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Who?

Chapter Two

"I don't believe this. I work in a secret, underground base! This is so cool." Jack was standing near the foot of the steps leading up to the work area, head thrown back looking up and around him, twisting round to see everything. He had thrown the coat they kept thrusting at him on a semi-circular bench.

It was unbelievable, so out there it couldn't be true. After some kind of tension in the Tourist Office above, the cause of which Jack did not understand, Gwen and the young man had opened a door in what had appeared to be a solid stone wall then led him through a corridor and into a lift. To this place, a huge cavern that was dirty, grimy and dripping with water. What the hell was going on? He took a few paces into the vast space and peered into the pool of dirty water and up at the water tower.

"Is this the same as the one we passed in the plaza?" he asked, looking at Gwen.

"Yes. Come and meet the rest of the team." She had seen Toshiko and Owen watching them when her eyes had followed Ianto's retreating back; he had taken Jack's coat and was hanging it up, brushing dirt off it. She thought Ianto had taken Jack not knowing him hard although it was always difficult to read his stoic expression.

"Team? Do they work for me too?" Jack grinned like a little kid and bounded over to follow her up the stairs. He beamed at Toshiko, sitting at her desk watching him warily. "Well hello, pretty lady. What's your name?" He stood close, in front of her, looking down.

"Toshiko."

"Lovely name. Japan is a wonderful place, went there once." His face fell for a moment as he wondered how he knew that.

"Did you?" interrupted Gwen. "When was that then?"

Jack looked confused and shook his head. "Don't know." He shook himself and the smile was back. "But if I had met anyone as beautiful as you," he took Toshiko's hand and kissed it, "I'm sure I'd remember."

The woman smiled wanly and gently removed her hand. She was still recovering from losing Tommy Brockless and not in the best of shape to deal with a full-frontal assault by Jack Harkness.

"Give me strength," muttered Ianto, standing near Owen's desk. He had his hands in his pockets and looked really unhappy.

"Got a problem?" asked Jack, staring at him. "Are you two an item?" he asked, glancing from Ianto to Toshiko. "Am I stepping on toes here?

"No!" they said together.

Jack shrugged and looked over at the other person, a shortish man. "And who are you?" he asked, flirting again.

"Owen Harper, Doctor Owen Harper." Jack's expression changed, he looked puzzled and frowned as if he was trying to remember. "That mean something to you?" asked Owen. He'd not missed the flirting; Jack must have lost him memory if he was trying that on him! Owen wondered why Jack had sparked on his name, he'd be very surprised if he was the only team member Jack remembered.

"No, not you. Something though, something about … doctors."

Ianto snorted. "I should have known you'd remember him!"

"Him? What him?" Jack stared at the young man with the strange name. He looked really pissed off and it seemed he, Jack, was the cause. "Who are you talking about?" Jack pressed.

"Before we go into any of that, I'd like to examine you," put in Owen. "This way." He indicated the Medical Bay and Jack eventually took his gaze from Ianto and walked through the archway and down the steps. "Jump on the examination table," Owen encouraged.

Jack felt like an exhibit in a zoo. The two women were hanging on the railings above him and looking down as the doctor – why did that sound tantalisingly familiar? – examined him. This involved taking off his shirt and Jack was interested when he realised he didn't mind the women watching him topless. He had no modesty, not that he needed any; he had one great body. Various scanners were run across his manly torso, scanners that looked like nothing he had ever seen before but then … he had no idea if he would have seen medical scanners before anyway. It got boring sitting there, even with the audience, and he started to think about this team – only four, five with him – and what they might do down here in the bowels of the earth. A very strange set up indeed. His fingers idly played with the leather band on his wrist.

"Okay, you can put your shirt back on." Owen stepped away and fiddled with the scanners. The early results were coming back positive, this was Jack Harkness even down to that special something in his blood that confirmed he was still immortal.

"Do I have to? I think the ladies prefer me without it." He smirked at his audience. They didn't look too impressed but then women always played hard to get. Besides, if they thought he was just sex-mad maybe he'd gain a bit more time to work out what was going on and whether he wanted to stay here.

"Put it on, you wanker," said Gwen. "Owen, how long before your tests are done?"

"Ten minutes maybe."

"Okay, meeting in fifteen." She walked off, hand to her ear. "Ianto, we're going to meet in the Conference Room in fifteen minutes. Meet us there and maybe bring some coffee, yeah?"

Toshiko walked with her, back to her desk. "I'll carry on checking the logs and the police and fire reports about the explosion," she said, putting on her glasses. "Jack was there responding to a Rift spike."

"Was he?" she said thoughtfully.

Gwen's mind was racing as she considered their next moves. She had fallen back into being leader without any difficulty. The few weeks Jack had been back had been full of incident, and she was not sure the team would have coped without him, but she felt confident the others would pull together under her leadership to sort out the current situation. She went to her own desk for some much needed thinking time.

Jack, released by the doctor and abandoned by everyone else, wandered back to the work area. He watched the Japanese woman – Toshiko, that was it - at her desk. She looked like she knew what she was doing so she must be the computer geek. Owen was obviously the medic. He was less sure what the other two did. Gwen seemed happy telling the others what to do so was she his deputy? But what was her role in the team otherwise? Unclear at present, he decided. The young man, Ianto his name was, was over the other side of the base, sitting at a desk in the corner with lots of papers around him. As everyone else was ignoring him, Jack walked down the steps and idly wandered around, always with the intention of seeking out Ianto.

"Did you want something?" asked Ianto when Jack got close. He had spotted him heading his way.

"No," said Jack, smiling, "just thought I'd look around. What do I normally do?" He leant against the young man's desk and read some of the papers on the desk. He was good at reading upside down, he found, and saw a red and black 'T' and the word 'Torchwood' heading most of the papers. Other than that they looked like reports and inventories.

Ianto looked up at him. He wondered how Jack was really feeling, whether he was as confident as he appeared. Probably not. More likely he was gathering information on them and the base and working out, with whatever memory he had left, what it all meant. He saw Jack's eyes roving the papers on the desk: yep, he was reading them.

"Not much," replied Ianto. "You sit in your office and watch the rest of us, when you're not sexually harassing us, of course. And if you want to read the papers, go ahead." Ianto stood abruptly and walked away.

"I have an office?" said Jack to the young man's back. That guy was seriously pissed off about something.

Taking up Ianto's offer, Jack sat at the desk and leafed through the papers. He read reports of a soldier from 1918 who had been sent back to his own time only days before, after being kept frozen for ninety years. And here was something about explosions and nuclear warheads. There were lots of mentions of a Rift too – capital 'R'. What the hell did this Torchwood do? Jack ran over what he had been told and none of it made sense. Then something Ianto had said, just before he went off in a huff, came back to him. He had said Jack sexually harassed 'us'. Us, not them or anyone in particular. So Jack sexually harassed Ianto? He thought about this a bit more and smiled. The young man was making more sense to him now; he was pissed because he, Jack, had not flirted with him. Well, that could be put right.

"Jack." Gwen stood on the work area looking at the man sitting at Ianto's desk. "Oy, you!" she yelled, deciding he had forgotten his name again.

"You mean me?" Jack asked, having heard the shout – along with the rest of Cardiff, he thought.

"Come here." She beckoned him over and he got up and sauntered across, still trying to fit the pieces together. "We're going to have a meeting. This way."

Gwen led Jack through the tunnels to the Conference Room, aware of him looking round again, assessing and evaluating everything. She was convinced this was Jack, it was the sort of approach she would expect of him if he was in an unfamiliar situation. He was weighing the evidence. It was oddly reassuring to recognise this part of his personality. The others were waiting for them and she took a seat beside Owen.

Jack hung back, not sure what he should do or where he should sit. The four other people ignored him, clearly expecting him to know where to go. Which was bloody annoying when they knew he had lost his memory. He decided to stay where he was until one of them noticed him and gave him some guidance. He waited several minutes.

"Are you all right, Jack?" asked Toshiko, looking up from her notes.

"Not really." His tone was abrupt, with none of the bonhomie he had used thus far, and it drew the attention of the other team members. Toshiko recovered first.

"I'm sorry, I suppose you don't remember being here before." She smiled and gestured to the head of the table. "That's your place. Ianto's put your coffee there ready."

"Thank you." He walked to the chair indicated and sat down. He reached for the mug and sipped the drink. It was hot and refreshing and he drank some more with pleasure. "Industrial strength, just as I like it," he said without thinking. He saw the rest of them looking at him strangely. "What?" he asked and then he realised; he remembered the coffee.

Next time, Jack learns more about his team.