Twenty minutes later, Gwen had arrived after being called in by a very worried sounding Jack. They were all gathered in the boardroom, Jack and Gwen on one side of the table, looking across to where the girl, or 'Deena' as she had announced, sat calmly yet alert, one hand holding onto Iantos arm possessively, the other within easy reach of her gun which was lying, waiting in her lap. She knew, and so did everyone else (even if they denied it), Deena was in control.

And Jack wasn't helping the situation in the slightest. He was sitting, slumped in his chair, staring at Deena, trying to intimidate her. It wasn't working.

'So, down to business!' smiled Deena, unfazed by Jacks stony gaze upon her, 'you have an artefact in your archives, stored away, forgotten…'

Ianto snorted, he knew nothing was forgotten in his archives.

'…and I want it. Give it to me and I'll leave you alone. It's simple Captain.' She gave a winning smile, not unlike Jacks, Ianto noted.

'What artefact?' Gwen had taken over Jacks part in the conversation as she knew he was preoccupied and wouldn't respond. He never did when he was being immature. '… and why would you want it anyway, if it's forgotten?'

'I'm afraid I'm not authorised to release that information, orders from my superiors.'

'Superiors?'

'Yes, I work for Torchwood Four. I'm not in charge.'

'Ok, so let me get this straight…' Jack leaped to his feet, surprising everyone except Deena who seemed used to it, '…There's a secret organisation that outranks us somewhere in this country, and it employs children?' He spat out this last word as if the idea of it was dirty.

'Yes, well, not exactly.' Deena enjoyed being secretive around the Captain, she had read up on him back home and knew how to annoy him. She also knew when to stop – he could be a little too fond of his gun on occasion.

'Torchwood Four is located in your future.'

Five hours later, from what Gwen could understand, they had discovered several things: Torchwood Four was located in the 31st century; it employed children as they were suspected less when undercover; Deena wanted an artefact that had now been identified, but no one knew what it did; she was in contact with her 'superiors' who were listening from 1000 years in the future (however that worked) and she had brought some sort of hostage bubble that meant that no one could go within one meter of Ianto, and he couldn't stray more than two meters away from Deena.

Jack was not pleased.

As the days wore on, a routine developed between them. Deena would try and persuade Jack to give her the artefact (Ianto had named it Frodo as he said it resembled the Ring from Lord of the Rings although no one else could see the resemblance) and Jack would always refuse before demanding to know what it was. Deena slept in the hub, but sleeping arrangements were made tricky by the fact that Ianto was still limited as to where he could move.

Apart from that, life at Torchwood Three continued as normal. Except that Ianto couldn't go out on fieldwork as Jack would not let Deena out of the hub. Jack could see that being housebound irritated the Welshman but there was nothing he could do, he couldn't even reach out and give Ianto a hug, tell him everything was going to be alright, protect him.

This bizarre routine changed after about ten days, Deena marched into Jacks office, dragging Ianto behind her, and announced that she had received a message from her superiors. She looked both excited and terrified at the thought of a professional Torchwood Four negotiator arriving tomorrow.

Deena told Jack all about them and he listened in silence. None of the fear he was slowly filling up with showed on his face. Not yet.

The next morning they all assembled in the main area of the hub to await the arrival of this negotiator. No one was talking, it was so quiet it seemed though no one was even breathing.

The clock struck ten and they watched as a beam of light descended from the ceiling and begun to rearrange itself into the shape of a human. As the light faded away the onlookers saw the figure arriving from the future.

None of the fear Jack felt inside showed on his face. Not yet.

A/N - Please review, may be a few days before I uplaod the next chapter - major writers block!! Have fun xxx