This chapter is rather long to make up for the last chapter's shortness. I'm pretty sure the next chapter will have quite a bit of action in it! Also, please bear in mind that this story is ignoring what Rhiannon said in Children of Earth and Ianto leaving after their dad died.

The next day the conversation in the car was quiet again as the team set off on their one hour journey to the new Torchwood London. As they began to get closer and closer to London, Ianto began to recognize the surrounding earlier from the few days after the battle of Canary Wharf. He quickly pushed the thoughts away from his head. It had taken him nearly all night to get rid of all the bad memories – he didn't want them all flooding back but there was something about London. Something that brought all the memories back to him and the closer he got to London the quicker they returned. No matter how much Ianto tried to push them away they continued to return to him.

After what seemed like two hours to Ianto, Owen stopped the car outside what looked like an old school building. "They're inside an old school building?" Ianto asked, studying the building from inside the car. It was a small, tatty old thing that looked as if it was about to fall down. If Torchwood London were keeping aliens inside that building, it wouldn't be long until aliens were roaming the streets of London… again.

"No," Owen scoffed. "Whatever gave you that idea?" Owen turned to look outside the window Ianto was looking out of and studied the old school building himself. "That place is about to fall to pieces. Torchwood London is under the Thames…" Owen smiled as Ianto turned and looked out the window Gwen was sitting by and stared at the Thames. It had been a long time since Ianto had seen the Thames. He started to remember the last time he had. It had been with Lisa… Ianto quickly pushed the memory away as he had done with many others. At least it had been a happy memory that time the only problem was the memory had occurred the day before the Battle of Canary Wharf. "It was my idea." Owen added when he heard Gwen muttering about how it was such a good idea. Jack climbing out of the car was the cue for the rest of the team to follow him. Jack walked up to the edge of the Thames before turning back to Owen.

"So how do we get inside?" Jack asked causing Owen to smile.

"You jump into the water and dive in," Owen answered. When he saw the team's faces he shrugged. "Is there anything wrong with old fashioned swimming?" No one replied instead the team continued to stare at Owen wearing 'do you really think we'd fall for that one' faces. Owen sighed. "Follow me." Owen set off down the path, locking the SUV as he walked. Ianto glanced at Jack who was walking after Owen with Gwen before taking a deep breath and following the team. Owen stopped once again this time facing a statue of a golden bird.

"This better not be another one of your jokes," Gwen warned Owen as Ianto joined the group by the statue.

"What's going on?" Ianto asked.

"Owen says we have to go inside the statue," Gwen scoffed. Ianto looked from Gwen to Jack then to Owen. "How are we meant to do that? Believe it or not Owen - we're not ghosts!"

"Just wait here," Owen ordered before walking around the other side of the statue suddenly there was a creak and the wings of the bird began to open revealing a doorway under one of the wings. Jack, Ianto and Gwen stood staring at the bird as Owen returned to the group.

"Please tell me there's a perception filter on this thing," Jack managed to speak though he continued to stare in amazement at the bird.

"Come on," Owen led the team on, ignoring Jack's question but from what Jack could see there was a perception filter on the bird as people were giving them odd looks for staring at a statue for so long. Owen led the team into the doorway which went straight into a lift. It was a very small lift and the team had to squeeze together to fit into it.

"This isn't designed very well," Jack shot at Owen from where he was squashed against one of the walls to the lift.

"We're inside a golden bird," Owen pointed out; his voice rather aggravated from what Jack could here. "It's not exactly going to be big is it?" Jack didn't reply so Owen continued. "Ianto there's a button by your left hand can you press that… quickly?" Ianto searched around hurriedly with his hand trying as hard as he could to find the button. He couldn't look for it with his eyes as his head was pushed against Jack's shoulder. When Ianto finally found the button he would have jumped up in joy but he couldn't do that from the position he was in, instead he hit the button as fast as he could and hoped the lift would get them to Torchwood London's main room as fast as possible.

After what seemed like an hour to Owen, Jack, Ianto and Gwen, the lift finally reached the floor they wanted and the team feel out of the lift into a much bigger space, landing in a heap on the floor. "That's a record! We could only ever fit three people in that lift though we never fell over when we exited the lift," a sudden voice made most of the team jump. When Ianto lifted his head up from where he was lying on the floor all he could see was smart black shoes. He quickly got up to his feet just as the rest of the team did the same and looked at the man who had just spoken: Thomas Baldwin. Ianto stared at him – he couldn't believe he was facing someone else who had been part of the Battle of Canary Wharf. He started to remember first meeting Tom and this time he couldn't push the memory away:

Ianto Jones was 23. He was stood in the same clothes he would later fight Myfawny with Jack and stood in his new workspace: Torchwood London. He looked around and was almost dazzled by the whiteness of the building. He was stood in reception after being told to wait for the boss to arrive and take him to the floor he'll be working on. Ianto was nervous. This job was one of his first in a big organization with his last job being in a corner shop. Ianto watched as a woman walked over to him. "Are you Ianto Jones?" The woman asked sharply as soon as she was standing facing Ianto. Ianto just nodded. "I'm Yvonne Hartman – your boss. Your desk is this way." She turned and led Ianto towards a flight of stairs and continued to talk as she walked. "You will be a Junior Researcher within Torchwood London. If you need anything just go to Thomas Baldwin. His desk will be at the front of the room you'll be working in. I hope I will not have to remind you that you have signed the official secrets act so anything you see or research within Torchwood London shall not be spoken about outside the building – understand?" Yvonne turned on Ianto as she suddenly stopped by a door. Once again Ianto nodded only this time because he was out of breath from the number of stairs he had just climbed. Yvonne turned and pushed open the door and walked in. Ianto followed slowly and looked around the massive room filled with light brown desks with each workstation owning one computer and a telephone. Ianto turned his attention back to Yvonne who was muttering to a man who Ianto guessed was about five years older than he was. Suddenly Yvonne turned and stalked out of the room leaving Ianto standing, unsure of what he was meant to be doing and where he was meant to be sitting. Ianto watched silently as the man Yvonne had been talking to began to walk over to Ianto.

"I take it your Ianto Jones?" The man asked once he had reached Ianto. Once again Ianto nodded. "I'm Thomas Baldwin the supervisor of this… division. Just call me Tom." Tom held his hand out for Ianto to take and almost too quickly Ianto took it. "You'll be sitting over there," Tom pointed over to a desk that Ianto could clearly see was not owned. Unlike the other desks in the room the desk Tom was indicating had no signs of life – no pictures of worthless junk was piled up on the desk. "This piece of paper has your username and password on it though if I were you I'd change the password as soon as possible. It's the password set up for all new accounts. The paper has some other details about your job so I'd keep it somewhere safe for the first week at least." Tom smiled at Ianto as he handed the paper with all Ianto's details on across to Ianto.

"Thank you," Ianto thanked Tom as he took the piece of paper and began to walk across to his new desk.

"Come to me if you need anything," Tom called after him.

And that's exactly what Ianto did for his first few weeks. He was constantly asking Tom for things and they had become rather good friends but after Ianto had been working in Torchwood London for four months a new girl: Lisa Hallett had arrived and Ianto and Tom's friendship grew apart as Ianto spent most of his time talking to Lisa. They had still spoken from time to time but never for as long as Tom had wanted.

"Ianto Jones!" Tom exclaimed. "I haven't seen you for a while! You disappeared not long after the Battle." Ianto smiled.

"Hey Tom," Ianto greeted his old friend. "How are you?" Tom looked around the main room of Torchwood London. Ianto followed his gaze; the entire place was a mess and needed desperate clearing up.

"It's been really hectic around here," Tom explained as Ianto stared at the mess. "I've been too busy watching over my teammates to tidy up. It's a relief that you guys turned up though I never knew you worked for Torchwood Cardiff. Owen never mentioned you."

"I only joined 21 months ago," Ianto told Tom.

"So, how's Lisa?" Tom asked. He didn't know that Lisa had died when he had met up with Ianto just after the battle Ianto had lied about Lisa's state:

Ianto was 24. The Battle of Canary Wharf was now finally over and Ianto had managed to get Lisa to his car. He reached into his pocket to pull out his car keys and suddenly remembered he had hurriedly given them to Tom as he had run to find Lisa. He now hoped that Tom wasn't dead as he ran backed to the Torchwood skyscraper, which had now burnt down, alone, hoping no one would come across Lisa. When he got to the rubble of the skyscraper he didn't have to look around for long as Tom was talking to two people: a woman and a man though they didn't look like police officers. Ianto ran over. "Tom," Ianto began to speak but Tom cut him off.

"Ianto, I'll be with you in one second I need to talk to these people," Tom told Ianto quickly. Ianto turned to the people Tom had been talking to.

"If you don't mind me asking, who are you two?" Ianto asked the pair curiously.

"Owen Harper," the man spoke before indicating to the woman. "And this is Suzie Costello. We're from Torchwood Cardiff. We'll leave you two to talk." Owen walked past Ianto and Tom, heading towards the rubble with Suzie following close behind him. Tom and Ianto turned and watched as the two began to search through the rubble. Ianto frowned – were they looking for survivors or the technology Torchwood London had had. Ianto turned back to Tom.

"Can I have my car keys back?" Ianto asked quickly, after remembering he had left Lisa by the car.

"Oh sure," Tom nodded and began to fumble around in his pocket – obviously searching for the keys. He pulled them out and handed them to Ianto. "How's Lisa?"

"She's fine," Ianto lied. He knew Lisa had a chance of survival and if she didn't survive it would be very difficult to explain how a supposedly dead woman was walking around. "Just shocked. Goodbye Tom." Ianto turned and ran off back the way he had come.

Ianto swallowed as he brought himself to say the word. "Dead," he managed to whisper.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Tom apologized. The conversation fell and awkwardness was put in its place. Owen stepped forwards.

"So what's the information on the mission?" Owen asked, changing the subject as quickly as he could though he knew he hadn't been quick enough. Tom turned and ran to his computer to bring up the facts, grateful that someone had managed to change the conversation topic.

"I have two team mates undercover in the school at the moment," Tom explained as Ianto began to clear up the main room as quietly as he always did. "Unfortunately they haven't managed to find anything. As I told you over the phone the teachers aren't acting strangely and there is nothing up with the students but it makes no sense. No matter how many times I restart the computer systems it stills says there's something alien in the school but whenever I try to find out what or even try to hack into the website the system crashes." Tom looked up at the rest of the team. "School websites are usually really easy to hack – I think some of these teachers deserve an award. They're certainly good actors." Tom paused before he continued speaking. "My team mates aren't trained for undercover work. They need help. I was thinking one of you lot could go in. At the moment the school are looking for a History teacher." As soon as the words were out of Tom's mouth, Owen, Gwen and Jack all turned to look at Ianto. Ianto continued to tidy up for a moment before he felt everyone staring at him and looked up.

"What?" His eyes widened in horror. "No way. I'm sorry Tom." Ianto looked from Tom to Jack. "Sir, there's no way I'm going undercover as a History teacher."