Faster update than last time, mainly because I just finished writing Chapter 11 and am very proud of myself lol. I was going to leave it about a thousand words ago until I realised that very little had happened in that chapter. I've managed to introduce a new character now and I'm pretty chuffed.

I promised myself I wouldn't do this, but hell, I'm desperate... if you want to tell me anything about this story, hit the review button. I've enabled anonymous reviewing now so there's no excuses really! Well, there is, I sometimes have nothing to say in reviews, but if you have any reaction at all, hit it! Too much Gwen? Not enough Jack? Badly written character? Boring storyline? Whatever, let me know!

Thanks to KarasuK, HarryWho Fanatic, Innogen, Emela and gaiafreedom21 who have already reviewed and made me smile like a good fan-girl should when the Doctor looks sad/hugs Rose or Martha, or Jack makes some sort of sexual innuendo, or tells Gwen she's brilliant.

Owen scrawled a final signature on the bottom of his last autopsy report with more flourish than was strictly needed. When he'd first qualified as a doctor, he'd spent more time than he should have practicing his signature. One thing that had always disappointed him had been the distinct lack of exciting letters in his name. There was nothing he could put any personality into, nothing he could turn into a dashing swoop or an intriguing loop. The most he could manage were a few scrawled lines underneath his name, which Toshiko had all but ruined for him when she informed it that showed he was making up for something he lacked. He still wasn't entirely sure she was being completely truthful there; it was news to him if she'd studied graphology alongside all the other subjects she seemed to have a near-expert grip on. Even so, when he wrote that final signature, he limited himself to just the one line.

"And finished!" He sat back in his chair triumphantly and looked around. He'd expected to feel more elated at having worked his way through the pile of hastily thrown together notes which, when all put together, formed some pretty interesting autopsy reports. It had been a hectic few weeks up until the last few days, and this downtime had given them all a chance to update their records. Instead though, after the initial joy (he was, after all, the first to finish today), he felt a sense of loss. There was nothing else to do.

Toshiko looked up from her computer. "Congratulations!" She gave him a wide beam, and he could tell she really meant it. "First to finish today, well done!"

Owen stood up, collecting his paper-clipped reports together. "Thanks." Toshiko almost immediately went back to her own work though, her brow furrowed slightly as she began trying to import particular data readings from one programme to another. Even Owen hadn't the heart to distract her when she was doing something that was obviously such a challenge even for someone as clever as her. He took all the reports and headed up to Jack's office instead.

Ianto was collecting together a whole pile of mugs scattered around Jack's office. Some looked like they'd been their quite a while. Gwen was right, Jack was a bit untidy, even by Owen's standards. At least Owen had been brought up to always take his dirty cups and plates to the kitchen. Granted, he didn't usually wash them up, but the thought was there.

"That air-con's gone off a bit, hasn't it?" Owen asked, as he found a small empty patch of desk to lodge his reports on. The rest of Jack's desk was covered in scraps of paper, a very suspect looking banana which had been there as long as Owen could remember, a strange looking purple rock and what looked like a military hat in the same colour blue as Jack's beloved overcoat. Their leader certainly had an eclectic taste in décor.

"Or maybe it's getting hotter," Ianto replied, raising a very valid point, and one Owen hadn't considered.

"I guess." Owen stood in the office for a moment, looking around. He felt awkward; he wasn't often called into Jack's inner sanctum for a heart to heart. Not like Gwen, who seemed to think nothing of sitting on his desk for whole half hours at a time, talking things over with him. Even Toshiko, usually so keen to get back to her desk and get on with some work, even she could relax for a few minutes in Jack's company. Owen, though, associated this office with getting called in, usually for a bollocking. Even with Jack gone, Owen felt uneasy. And yet still he didn't go.

Ianto glanced up from where he was reaching in between two filing cabinets for a mug. "Is there something you want, Owen?"

Owen caught himself. "What? Oh no, I was just wondering…" Think of something, quick. "Do you know where Jack's gone?"

Ianto didn't reply, and Owen knew that was because he didn't know either, but didn't want to admit it. He let that go; he'd usually tease the other man mercilessly about it, about how Jack treated him like a lap dog and then dumped him when something better came along. Owen usually justified such cruelty by reasoning that, whatever anyone else said, it was true. Ianto would do anything for Jack, and Jack knew it, and used it to his advantage.

He left the office without another word and headed back down to the main floor of the Hub. God, he hated days like today. When he was stuck filling in autopsy reports and hanging round, only just stopping himself from doing something as banal as tidying his desk out, Owen felt he might as well be back working as a real doctor for the NHS. At least he'd have more normal hours and there'd be hot nurses around who were up for anything so long as they got a free fancy meal and a spin in a fast car out of it. He might even manage a few scheduled days off.

Mind you, Torchwood wasn't all bad. Especially since Gwen had joined. Something about the energy and excitement she brought into work with her each day had affected every single member of the team, even the usually reserved Ianto. Owen knew for certain that, if she were around this afternoon, he wouldn't be feeling half as bored and restless. Winding Gwen up was one of his favourite past-times. Toshiko was hardly fair game to be teased, she always seemed so open to criticism and child-like in a way, though, Owen reasoned, like a child-genius. And Ianto… well, Owen hated admitting it, but only Jack was truly able to make him squirm. Gwen though… she could give as good as she got, and anyway, Owen wasn't doing it because he disliked her. Far from it.

She was another hoarder, just like Jack, but the things on her desk were more normal, which, conversely, only seemed more alien down in this setting. The photos of her and Rhys on holiday, a print out of a humorous e-mail, a leaflet she'd obviously been given on the way to work this morning advertising a new bar opening up nearby and that half-demolished packet of biscuits; they belonged on a normal desk in a normal office, not down here. At the same time, Owen was glad they were here. Normality had been something sadly lacking in Torchwood until Gwen came along.

Even her desk wasn't immune from the craziness of alien hunting life, though. Alongside all the paperwork she'd had to fill in, half-finished and discarded in her hurry to join Jack on his latest mission, there was the latest piece of tech they'd picked up only a fortnight ago. It had been found when they demolished a local swimming pool, buried amongst the foundations. They'd been going to throw it away with everything else, but then they'd dug a bit deeper and found it was being held by a skeleton. Naturally, that had held the whole thing up a bit. Torchwood had swept in and surveyed the area, and found nothing suspicious, nothing even slightly unusual, apart from this small, seemingly harmless little orange ball. It was shaped like a paperweight and wasn't much bigger than one. It wasn't made exactly of glass, Toshiko had given it a proper name, but Owen forgot. Essentially, it was an alien element that had all the same properties of glass but wasn't glass. Within this transparent outer shell, there was what looked like a thick orangey yellow liquid, like that found in lava lamps. It even moved in the same way. Gwen had whooped with delight when she saw it.

"Awww, I've always wanted one of these!"

They'd run endless tests on it, looking for any small clue to denote what it was or where it came from. Nothing. As far as they could tell, it was just decorative, a lovely alien knick-knack, nice to look at but with no other function.

"Brilliant. So can I keep it?" Gwen had asked, looking eagerly towards Jack.

That had made Owen laugh. Jack, who usually insisted on any alien tech, even the ones that without a doubt were nothing more exciting than a space-age shovel, was locked away and catalogued, safe from prying human eyes and fingers, had shrugged.

"It's yours if you want it."

It had made Gwen's week, and even now, she had it proudly displayed on her desk. Owen picked it up now and looked at it. He had to admit, it was very pretty, and the way the liquid moved inside it was very relaxing, but he couldn't help thinking that it had all been a big fuss over nothing. The work on demolishing the swimming pool had been held up for five days whilst they checked to make sure there was nothing else down there, no alien reason that the poor man holding the paperweight had died. All a big waste of time; they hadn't even got to have a car chase, and Owen loved car chases.

A telephone rang. Toshiko glanced up at Owen, who looked back at her. She looked away first: result.

The ringing stopped and they looked up to Jack's office to see Ianto take the call. They couldn't hear what he was saying; they couldn't even lip-read as he turned his back. Just like Jack always did when he took a call in his office.

"Who does he think he is?" Owen muttered, throwing the paperweight in the air and catching it again.

"If you drop that, Gwen'll kill you," Toshiko remarked. "It's not indestructible."

"Glass usually isn't," Owen replied, throwing it again.

"It's not glass!" Toshiko groaned. "It's-"

"Owen, there've found a body in Splot, sounds like a Weevil attack," Ianto interrupted before Toshiko could give an explanation of exactly what the paperweight was made up of for the fifteenth time. "That was the police, thought we ought to come and take a look."

Thank God. Owen had thought he'd have to spend the rest of the day aimlessly wandering around. Now he could do something productive. And Jack wasn't here either, meaning he was in charge.

"Right, let's go then!" Owen put the paperweight down with a thud and drew himself up to his full height, which was still sadly lacking compared to Jack. "Ianto, get the Weevil spray and the restraints. Tosh, better bring your laptop, just in case we need to track it. I'll meet you outside in five minutes."

Finally, something was happening today.

Gwen slipped her key into the lock on her front door carefully. It was past midnight and Jack had just dropped her off outside her apartment block. She'd left the car without saying goodnight, just needing to get away from Jack and Torchwood for today. All she wanted was to have some toast and then slip into bed with Rhys and fall asleep, hopefully for a long time. It had all been pretty quiet on the alien front lately, she hoped it would continue to be so.

The television was still on in the living room as she went in. A late night horror film, with zombies and buckets of blood. The noise coming from the sofa sounded pretty otherwordly too. Gwen looked from the demolished six-pack of Budweiser on the table to the snoring body stretched out on the sofa, and realised that Rhys obviously hadn't had a great night either. Dinner with his parents always made him anxious, and she knew her absence wouldn't have helped. He didn't usually drink that much on his own.

She turned down the sound on the TV, and then went into the kitchen, wondering what she could have to eat. The fridge was virtually empty apart from an ancient jar of jam and what had once been a cucumber and now was undecided over what it wanted to be. She looked through the cupboards. God, they really needed to do some shopping, this was pathetic. They had plenty of packets of Honey Nut Loops, which she wasn't even aware Rhys was that keen on, and no end of baked beans. Real food though had managed to bypass their flat this week, leaving only a slightly stale loaf of bread. Gwen pulled two slices out, turned them over to check for mould, and then, satisfied, put them into the toaster.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket. Gwen closed her eyes, wondering, if she ignored it, if whoever it was would go away. No such luck. Less than a minute later, another message flashed up on the screen. Gwen pressed open, making one final plea for it to be a drunken text off a friend.

OWEN VS WEEVIL. WHO WINS? YOU DECIDE. FIVE MINUTES. JACK

Gwen rolled her eyes. "And he reckons he doesn't watch Big Brother," she muttered, as she opened the second message.

OWEN VS JACK. NO CONTEST. GET YOUR ASS DOWNSTAIRS. JACK

As she read it, her phone sprang into life. She hit answer quickly, glancing over to see if it had disturbed Rhys, but it would take more than a novelty ring tone to wake him up tonight.

"Gwen? Where are you, get out here!"

"There's no need to shout, Jack," Gwen replied, through gritted teeth. "I thought I might actually get some sleep tonight. Novel idea, I know, but then, I'm full of them."

"Gwen, come on." Jack's voice changed from the angry tone to a more level one. Not apologetic, he wasn't in any mood for apologies, but Gwen could sense he felt slightly bad about the way he'd just spoken to her. "You can sleep when you're dead. Right now, I need you."

Gwen sighed heavily. "Manipulate bastard. I'll be down in two."

"Make it one and I'll be forever grateful."

"I'd settle for sleep and go without your gratitude, Jack Harkness," Gwen replied sharply, and ended the call. It had been a poor comeback, seeing as he'd got his way. Just like he always did eventually. He knew exactly how to play her, and she let him.

She picked her bag up from where she'd dumped it as she'd walked in the door. She looked back at Rhys again, wondering if she should leave a note. What good would it do? She'd said she'd probably be out all night, it wasn't as though he'd worry when he woke up. She might even make it back home before he did. Leaving him a note would just complicate things. She nodded to herself and walked out the front door.

Jack had left the engine running and Gwen slid in without saying anything.

"About time, I was about to go without you." Jack shoved it into gear and pulled away, surprisingly smoothly for him.

"Yeah, right, like you'd go without me," Gwen replied, leaning against the door and rested her head on her hand. "Like I'd ever be that lucky."

Jack glanced across as he slipped into second. "You look tired."

"Well at the risk of sounding like an American teenager, duh."

Jack smiled. "You could always crash out like Tala."

Gwen looked at him suddenly, as his eyes looked into the rearview mirror. She turned round and saw the girl still asleep on the backseat.

"Jack!" Gwen looked back at him. "Are you insane? What's she still doing here?"

"What else was I meant to do with her?"

"I don't know, leave her with Ianto-"

"He's out with Harper." Jack virtually spat out Owen's surname out.

"Well, then, you should have left with another friend or something…" Gwen trailed off as she remembered her thoughts earlier that day; she doubted Jack had any friends outside of Torchwood who could look after Tala for him. "I don't know, but you can't bring a seven-year-old on a Torchwood thing!"

"She'll be fine, I'll just leave her in the car and lock it."

Gwen looked across at him in disbelief. "Jack, have you ever looked after a child before?"

He grinned suddenly. "God, no! But how hard can it be?"

Gwen decided that was something Jack had better find out for himself. "Anyway, why are you dragging me away from my nice warm bed this time? What's Owen done? And where does a Weevil come into it? And just for the record, I think Owen would put up a pretty good fight."

Jack replied with a grunt, as he overtook a particularly slow Ford Focus, mounting the kerb with two wheels. Gwen grabbed hold of the dashboard and tried to right herself. She looked back to see Tala, still peacefully asleep. Maybe Jack was right; maybe this would be okay.

"Ianto logged a call in at five o'clock. They found a body down in Splott, suspicious wounds." Jack slammed his foot down as they reached an open stretch of road. "They headed out to check it out."

"Weevil?"

"Yep. Then, nothing. No calls, no nothing from them. Until just after I'd dropped you off, when I suddenly get this," Jack let go of the steering wheel to feel in his coat pocket for his phone.

"Jack!" Gwen shrieked.

"Relax!" Jack shoved the phone into her hands and resumed some form of safe driving. "First message."

Gwen read it. "You think they're in some sort of trouble?"

"I assuming even Owen knows enough morse code to realize what SOS stands for." Jack nodded. "I tried calling them all, but, helpfully, they've all stopped answering."

"Or something's stopped them answering," Gwen suggested. She looked at Tala again. "Jack, really, maybe Tala shouldn't be here-"

"Try calling them again." Jack cut across her. "And if you get through, tell Owen if he's not scared already, he should be."

Next time: Shocks

"No doors." The Doctor frowned and looked around again, double-checking. He hadn't been wrong. There wasn't an opening of any sort in any of the walls. He looked up and down. Nothing.

"Then how did we get in here?" Rose sounded both curious and a little scared.

"That, Rose, is not the question. The question is how do we get out?" The Doctor turned things over in his mind. There were no doors. There was always the possibility of them having been teleported in of course, but he didn't feel like that had happened. He prided himself on knowing when he'd been dissolved into tiny pieces and reassembled in another place. There had to be another way.