Time Intertwined

Chapter 3a

Tosh's birthday and the team were heading to the local pub, the one without the karaoke. The rift was quiet so they decided to head there in the early afternoon. Tosh brought along the remote rift alarm, to alert them if the rift decided to spew something out although the predictions say the rift should be quiet for at least 2 days but working for Torchwood means that the team have to be ready for anything.

The rift wasn't the only thing that was quiet, Owen was unusually quiet, Ianto walked up to Owen.

"So you asked her?" Ianto inquired of his friend.

"Yeah, we going tomorrow, I've made a booking" Owen swallowed and replied.

"So why so quiet?" Ianto said smiling.

"Mate, I don't want to mess this up, my track record is not that good" Owen said worriedly.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Tosh has seen you at your worst and she still likes you, go figure!" Ianto laughed and jogged up to Jack who was arm in arm with Gwen. Ianto didn't get jealous any more with Jack and Gwen, well, not too jealous, Gwen had her Rhys, they were getting married and she was happy. Ianto slipped his hand into Jack's hand, Jack turned towards him and smiled his megawatt smile. After all this time that smile of Jack's still made Ianto melt, Ianto leaned his head to Jack's shoulder and closed his eyes momentarily in the gratefulness that was his life.

The pub was not so busy as it as still quite early, people hadn't clocked off work as yet, but in about an hour the pub would probably be filled with tired workers having a drink before heading home. The team picked a booth to fit them all; Rhys was expected to come in 45 minutes, while Jack went to get them all a drink, bringing back a giant cocktail for Tosh, with all the trimmings, thankfully it had a straw so she could extract the heady mixture. As Jack sat down next to Ianto he noticed that Ianto was distracted and was searching his pockets for something.

"What's you lost? …well other than your heart to me" Jack said with a smirk to Ianto.

"I got Tosh a small gift from us all and bloody hell, well I forgot it in my desk" Ianto sighed.

"Give it to her tomorrow" Jack said, "I don't want you to go, leaving me with Gwen" Jack said pouting.

"No, tomorrow is a special day" Ianto said then added upon seeing Jack's puzzled face, "and it's got nothing to do with me, you or Gwen"

"Huh?" Jack said quizzically.

"Tosh is on a date with Owen tomorrow" Ianto whispered "So today is with her friends, tomorrow is Owen's day, so I want to give it to her today, besides today is her birthday"

"Okay l will go with you" Jack said.

"Jack! No, I am quite capable of going by myself, I'll be gone for 5 minutes, 10 minutes tops, if you come we won't be back for 30 minutes or more" Ianto admonished Jack, knowing that if Jack and he went back to the Hub then Jack would take advantage that they had the Hub to themselves whilst the guys were in the pub, "besides it's Tosh's birthday and not yours" Ianto winked at Jack.

"Aww, you don't play fair" Jack quietly whined to Ianto.

"If you play your cards right you might get to play and I'll let you cheat" Ianto smiled at Jack and left before Jack could say anything more.

In the shadows of the corner of the pub, Marcus watched this exchange, he had slipped into the pub when he realised that the torchwood team were going there. When he saw one of the team, what he thought was the youngest member of the torchwood team leave he decided to see where he was going, hopefully back to the 'headquarters'. So he quietly slipped out of the pub, and followed the young man walk down to the pier to the tourist office.

Ianto quickly opened the tourist information door, and just finger locked it, he was only going to be a few minutes so he didn't want to waste time by locking and unlocking all the locks. As Ianto opened the hidden door, the tourist office door burst open and a man with a wild look on his face pushed Ianto up against the wall and quietly said "Get me the time shifter" with a knife to Ianto's throat.

Chapter 3b

"What?...What? Time shifter?" Ianto said, as he tried to reach his comms, Marcus saw him move his hand and with adreninel coursing through his veins Marcus he shoved Ianto's hand away, he had watched them long enough to know that was how they communicated with each other, by a blue tooth device in their ears, he couldn't have the rest of them coming as well.

"Don't play stupid with me, I know all about Torchwood and how you mess around with time" Marcus sneered.

"Look man, I really don't know what you are talking about" Ianto needed to find a way to get away, he's dealt with aliens for god's sake, but this man seemed deranged and he was quite determined.

"We don't have time for this, just get me the time shifter, take me back 35 years and you can forget I was even here and you can go back to your boyfriend", Marcus scoffed at Ianto "Is it back here, in the back room?"

"No, just more tourist brochures" Ianto kept his cool, it won't do to rise to this guy's anger, he will just play it safe till he can get a chance to alert the others, or he can disarm him, he thought.

Marcus pushed Ianto into the opening of the where the hidden door was, with the knife at his neck, providing the incentive to get Ianto to move, his body flush to Ianto's back, giving Ianto no room to move to disarm him.

Ianto stopped at the dangling room divider not wanting to reveal what was behind the hidden door. "MOVE" Marcus commanded, pressing more firmly the knife into his neck.

Ianto reluctantly reached out and moved the dividers apart. Walking through the tunnel Ianto slowed his pace in the hope that Jack would wonder what was taking him so long and come back to the Hub to investigate. Reaching the cog door Ianto hesitated, Marcus pushed him in the back, "Open it" he said venomously.

Even though Marcus was momentarily stunned by what he saw when he entered the Hub it was not enough for Ianto to be able to disarm him, the knife perilously close to his jugular. Marcus stared at the rift manipulator as he watched it vibrate and hum and pushed Ianto towards it. "That's gotta be it, take me back 35 years"

"Huh, it doesn't work that way" Ianto spoke before thinking.

"It took my daughter and killed her twice" Marcus didn't care anymore, seeing the thing that he imagined caused his daughter to die twice and being so close to what could stop it, pushed him over the edge. "I've read and learnt what you do, people are taken out of time, YOU will get me back" Marcus waved the knife around slashing Ianto's cheek. Ianto reached up to try to deflect the knife but Marcus quickly moved the knife away and in the scuffle the knife entered Ianto's right side, piercing the flesh and plunged several inches into Ianto's lung.

Ianto crumpled to the ground, with an ever widening red stain surrounding him. Marcus, shocked that he caused this, stopped, he had never intended to hurt anyone, but he needed to go back to 1975, help the girl, so she doesn't die, so his daughter doesn't befall the same fate. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry but I got to go back, please, I'm sorry"

Marcus looked at the rift manipulator and saw the computers nearby and thought there must be something on there that could tell him how to operate this thing. "Which one of these computers operates the time shifter?" Marcus asked Ianto. Ianto while still conscious, the blood bubbling out of his mouth and losing blood fast from his chest wound murmured, " Rift in space, time is…..time is…" and then Ianto lost consciousness.

A/N: I know, why is it always Ianto?