.

"Hello! Torchwood! We're intruders! We're invading your hub!"

"Best looking intruders I've seen in a while," a voice said smoothly behind them.

The Doctor turned around quickly.

"Jack!" He opened his mouth to say something else, stopped and frowned.

"I have no idea what question to ask first."

"Understandable," Jack said. "Ask away! It's not like we're going to be overheard anytime soon."

****************************

"You can see us," Jenny said.

"And you can see me. Lucky you!" Jack winked at her, caught sight of the look on the Doctor's face and lowered his head quickly.

"What's going on?" the Doctor asked.

"Haven't you noticed anything outside? A certain atmosphere?"

"We came straight here. From the 20s!" He turned to smile at Jenny. "And she enjoyed it every bit as much as Donna. I tell you, that was a great decade! Have you been lately?"

"Time travel's been difficult up until recently."

"Well, if you're need of a break, let me know," the Doctor said and Jack could swear he gave him a slightly pointed look. Maybe he was just paranoid.

"What are you doing here anyway?" he asked. "Donna's not in trouble?"

"If she is, it's only with her mother," the Doctor said.

"She's in Chiswick?"

"What'd you think? We abandoned her in the midst of...?"

"Wouldn't be the first time."

There was a sudden silence. Jack turned away. He had no idea why he'd said that.

"So this is Torchwood?" Jenny spoke quickly as if sensing a need for a subject change.

Jack shrugged, suddenly almost too tired to go into it. Terrifying as the last two days had been, he had to admit, the peace and quiet had had its moments. The Doctor was staring intently at him.

"What's happened?" he asked quietly. He looked at the blond woman, now sitting at a desk and talking into a device that looked like a small intercom. "Who is she?"

"Moira Dawes. She runs Torchwood."

"What?"

"You heard. She's in charge. As far as they're concerned," He nodded over to Martha and Gwen, "Moira's always been in charge. She recruited them."

The Doctor stared silently into the other room.

"Memory manipulation?"

Jack shrugged.

"Wouldn't be the first time it's happened. But this is...on a slightly grander scale. And there's nothing I can do. They can't see or hear me. I can't get through to them. I can't leave because I don't know what she wants with them yet."

"Does she know you're here?"

Jack shook his head.

"Far as they're concerned, I'm not. See that?" He pointed to a long, yellow lever attached to the centre of the hub. "When she pulls that down, we'll become visible again."

"What do you mean?"

"Aliens. That machine filters out anything and anyone that doesn't originate from Earth. We have no substance. We can't influence anything or manipulate anything and we can't be seen. She can reverse it but she hasn't so far. What happens when she does, I'll be interested to see."

"You're sure she can't see you?"

Jack nodded, wishing the Doctor wouldn't keep looking so intently at him.

"Nope. I've stayed out of sight mostly, to be sure. Wanted to see what they're up to."

"They?"

"Moira, Keira Clark and John Sanders. That's her team. The others mustn't have survived."

"Survived? Survived what?"

"Whatever they've been through to learn how to do this. Believe me, they've spent the last few years doing more than interior design." He waved an arm airily about him. The white was really getting to him.

"Do you know them?"

"I know of them," Jack said, "Read their names, seen some of their logs." He gave a short, bitter laugh. "I once told Gwen we'd find them someday."

"Find them?"

Jack tried to ignore the brief pleasure he was experiencing from being the one having to explain things to the Doctor. He nodded back into the room.

"Doctor, Jenny, I'd like to introduce you to Torchwood 4."