"Oh fuck the fuck off." Ianto buried his face in the pillows, trying to drown out the chirpy pop song Jack had chosen for his ringtone this week. "It's the middle of the night."

Jack ran a hand through his hair and dropped it onto his shoulder, squeezing gently. "Ant, what have you got? This had better be..." He paused to let Ant speak and sighed. "Alright, we're on our way. Don't go in there without us. We'll be half an hour, tops."

"Forty five minutes," Ianto growled into the pillow. "What is it this time?"

"Rift flare at the school, and they're picking up activity on the sensors. Could be nothing, but with the Doctor around last night..." He sighed. "We'd better check it out."

He sighed and lifted his head at last to look up at Jack, a smile teasing at his lips despite his best efforts. A dull buzz of excitement settled in his gut, even after more middle of the night alerts than he cared to count, even after fifteen years. The thrill of the chase, the excitement of the unknown, the passion of fear, they thrilled through his veins and kept him going like they always had. Under his hand, Jack's muscles were tense with it, and when their eyes finally met they sparked with the same fire that Ianto felt. "It's not even eleven, and we won't be long," Jack assured him. "We'll be back in bed by one."

"There's no way we'll sleep. Too much adrenaline."

Jack smirked back at him. "I'm counting on it."

They dressed quickly and walked back to the school, fifteen minutes around the corner. Jack's forecast was the more accurate, and they met Ant outside the office they'd created out of the old changing rooms as the clocks were striking quarter past. Ant was tapping away at his tablet, and gave them a brief, suspicious glance. "Nice of you to join us at last. I hope we didn't disturb you."

"Not as much as they disturbed you," Jack assured him cheerfully. "Ianto and I don't have the stamina you two do. He finished his marking at seven and was asleep by half past."

"I wish I'd finished my marking," he grumbled. "I've still got the year 7 tests to do."

Jack laughed and squeezed his shoulder again. "Well, that's something to do when we're full of beans after we've sorted this. Come on, Ant. What have we got?"

"Moderate Rift flare at half past ten. We don't have enough data from this site to say for certain, but based on the readings from Cardiff and Glasgow we'd have said that it was negative. We activated the remote sensors, though, and they've been picking up readings ever since." He looked up at the building and pointed. "They started in the library and they've spread out from there. Staying pretty confined, though, for the moment. Luke thinks it's the kids, but with the Rift flare and so little information, we don't want to take that risk."

"Let's hope it is just the kids, then, and you've not left them in there with something," Ianto murmured, glancing at Jack. "Where's Luke?"

Ant looked back over his shoulder. "Gearing up. He's running a lifesigns scan and getting the droids ready."

"They're ready," Luke announced as he arrived, a tablet in one hand and a pair of robots in the other. "We can let them loose on the second and third floors, see if they can find our life signs. The readings are all over the place, looks like they're trying to get out. We're not sure what they are yet, can't get a fix..."

Ianto sighed. "It's the kids." They looked at him and he shrugged. "I just saw Tanya at one of the windows."

"Alright," Jack said, laughing. "No droids today, Luke. We'll go in the way they did, keep the other entrances locked. Leave Ant at our entry point, and then Luke, Ianto and I will take a floor each. If they wanted to get out, they would have. I doubt they're even aware of anything happening."

"The Doctor came by." Ianto looked over at Luke. "Did he see you?"

"Yes. Left not long ago, actually, otherwise we might not have been taken by surprise so much." He smiled ruefully. "That's probably when they snuck past us, too. He..."

"Got talking and didn't stop for breath? Yeah," Jack sighed. "He does that. He got April back into her body, though?"

They nodded. "He told us how, but it made no sense so I ignored him," Luke laughed. "I think he just made it up as he went along, but as long as it worked, who cares?"

"Yep, good argument." Jack clapped his hands. "So let's go and make it up as we go along."

The school was quiet, for the most part, full of the gentle hum and blue light of computers on standby overnight. They moved without words, so well attuned to each other, even Luke and Ant settled into the rhythm by now. Ianto took the stairs, and indicated that Jack should keep going up to the top floor, leaving Luke on the ground floor. The scans showed nothing down there, but the kids were racing around. He let his hand brush against Jack's as they parted ways, and then edged silently down the corridor towards the library and, beyond it, the science labs. Up here it was anything up quiet. He heard a thunder of feet on the floor above, which came to an abrupt halt somewhere behind him, and more footsteps coming towards him. He found a light switch and waited by with his eyes closed, until the footsteps rounded the corner. April yelped as he turned the lights on, and when he opened his eyes she and Matteusz were blinking, dazed and blinded by the sudden change, and with tears running down their cheeks.

"I thought it would be you lot," he muttered. "What have you done this time?"

XxXxX

Charlie closed his eyes tightly, but that only made the lights flashing behind his eyelids even brighter. He moaned, fingers tangled in his hair, and curled up as tightly as he could. A ringing in his ears drowned out all sound, and when he tried to open his eyes again that was even worse. He choked on a sob, pressing one hand against his mouth and one against his churning stomach. Somehow he managed to cry out Matteusz's name, but as time dragged on the nausea abated and the ringing quitened, but no one came.

He forced his eyes open again and looked around. The bookcases were gone, replaced by a narrow brick corridor with a wooden floor. It was cold, a draft cutting down the corridor and the chill striking through his clothes from the bricks. A window on the opposite wall showed that it was as dark outside as it had been in London – possibly darker. He'd realised long ago that it was never really dark in London, even in the middle of winter. From what April had told him, the middle of winter was when it was brightest. He'd been looking forwards to seeing the lights on Oxford Street.

That was what did it in the end, and he accepted that, once more, he was stranded far from home. When he realised that he wasn't going to see the Christmas lights. Wasn't going to get to go ice skating and cling to Matteusz's hand so he didn't fall over, wasn't going to help Matteusz write those Christmas cards, wasn't going to dance with him at the Christmas party. And that was just a few months. He wrapped his arms around his knees and pressed his forehead against them, shoulders shaking with misery. Footsteps rang down the corridor towards him, fast and firm, and he dragged his head up to face them, only to be blinded again by the bright light of a torch flashing in his eyes.

XxXxX

"Of all the stupid ideas," Ianto snapped, pushing Ram ahead of him into the office. "What were you thinking?"

"Well we didn't exactly know it was possible for people to just disappear like that," Tanya shouted back at him. "It's the school, it should be safe!"

Ianto rolled his eyes. "We told you to stay out of this. It's not a game. There's a Rift in time and space running through your school. Those aliens, didn't you realise that they have to come from somewhere?"

"Where is he?" April demanded. "What's taken him, and where?"

"We have no idea." Ant threw himself into a chair and let it roll across to a computer. "It's a negative reading, but we have no way of knowing what's on the other side. There's a few signatures that we can recognise, but this... isn't one of them. The good news is that he's not wherever Weevils come from. I'll keep running the reports, see if we can get something. We'll know everything we can by morning."

She nodded. "How do we get him back?"

Ianto shook his head. "Even if we find a signature, that gives us location, not time. There are Rifts all across the universe. Some are as active as ours, on inhabited worlds, and things fall through them a lot. Some only open once. Most of the time it opens on nothing, and there's nothing to come through."

The silence that fell after that was broken by a quiet sob. They turned, slowly and reluctantly, to see Matteusz. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and he didn't resist when Jack reached out and pulled him into a hug.

XxXxX

Charlie held a hand up against the light, and it moved away from him obligingly. The figure was still shrouded in darkness, even more so now he'd been blinded by the torch, but it stopped a way away from him. "You're not from round her" he said with a chuckle, gesturing at Charlie. "Those shoes are practically space age."

He sniffed and wiped at his face. "Who are you? How do you know that?"

The stranger laughed again. "I'm Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood. And who are you?"