this is a series of vignettes moving toward chapter 5, which will be out soon. I am working towards getting Ianto out of the hub for some weevil hunting but that is still a ways away enjoy! As always love reviews!

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Questions and answers

Jack and Ianto

"Why do you fade out like that anyway?"

"I really don't know sir; it started after the third time I was shot."

Jack winced in sympathy.

Ianto looked at Jack for a moment. "Became very useful once I learned to control the transmat."

Jack sat back in his chair. Transmat, well of course the damned cube would have a transmat…

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Conference room, another late night at the office…

"So why can you pick up everything except the cube?" Owen asked.

"Would you like my best guess?" Ianto said.

"Guess away bubble boy."

Ianto held his arm out in front of him "Do this" he said to Owen. "And by do this I mean hold your arm out in front of you like this, palm down." The smirk that had started to form on Owens face died out at Iantos utterly serious tone, and he did as Ianto directed.

"Now, reach up, grab your collar and lift yourself off the floor." Ianto smirked

Owen dropped his hand to the table with a disgusted look on his face. "You little shit." he snarled.

Jack fell off his chair laughing.

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"Ianto I need you to report to Owen for a full Physical. Will he find anything out of the ordinary?"

"I hope not sir."

Owen had checked and rechecked his findings. Ianto was in perfect health for a 25-year-old, which was odd because according to his file he was 48.

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"So why hasn't he aged?" Tosh asked Owen.

Owen pulled himself out of his video game and looked at Tosh "Huh?" he said. "Who?"

Oh crap, He knew THAT stare. Tosh was a bulldog, (a petite lovely bulldog} when it came to chasing down facts. Tosh had seen Owen escorting a reluctant Ianto into the med bay for a physical and was not going to stop until she had shaken every answer she could get out of him.

"Ianto, Owen. According to what he told Jack the last 'Test' (here she made the quote sign) Torchwood conducted was in 1991. According to his records he was born 08/19/1958 and started at Torchwood in 1979.

He was with them for 5 years until the cube incident and he has been in the cube since then. It is now 2006. He is 48 years old and he looks 25."

Owen looked uncomfortable "Ah... he's really well-preserved?"

Tosh glared .Owen was looking around for an escape, but none was clear at that time.

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Ianto slammed a cup of coffee in front of Owen with a threatening stare. "Tosh knows."

Owen raised his hands, palms out "sorry mate she figured it out on her own."

"I didn't want that common knowledge" Ianto stalked away. Owen took a sip and grimaced, "bah,decaf."

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"Why didn't you want us to know?" Tosh sounded annoyed and hurt. "Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

"It's a private matter." Ianto said, face slipping into the Butler mask she knew so well and was starting to hate

"Did anyone at T-1 know?' she asked.

"Of course they didn't!" Ianto sputtered "would you want them to know?"

Tosh blinked "Why would that make any difference? You could just vanish into the cube and they couldn't touch you."

Ianto shook his head.

Tosh thought for a moment, then said," but if that's the case how did they do the experiments?"

"For a while I was helping with the research. Then Yvonne decided she wanted indestructible solders." Ianto shuddered, then continued,

"Playing hide and seek with T-1 trained assassins was… instructive."

Ianto flashback

The first time the cube forced him out after special ops took over he had vanished. This was before he learned to control the transmat. He slipped past them, running down a corridor and ducking into a small office (John Smith managing director Spatial Acquisitions, who was that?) locked the door and stopped moving. It did not help. Special ops had a heat sensor.

Round one went to special ops. Ianto woke up back in the cube, healed, but hurting.

Out in the real world the office was a total disaster, but there was no blood, at all. Mr. Smith was not amused.

The second time,he had appeared, a bright blue mist had almost instantly paralyzed him. He remembered being unable to breathe, but it simply didn't seem important. The cube had pulled him in as darkness pulled him under. That time he had woken up dizzy, nauseous and barely able to move. Ianto shakily stumbled to his couch and collapsed.

For the weapons testing, all T-1 had to do was place the cube at ground zero and blast away. They politely waited until he could join them. Shot stabbed gassed exploded... Ianto was still having nightmares.

"Why did you come out if you knew that they were there waiting for you?" Suzie asked absentmindedly, playing with an odd-looking knife they had found a week before. Every one was watching her and carefully staying out of reach.

"Had no choice, the cube is on a schedule. I have to come out every 48 hours. It took me a while to learn how to transport away from the immediate area" Ianto said.

"You said the cube was doing that. " Tosh sounded slightly offended.

"That was just after I arrived here," Ianto said stiffly "and technically it is the cube doing it; I just finally learned how to control it a bit."

Owen nodded "Would have done the same." he said to Tosh.

"How did you keep T-1 from seeing that you weren't aging?" Tosh asked.

"A few years after I 'persuaded' Director Hartman to end the experiments I started to add a grey hair or two and a few wrinkles."

"where did you get a makeup kit?" Owen asked

"Found it in the spare room" Ianto said.

Jack took the knife away from Suzie

"No, Suzie, you cannot experiment on the cube, put the knife down and check out the glove."

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"Jack." Ianto said

Jack was sitting at his desk taking care of his least liked chore, paperwork. Owens last report was hand written, and probably deliberately very hard to decipher. Dammed sod had left a greenish stain on it, too. He didn't answer.

"Jack." Ianto said again. Jack was turning the report side ways to see if that made it any more readable. Ianto moved closer, leaned over the desk and said "JACK!"

The report flew up in the air, pages scattering everywhere.

"WHAT?' Jack yelled back. Ianto was standing by his desk, looking determined "Jack, we need to talk."