Ianto made them all coffee, and Lauren commented that Jack had been right, it was the best coffee she'd ever had. Gwen was her naturally welcoming self, but she and her two colleagues still felt strange having a new agent with them. They'd been saying since Owen and Tosh had died that when and if they recruited someone else they would not be replacing their friends. Whoever the new person was would have their own place in the team, and wouldn't be expected to fill the gaps left behind. However, Lauren herself was having her own doubts about this. She could tell how close the team had been, and felt almost as though she was intruding. But, after all, Jack himself had been insistent on recruiting her so they would all have to wait and see. And they wouldn't have to wait very long.

"What's that noise?" Lauren looked up as a loud beeping noise escaped one of the computers.

"It's . . ." Jack looked over at it casually, but quickly sprang to his feet. "Bad."

"How bad is bad?" Gwen stood up, ready to run to the jeep.

"Rift activity - big Rift activity." Ianto was reading the scrolling information on the screen. "Over in the Millennium Centre, so we won't need the jeep for once."

"Right on our doorstep. That's either someone really stupid, or it means someone wants us to find them." Jack was walking off to get a gun. "Looks like we'll get to see what you're made of Lauren!" He called back.

"I bet you're thrilled." Ianto gave her a brief, sympathetic pat on the shoulder as he grabbed his coat.

Once they were fully kitted out - Lauren secretly thrilled by the fact Jack had given her a weapon without any hesitation - they headed out of the Hub through the 'civilian' entrance.

"Ah, Cardiff at night." Jack grinned as he made his way across to the doors of the Millennium Centre.

"Jack, there's a function in there tonight." Gwen reminded him. "Something to do with the council or the mayor, I think?"

"Good job we've got a great big pile of Retcon in the Hub." Ianto muttered darkly.

Lauren matched Gwen's pace, and they exchanged a tentative smile.

"Excited?" Gwen asked.

"More like mildly terrified." Lauren admitted.

"Don't worry - if Jack thinks you can handle it, you can handle it."

They got in with no trouble, all it took was a quick flash of Jack's ID to the security guard and they were allowed through. Although, knowing Jack he'd probably managed to find an ID card that said he was a member of the catering crew or something equally as bizarre and untrue. Gwen had been right - there was some charity function going on, but they found that the traces of Rift activity were coming from the lower levels. When they got down there the signal on the Rift-Detector went haywire, claiming to be sensing things, conveniently, in four different directions.

"Ah." Ianto sighed as he realised that.

"I knew it was a good idea finding you tonight, Lauren." Jack nudged her. "Right, Gwen you go west, Ianto south, Lauren east. I'll go north. We'll keep in touch via the headsets and -"

"You're forgetting something." Ianto pointed to Lauren - specifically, to her headset-less ear.

"Yes, yes I am Ianto. Did you remember to bring one for her?" Jack raised an eyebrow, ready to be proved right.

But Ianto reached into his pocket and pulled a headset out, handing it to Lauren. "It works just like the Bluetooth headsets you put on your phone. It means we can hear you and you can hear us. All the time." He explained as she put it on.

"At least one of you men is organised." Gwen laughed.

"Time to split up, I think." Jack said firmly, and they all went off in their respective directions.

'Anyone found anything yet?' Jack's voice came over Lauren's headset.

'No.' Ianto replied.

'Same here, Jack.' Gwen agreed.

"I'm with them." She said quietly as she walked along a dark corridor. "Is it stupidly dark where you all are, too?"

'If by stupidly dark you mean pitch black, then yes.' Surprisingly Ianto's comment reassured her. His next one, however, didn't. 'Picking up a huge amount of Rift activity in your direction, Lauren.'

"You sure?" She tried not to sound nervous.

'You'll be fine, Lauren.' Jack interrupted. 'Shoot to stun, then we'll come help you if you need it.'

'Does the same apply for everyone?' Gwen checked.

'Sure does.'

"I think there's something down here." Lauren saw something move out of the corner of her eye.

'I'll turn the volume down on yours while you find out what it is.' Ianto told her.

"If you're sure." She heard a faint click, and the headset was silent. All she could hear was her own footsteps on the concrete floor. If there was anything down there it would know she was coming. Torch would've been useful, Jack, she thought. There was an intense feeling of dread coursing through her body, which made it especially difficult to keep the gun steady.

"Oh because you're so intimidating." At least she wasn't dealing with one of the aliens Jack had told her about. She could tell now that whoever it was was distinctly human, and male. "Little girl with a gun. Bet you don't even know how to use it, do you?"

"I wouldn't be so sure if I was you." She was surprised to find that she sounded confident.

"Feisty one, are you?" The man sounded amused. "Well I'd like to see how confident you are when you're blasted into tiny little pieces like every other moron in this building." And then she noticed the red light - pulsing on and off, on and off. It was making a beeping noise. It was a bomb.

"Shit."

'Lauren? What is it?' It was Jack. Quiet, but definitely there.

"We've got a bomb, Jack."

'Hold on, we'll be there in two minutes. Keep him talking.'

"You don't want to do that." She told the shadowed figure. "The whole building? Bit 'I'm a comic book super villain', isn't it? Why not . . . Why not just go for the room above our heads?" What? God I'm crap at this.

"Just that room?"Bloody hell, is he actually considering it? She saw his hand twist something on the bomb.

"There. Lowered the range. You're a smart one, you are. No point murdering people if there aren't any witnesses left to tell the tale, is there?" She didn't answer, trying to get a good enough grip on the gun to shoot.

The beeping got faster.

Lauren tightened her grip on the trigger.

'Keep going, Lauren, we're close.' Jack sounded like he was running. She pulled the trigger, and with a yell the man collapsed to the floor. The bomb clattered down onto the concrete, but the beeping didn't stop.

Oh God, I'm gonna die. First day on my new job and I'm gonna get blown up inside Cardiff Millennium Centre. She was about to close her eyes when something sparked on the panel on the bomb, and whoever was now stood over it ran and pushed her to the ground about three feet from where she had been standing. They used their body to protect her from the blast.

"Good job I got here when I did." She had expected to hear Jack's voice, or Gwen or Ianto's, but whoever was lying on top of her had a distinct cockney accent. "You all right?"