Chapter Two:

Outside the shuttle Jenny could hear sirens coming down the street. Someone in the crowd had notified the police about the spacecraft, and they were coming to investigate. Jenny took one more glance around the shuttle to be sure that Roland wasn't there, and noticed that he had left his leather jacket draped over the seat. She grabbed it and put it on, knowing that she'd need something to protect her from the December night air. "Hopefully it's not cold wherever Roland ended up," she thought as she stepped out of the shuttle.

She walked to the edge of the rooftop and peered over the short wall. The police had managed to drive past the civilians and block off the portal. A team of them were now setting up 'crime scene' tape around it.

"How do I get out of this one?" she grumbled to herself. "I should've known spaceships were rare in this time period!"

She turned and examined her surroundings. Behind her was a stairwell entry that led down through the building. If she went out the back door of the building there might be an alley she could follow. She glanced back at the city before plunging into the dark stairway.

When Jenny reached the bottom of the first flight of stairs she saw that she was alone in the building. A large clock hung above a door to right. As she passed by she saw that it was half-past six in the evening. Presumably she was in some kind of office that was now closed.

It seemed a bit creepy, walking around an empty building at night. The next room she came to proved that she was indeed in an office. Stark-white cubicles formed a maze around her, and she shuddered as she passed each desk. It was slowly occurring to her that she was in an ancient, alien civilization. All of the people she saw on the streets outside were dead by the time she was born, and these walls would be disintegrated.

"Mind you," she thought. "They're already deteriorating a bit and- good grief! Is that what they call a computer?"

She snapped out of her gloomy state, distracted by a noise outside, and went to look out a nearby window. Some of the police officers were trying to forcibly enter the building, undoubtedly wanting to get to the rooftop to pry their way into the shuttle. "Good luck with that," Jenny thought. Their technology was far too primitive to breach her spacecraft.

Quickly, she located the exit and found that it could easily be unlocked from the inside. She slipped into the crowds and breathed a sigh of relief when nobody seemed to notice her. Once again she tried not to think about all the strangers around her who would be dead centuries before her time. "My time? No. I don't have a time- and I certainly don't belong to one- not anymore. I belong to nothing. Not even this universe if I don't want to."

Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar shadow. In front of her was the same man she had seen on her last visit- the one that had vanished. He was walking at a fast pace away from her, towards the spot where he had disappeared before. Jenny walked faster, keeping a sharp eye on him. She wouldn't let him get away this time, even if it meant stirring up the civilians and causing a riot.

Fortunately, it wouldn't come to that. He reached the spot where he went before and stood perfectly still. A woman who had been looking at him quizzically before now took no notice of him, as if something had erased him from her memory. At the same time, Jenny's vision started to blur ever so slightly. It dawned on her that he was using a perception filter, and she strained her mind to focus on him.

The perception field snapped as the place where he was standing lowered into the ground. That square of the sidewalk was some kind of secret lift, leading into who-knows-where, and Jenny jumped nearer as he went out of view. Deep beneath the pavement, in a large and cluttered room, the lift stopped, and the man stepped off. Jenny counted to ten and jumped onto the platform as it started to come back up. She didn't care about being caught- she just wanted to solve this mystery.

She held back a cry as she hit the concrete and rolled onto the floor. It was further down than she thought and her landing wasn't as graceful as it could've been. She stood up slowly and rubbed the back of her neck, wincing. There would be a big bruise there later.

"Hello," a deep voice said. It had an unusual tone, that was both cordial and questioning. "Who might you be?"

Jenny looked up and saw that the man she had been trailing was now staring directly at her, with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. Naturally, she knew she'd be caught as soon as she jumped through the lift, but she hadn't expected it to be so... uncomfortable. His gaze seemed to see right through her, knowing her every intention, but she couldn't tell a thing about him. His very existence was unsettling.

"Jenny," she finally replied. It came out sharp and cold, like she was lashing at him with a knife. She was reminded of her own knife, and felt her belt to be sure it was there.

"Jenny," he repeated. "A very simple name for an extremely complicated girl. Then again, I suppose that's the way with the world. I'm Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood. Welcome to our headquarters."

Jack stepped forward, hiding something behind his back. When he saw that Jenny had taken her knife from her belt, he smiled and placed the object on a desk beside them. It was a high-pressure sealed jar containing a human-looking hand, perfectly preserved by bubbling liquid.

"What is that?" Jenny asked, concerned.

"That, Jenny, is an alien hand," Jack replied, "which happens to be causing the liquid substance around it to bubble. It doesn't normally do that. It only started when you fell through our back door." He gestured to the lift. "Who are you, really? And don't try to lie; I'll be able to tell."

Jenny put her knife back into her belt and crossed her arms. Jack, eh? A shallow name for a shallow man. The only reason he was tolerating her presence was because she didn't make sense to him. Once he figured her out he'd kill her, wipe her memory, or rudely escort her off the premises. If, that is, he didn't dissect her beforehand.

"Is that a neurostatic fibrillator?" Jenny asked, changing the subject. She gestured to a nearby object and stepped in for a closer look. Perhaps if she acted like a normal, curious girl he'd lose interest in her history.

"It's a geothermal neurostatic fibrillator," Jack corrected. He crossed his arms with a smirk and looked over her shoulder. "But you shouldn't know what that is."

"Geothermal? You have a neurostatic fibrillator powered by planetary heat and you think I'm unusual? This shouldn't exist yet!"

Jack realized she had a point and let out an exasperated sigh. Normally he'd assume she was a Time Agent or something of the like, but the Doctor's hand had reacted to her presence. Who was she and why was she here? Once he found out the answer she would be free to leave, but until then he wasn't going to let her out of his sight.

"Fine, you don't have to tell me who you are, but since you're on government property, you'll have to tell me why you're here."

"You mean you don't know already? I saw you disappear this morning and I was curious how you did it. It's some kind of perception filter isn't it?"

"Something like that. It's a rare side effect of a damaged chameleon circuit," Jack explained.

"A what?" Jenny raised an eyebrow, which caused Jack to raise both of his. When she did that she looked like...

"Jenny, are you human?" he asked, his voice flat to hide emotion.

Jenny looked away from the neurostatic fibrillator. That was certainly an unexpected change of subject.

"What else would I be?" she replied. Once again she reached for her knife, in case he decided experimentation was the best way to investigate.

"Oh, I don't know," Jack said casually, leaning against the desk. "Perhaps a Time Lord?"

Jenny's mouth gaped open. She was about to admit to it and ask how he knew, when an explosive crash echoed through the Hub, drawing their attention.

"Oh, no." Jack gasped. "That's the Rift!"