Chapter 5:

An hour later and there were three small piles of relevant reports from the time period, each of which had been painstakingly reviewed and selected from the mass of paperwork and dust that surrounded them in the archives.

"Is that everything Ianto?" Gwen asked, gesturing towards the Victorian file cabinets. "We've been down here for ages, surely there can't be any more?" she pleaded.

Owen sat up from where he was reclining on a pile of "Don't jinx it !" he called, seeming alarmed at even the thought of more work.

"That does seem to be everything" Ianto admitted, "Now we just have to go through these, check them against eachother and hopefully relate them to our current situation."

The other two exchanged a look of sheer dread.

Ianto sighed. "Of course If you both need a break I could start it off myself, I'd probably finish it a lot faster than either of you two anyway"

Before he was even finished Owen was jumping up, his lethargy momentarily forgetten.

Gwen lingered, her curiosity from her time as a policewoman overcoming her tiredness and sore eyes. It had only been six months or so but Torchwood was such a whirlwind of activity and excitement it often felt like she had been there years. She was lucky to have Rhys she often thought. In the beginning it had been hard but they had overcome the problems irregular working hours and a dangerous job had provided. Now that he had found out the truth and they were married things were brilliant

"I'm from the future" he said before she had even asked. "Ja-Torchwood's future"

"How did you end up here then?" she asked softly, picking up on the resigned tone the young man was using. He couldn't be more than 27 she realised with a start and she started to see him as more than an alien threat.

"My wristband- the leather thing you saw- is my method of transportation. I can't really tell you much about it or me but essentially I went further back than I intended."

At this Gwen's capacity for disbelief was tested. "Wait- you're a traveller in time?"

"Yes. I know, I know it sounds insane for a Cardiff boy like me but-well spoilers" he gave a wry laugh.

"This must be horrible for you. Oh god, I can't even imagine" she replied, having given in to her trusting instincts by now.

"Yeah," he agreed softly. "I suppose I knew this was coming but we've been through so much Gwen, together, as a team and now he just looks at me like he has no idea who I am, like he doesn't even know me because he doesn't know me Gwen and it shouldn't do but it just- it kills me inside." He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair and Gwen watched as it curled slightly around his fingers.

DR

Upstairs Jack was unconsciously mirroring the other man's actions as he racked his memory in an attempt to come up with a plan. At times like these he often wished he was still with the Doctor but he couldn't quite bring himself to regret his choice to leave the time lord for his team. When they didn't even know what had happened before, how could they recreate something that had happened a century before?

The opening of the rift had happened while he was working mostly as a freelance agent for Torchwood, not fully part of the orginization but still under its' surveillance. It seemed remarkably inconveinent now but during the months leading up to and directly after the incident he had been investigating sightings of the abominable snowman in Tibet. It had turned out to be a yeti with a horrible sense of direction and was dealt with quite quickly but a 'sight seeing' detour ensured that he had missed everything and when he asked what had happened on his trip it was all 'classified'.

With no reason to worry or investigate further Jack had not pursued the matter and it had never come up again. Until now.

Drawing himself away from his reverie he walked out of his office and down to Toshiko's work station where she was working intently on several rift predictor codes.

"Anything?" he asked hopefully.

"Jack!" the startled tech exclaimed. "The results haven't come through yet, but when they do I should be able to give you and approximate time for the rift activity surge we're expecting."

"Brilliant" Jack replied but still lingered.

"It's going to be at least a half hour before we get anything."

An additional glare from Tosh persuaded him it was probably prudent to wait somewhere else.

The ringing of steps on the metal walkway surrounding the water tower alerted him to the other's entrance. Taking in Gwen and Ianto's dust covered state first his eyes then took in the reports they were carrying which, after a joint effort, they had managed to extract all the helpful information from.

"Briefing in the boardroom." he called to the Team and they followed him up the stairs to sit around the large wooden table in the center of the room

"So, ideas?" he asked the team once they had all settled.

Gwen stood, "Ianto, Owen and I managed to get quite a bit based around what happened last time. Torchwood didn't seem to be involved in the main events but from what the witness reports said, around Christmastime dead bodies began coming to life."

"All over the city?" asked Tosh.

"Nah, just at one undertaker's office." Owen put in "Mr Sneed wasn't it Gwen?"

"Yes, Mr Sneed." Gwen continued. "The energy readings were off the charts around his shop. And then we get to the interesting bit. Apparently there were sightings of a 'Doctor' wandering around with Charles Dickens"

Owen and the Captain sat up at this though for different reasons.

"Dickens?No bloody way darling!"

"Apparently he was doing some sort of reading and a ghost appeared in the middle of the audience! I was going to dismiss it a publicity stunt because really, Dickens and Ghosts at Christmas, bit implausible even for Torchwood"

Tosh laughed slightly "Basically the equivalent of a murder investigation involving Agatha Christie!"

"Well there were those reports of people going missing at a house party in the 1930's..." Ianto deadpanned.

"Anyway" Gwen attempted to continue while hiding her amusement. "Torchwood was kept busy investigating all the energy spikes so they missed the closing of the rift but from what we gathered the girl, Gwenyth somehow gave herself up to close it and everything pretty much went back to normal."

Jack let her continue on for a bit on possible causes and the background of the undertakers' shop while he absorbed the information that the Doctor had been there. Explained a lot really as to Torchwood's reaction to the event and the lack of information around it. The Doctor had obviously thought that the problem was fixed but now it was happening again with no Doctor and Jack had no idea how to fix it.

AN: Sorry for the irregular updates, I'm a very disorganized person... Thanks for all reviews, they really make my day! (hint, hint puppy face?) We should be getting more into the plot soon so thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoyed it.