Owen stood at the sink, rinsing blood off of his hands. He had just finished stitching up the wolf and had left Jack to put some plasters over them so she wouldn't rip them out. He splashed his face with water once his hands were sufficiently clean, then headed back down to the autopsy bay to check on his patient.

Jack was scrubbing blood out of the parts of her fur that hadn't been shaved off while Tosh was staring at something around her neck.

"This collar is fascinating. I didn't notice it until Jack spilled water on it, like it had some kind of camouflage that was short-circuited. It seems to be biologically bound to her and based on the blood samples from earlier, it is releasing a low dose of an unknown substance into her bloodstream constantly."

"Great. Can you break it down into individual bits so I might be able to create an antidote if it's killing her?" Owen was tired, but he was a doctor and was going to save his patient, alien or not.

"Already working on it. It might take a while though."

"Can you leave the computers to it?" Jack asked, concerned at how long these two had been working.

"Yes, easily."

"Okay. You two go home, get some sleep. Come back in a few hours."

Tosh made no argument, she simply set her computer program on automatic and started packing up to leave.

"While I would usually be bolting out of here, the fact of the matter is that I can't leave her side. She could go critical or have a seizure or who knows what alien disease she might have that could kick in anytime. I'll just nap on the couch until everyone gets in."

Even though he wanted to make him go home, Jack knew that Owen was right. He nodded and headed up to his office to get a more thorough look at the file Ianto had brought up earlier.

The cog wheel door rolled open only a few hours later to reveal Ianto, dressed in a perfectly pressed suit as always. Jack looked at the clock to find that it was already eight in the morning. He didn't realize how long the surgery had taken.

Ianto headed straight to the kitchenette to make coffee. As usual, he had it ready by the time Gwen and Tosh came in. He made an extra strength one for Owen after seeing him asleep on the couch. Nobody wanted to deal with Owen in a worse mood than usual. Coffee usually kept him relatively calm.

Tosh knocked gently on the door frame of the office door and entered when Jack waved her inside. "Jack, I was thinking that I should take a closer look at that collar today. It's electronic of some sort. I'm sure I can find a way to get it off of her."

"Good idea. Have any of the compounds been identified yet?"

"Just a mild sedative. It's nothing that should keep her under like this though. It's just meant to keep her calm. I've still got the computer running so it can search while I examine the collar."

"Get to it then," Jack beamed at her. She smiled and gave a sharp nod, then scampered off to do what she did best; figure out what technology does and how to use it.

Owen was awake by the time Tosh headed down to the autopsy bay, though he was still half asleep on the couch, holding onto his coffee for dear life.

"Don't jostle her!" He shouted after Tosh, though it came out whinier than usual with his sleep-filled voice. Tosh didn't respond, opting to start scanning the device before even trying to touch it. She quickly went to get her laptop and hacked into the frequency of the collar.

"Jack!" She called after only a few minutes of typing. Jack strode out of his office and made his way down to stand by her.

"What have you got?"

"There's a small information cache on this thing. Very small. It just says sine grex and Daria. Do you- Jack? Jack?" The Captain had gone white, jaw slack. The distress in Tosh's voice brought everyone else over to look at the wolf.

"Daria." It was barely a breath, but everyone heard it.

"What does it mean Jack?" Gwen asked from above on the observation deck.

"The first part is a classification. And it's not a very nice one. It means declares her pack-less, a lone wolf. In her species, that is among the highest of insults."

"And the second part?"

"It's her name. Owen, where is that razor you were using to shave the fur from her wounds?"

"I'll get them," he mumbled, not wanting anyone to rummage in his stuff. He handed it to Jack a few seconds later. Jack promptly began to shave a spot of fur away, on the back of the skull, just below her left ear. A dark tattoo began to appear, a string of numbers and letters. Jack held himself together as he turned the razor off and gently set it down on a try. He quickly left the room and everyone heard the resounding thud of his office door being slammed shut.

"What the hell was that about?" Owen questioned no one in particular.

Ianto quietly slipped away and went to Jack's office, knocking gently and not waiting for a reply before entering. "Is there anything I can do for you, sir?" Silence met him.

"Jack..." The man in question looked up at him. Ianto rarely used his name, but when he did it meant that he had left professional mode and was trying to be there as a friend. No one knew about their tentative friendship, all they saw was the flirting. Which Jack wanted to be more, but he enjoyed having Ianto's friendship and support.

"It's the same one."

"The wolf, you mean?"

"Yes. I figured I'd never see her again when she disappeared. And now she appears, falling through the rift and beaten half to death. I don't know what's going to happen when she wakes up."

"Well, maybe she'll explain everything to you when she wakes up. But there's really no way to know until she does wake. So take a deep breath and go talk to the team. I'll bring another round of coffee in just a minute."

Jack gave a small smile and pulled himself together mentally. "Thank you, Ianto."

"Not a problem, sir." They parted ways, Jack heading to the rest of the team and Ianto to the kitchenette. He felt a familiar pang of guilt as he thought about the betrayal of his teammates' trust. As long as they didn't find out before Lisa was well again, there wouldn't be a problem.

There was a small commotion down in the autopsy bay when Ianto brought the tray of coffees over. Owen seemed enraged that Tosh had touched Daria enough to get a good view of the whole collar, but Tosh was valiantly defending herself.

"I found a scanner on this side!"

"So what? You could have ripped open her stitches!"

"I was gentle."

"What sort of scanner?" Gwen broke in, ending the argument before it could escalate.

"It resembles a fingerprint scanner." Tosh was clearly still upset about Owen yelling at her, but also determined to do her job and get the collar off of the poor creature.

"Jack, what were those numbers on the back of her head?" Gwen was trying to keep everyone distracted to avoid any further arguments.

"I don't know. She refused to tell me. I let it be. We both had our secrets. Maybe that's why we never worked out."

"Or because you're an outrageous flirt," Gwen teased. Jack chuckled at this, but his eyes quickly zeroed in on a small movement. Tosh had her thumb pressed against the scanner. A loud beeping started emitting from the collar.

And Daria's eyes flew open.