Chapter Three

They parked the SUV up and got out. Toshiko spotted the jewellers a short distance away and looked at Owen.

"What?" he said shrugging and playing it cool.

Toshiko narrowed her eyes.

"I'm not going to tell you."

Toshiko admitted to herself she was fighting a losing battle and got down to the job in hand. She got out her PDA and studied the readings.

"The readings are still fairly low," she said.

"I hope this won't take long," Ianto said "I've still got to pack."

"I'm surprised you haven't done that already," Gwen said

"Well now I'm packing for two."

"Well I've a hundred things that need doing. I bet Rhys has forgotten the crackers," Gwen said reaching for her phone.

"Sorry if works getting in the way." Jack said sarcastically and Gwen left the phone where it was. "Now let's find out about this problem,"

They headed towards Wesley Lane.

"The readings are getting stronger." Toshiko reported.

"And it's starting to snow," Gwen said.

"We're definitely getting closer."

The snow was beginning to lie when they got to Wesley Lane.

"It's rather cold," Gwen said shivering.

"We're almost on top of it," Toshiko said "Oh."

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"The reading went up while we were stationary."

"I think you'd better look at this," Ianto said indicating where the dead end had been. Now there was a busy, snowy Victorian street.

"Well I think we've found our time leak," Jack said.

Toshiko frantically noted things down on her PDA.

"Good can we go now? It's bloody freezing," Owen moaned.

"You got everything you need Tosh?" Jack asked.

"I think so."

"Come on, let's go then."

They made their way back down the lane, the snow was thick now. They stopped in shock when they reached the main road. Not only was the SUV no where in site, but neither were any other cars. Carts and carriages trotted down the road.

"God this is not good!" Owen exclaimed.

"Shouldn't we have come back out again?" Gwen asked.

"We should have done," Toshiko said frantically fiddling with her PDA.

"So what went wrong?"

"The surge must have dragged us through properly."

"Please tell me we're not stuck here." Owen said with dread.

Toshiko studied her readings again. "We are… but only temporarily,"

"Ok how long?" Gwen asked "A couple of minutes? Hours?"

"There have been surges before, it seems to follow a pattern."

"Bottom line, how long are we stuck here for?"

"Two days."

"Two days! We'll miss Christmas."