"Your tea," Ianto said coolly, handing the Doctor his cup of tea.

The Doctor mumbled a thank you before he grasped the cup and saucer and settled it down onto the furnished conference table. All was quiet; Mickey was pacing up and down, hands scrunched up by his cheeks while Captain Jack sat at the far end of the table leaning on one elbow, silently thrumming his fingers onto the surface of the table. Ianto quietly floated out of the room after serving tea to Jack and Mickey. Gwen flitted in and out of the room, paperwork held tightly in her hands with each pass and, on another chair in the room, sat the Doctor as he ran a hand through his hair deep in thought. He reached
for the tea and took a sip, only to retreat in shock as the scalding hot tea burned his tongue.

"Ouch!" he complained, hissing and nursing his burnt tongue.

Ianto poked his head round the door unknowingly. "Um… Doctor, sir. I forgot to mention, the tea's still ho— Whoops…" He turned red with embarrassment when he noticed the damage had already been done. "Um, yeah, I think I will just… go."

Jack sniggered vaguely but soon turned to his silence again; triggered on by the looks he was receiving from Gwen, Mickey and the Doctor – not happy at all. All was terribly awkward after Mickey had finally repeated the news about Rose; the Doctor had not even questioned the perception filter on the pavement-lift or asked about the technology of the pavement lift and he didn't even go into his rambles about their enormous pet pterodactyl that busied itself with flying around. This was not good indeed.

"Mickey, can you just stop pacing up and down! It's disturbing my concentration," the Doctor shouted, screwing up his hair.

"Well what else do expect me to do? I'm trying to think of something 'cause I've just found out someone's gonna die because of me, while you sit there drinking cups of tea. Tell me, tell me Doctor what you want me to do? Just sit around and do nothing, act like the tin dog all over again? Is that what you want?!" Mickey spat the last words out with spite, then sighed and flopped back down into a chair, giving up.

"Thank you and no, that's not at all what I meant!"

"Then what did you mean, huh? TELL ME!"

"Woah, woah, just calm down Mickey," Jack interrupted.

"But he--"

"No buts, right now our most important priority is Rose. You two can argue your buttocks off after and you could have a showdown down in Bristol for all I care – I'll ref, but now we have another matter to deal with. Isn't that right, Doctor?"

The Doctor leaned back into the leather chair and reluctantly nodded, fingers interlocked. He was extremely quiet and that, knowing the Doctor as well as Jack did, was very scary indeed.

"So Mickey, firstly you need to explain absolutely everything. Start from the beginning," Jack pressed, inching forwards. "Oh and Gwen? Ianto? You don't need to hide behind the door you know…"

Red with mortification, Gwen and Ianto crept out of their hiding place and took their places in the remaining seats. The corner of Gwen's lips turned into a sad frown for a moment as she eyed the places where Mickey and the Doctor were sat – Tosh would be sat where the latter person was seated, sharing her wisdom, and Owen, who would be where Mickey was sat now, would be giving logical suggestions every now and again. Things weren't the same at Torchwood without them. Surprisingly, Mickey was a wonder to their team and had amazing skills on computers, but Torchwood still lacked Tosh's
intelligence and kindness, not to mention Owen's logic and sarcasm. If it weren't for that blooming Captain John Hart, Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper would still be alive.

"Hello!" the Doctor exclaimed, smiling for the first time that morning. "You're Gwen Cooper, am I right?" They shook hands and a touch of warmth spread through her.

"Yes, that's me. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Doctor. Jack's been telling me all about you. Right from when I started, haven't you Jack?"

Jack raised his eyebrows suggestively and the Doctor retorted back with a simple: "Stop it."

"And you must be… Hang on, I've got it, Ianto Jones. Remember me? Course you do, you helped save the world!" the Doctor also shook hands with the smart suited man.

"Doctor, we can do introductions later."

The Doctor suddenly remembered why he was here and put on his serious face again.

"OK, I'm not dead sure 'bout Rose but I can tell you briefly what I know anyways. When you first left me there, it was for a couple of months and the breach thing was still open. So I didn't 'ave no problems then. It was only when we were sealed off in that Universe for so-called forever; and me, Jacks and Rose suffered from really bad migraines and vision problems. It was like hell for the first week, like we were balancing between sickness and health. Some kinda side affect of moving Universes or summat like that and
Rose was already having it bad then, what with you erased from her life. She was crying for weeks I tell ya. You don't know how terrible it felt whenever I looked at her an' she looked like she 'ad no hope of living."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor muttered. "I didn't know she had it that bad, I knew it was going to be hard for her but I thought she'd move on and find someone else."

"You wish! You don't wanna know how many times I tried to get back with her and introduce her to other blokes; she refused every time. Stubborn as a mule, Jackie used to say. All gone now…"

The Doctor, Captain Jack, Gwen and Ianto all listened intently as Mickey told his story of his temporary stay on the Parallel Universe. To Gwen, it was like when she was little and the whole of her family went out ghost stories.

The Doctor took note of every word that came out of Mickey's mouth intensely, drinking in all of their adventures. It turned out that they all had suffered from it in the beginning and it showed, so Pete (being the only unaffected) took them to the Hospital for scans though nothing could be found. A few weeks later they found out that Jackie was pregnant and all symptoms were blamed on the pregnancy. Jackie's side-affects and problems faded away as time went by and Mickey's weren't so bad.

That was when Rose started to keep a lot to herself and bought her own apartment; achieving independence. She did all the domestics; wake up, go to work, go back home, go to sleep. But however much she hid it Mickey saw no difference. She was still depressed and grieving inside, even though she tried her best not to show it. Rose worked it off at Torchwood; Pete promoted her to Head of her department in her first week and she was in charge of all the Field Agents and any alien activity. Meanwhile Mickey was also in charge of a smaller group of field agents, but was mostly stuck in the office doing
research on Rift activity.

"Hmph, it was more like flippin' paperwork," Mickey snorted. "They barely ever let me out and deal with any aliens. I started feeling like the tin dog again, so I protested to Pete, ya know Rose's dad, and I started alien busting again."

The Doctor's face screwed up. "Guns, I take it?"

Mickey nodded and Jack was sure the Doctor was about to go into his all famous 'Guns are not the solution' speech, so he intruded and reminded the Time Lord that they needed to hear the rest of the story first. Anyway, Mickey's migraines came back and he started to feel sick all the time, therefore he saw a doctor but was only waved off with a box of pain killers. Then…

"I started sitting down and I did my own studying, since no one cared." Mickey received four pairs of raised eyebrows. "OK, OK… It wasn't exactly reading thick textbooks and watching them nerdy documentaries, but I read something on the internet about moving Universes and I looked it up. Then it lead me on to another site and that's when I started reading the 'His Dark Material' trilogy by, um… Philip Pieman, I think."

"Philip Pullman, actually. Brilliant man, that one! Met him once, when he was young and when I was in like my fourth regeneration, or was it my fifth regeneration? I can never remember, but he was just a young--"

"… Anyway, I started reading those books and there was this character, a boy's father, who'd like, you know, literally moved Universes and he was stuck in that Universe for ten years or something like that. And the longer he was away from his home Universe the sicker he got. In the end, he'd gone all mad and crazy, not to mention he was half-dying."

"OH!" the Doctor exclaimed, clutching his head and jumping out of his seat. "I should've realised this before; how thick am I?! Not very thick at all obviously, but… but... but I must've been stupid enough to forget, boy am I gettin' old!"

"What is it, Doctor?" Jack asked, confusion visible in his expression.

"Phillip Pullman!"

"What about him?" Gwen questioned. "He's just an author isn't he?"

"He's not just an author! Philip Pullman was a fantastic author! The 'His
Dark Materials' trilogy was a best-seller right? Right! Mind you, 'Ruby and
the Smoke' was very good too and trust me, I know good books when I see 'em!
Any-way, if I remember correctly, those books were actually based on him and
his experience in the Parallel World – I suspect that he himself had somehow
transported himself into a Parallel dimension, through an unguarded hole. Back
then the Time Lords were still alive, so travel between Universes was as easy
as a snap of the fingers and he must've just blundered his way in without
knowing what was in it for him. Mind you, he did go missing for a couple of
years so--"

"Um… Doctor, sir, if you don't mind me saying…" Ianto waited for the Doctor's approval to speak before continuing his query. "I've read those books and there's a lot of stuff about gods and prophecies and angels and daemons in there. Are you saying all of that stuff is actually true?"

The Doctor's face crumpled up as he racked his brains for the answer. "I'd say good old Phil got a teeny bit carried away there with all that religious stuff, just part of his own opinions and beliefs I suppose, but nothing important to know."

Mickey suddenly remembered something. "I know we're straying from the point here, but in the books, the boy, Will, had this like knife that could cut windows into other Universes."

"Yeah, but the thing is that knives like that don't exist anymore. The Time Lords destroyed them right before the Time War in case the wrong people got their hands on them. However, there has been a legend slash myth sorta thing going round that there is still one knife left in the whole of reality. But nobody's ever found it so the odds are that they doesn't even exist…"

"What did this knife look like exactly?" Gwen asked, Welsh drawl emphasised as an idea played on her lips. Jack caught Gwen's eye and gave her a perplexed look, but Gwen just looked away with a shrug.

"The knife? Well, like any normal knife I suppose; metal, long, elaborate handle, leather pouch. Not really sure to be honest, why?" the Doctor replied.

"It's just, Torchwood 'ave got this knife. See, they found it some years back. Ianto named it the Life Knife, because… well, it killed people and then Suzie came back and, yeah… You know what I'm on about right Jack?"

"Yeah, you're right. Oh Gwen, you cheeky bugger, you're not thinking
what I'm thinking, are you?" Jack said, a sly grin erupting across his
handsome face.

"Depends Jack; if that something you're thinking about is related to certain fantasies ant everything else that goes in that cheeky head of yours then no, but if you're thinking that our Life Knife could be connected to what the Doctor's on about, then yes!"

Jack mocked a pout. "The first one was pretty tempting, Miss Cooper, but I'm all for your last one!"

"Can we just get to the point, 'cause from this point onward I'm gone; what are you talking about?"

Gwen explained to the Doctor about her wacky, albeit possible idea that the legendary mysterious knife could actually be under their noses and in Torchwood itself.

"So where is it?" Mickey asked, speaking up for the first time in ages.

"The box of untouchables…" Ianto concluded.

Not long after they were all out of the purple light of the conference room and in the paleness of the central area of the Hub. The Doctor was babbling at 100mph in awe at all the technology and the organic computers that Captain Jack was having no problems boasting about. Jack was in the middle of his theory of the computers, when suddenly there was a distant but clear moaning sound coming from the direction of the lower area of the Hub.

"What was that?" the Doctor said, ears pricking up.

Jack knew that the Doctor wouldn't be too happy about what it really was so he lied. "It's nothing."

"Jack…" Gwen sighed.

The moaning started up again, a bit louder this time. Gwen, Jack, Mickey and Ianto all knew where the source of the noise was coming from, but didn't say anything in case it was a mistake.

"Jack... I said 'what was that?'"

"I told you, it's nothing, just leave it be. It's probably the venting system or something," Jack repeated, growing nervous.

Ianto went over to his Boss and whispered something in his ear; Jack sighed once more and nodded. Ianto then walked over to Gwen and told her something, which she furrowed her brow at. The Doctor was not a fool and he knew something was up; he strode over to the Captain and looked him in the eye with a piercing stare.

"Jack, you'd better tell me what that noise really is or you'll regret it when I find out for myself."

"I'm telling you, it's nothing!" Jack insisted.

The moan turned into a beseeching plea now and the Doctor was definitely phased. Jack didn't answer.

"It's the weevil," Mickey stated finally.

"Oh, Mickey, you just made the most idiotic decision of your life!" Jack
sighed, defeated as he began rubbing his eyelids.

"The what?"

"Meet Janet; a weevil. Weevils are mutated life forms that first came through the Rift a couple of years ago." Jack gave in; there was no backing away now the Doctor knew. "They've multiplied into hundreds since then and they live in the sewers, devouring all the meat they can get. We try to restrain them and cover-up any murders they've done…"

"Then why is it here?"

"We've kept it; we run tests on it to see if we can find out more about it's species and…"

The Doctor had heard enough. They'd locked it up. Mickey pointed him the way and Ianto had no choice but to lead the Doctor to where the weevil was. He had orders from Jack to feed the beast anyway, but the weevil had been getting agitated a lot these days because Ianto couldn't find anymore supplies of the meat it usually ate. Behind, Jack had a go at Mickey for telling the Doctor in the first place, whispering things like "What was that about?" and Mickey replied with measly excuses like "Wasn't my fault."

"You've locked it up!?" came the Doctor's angered voice from the basement, where all the cells were. Jack sprinted over.

"Yeah, it's the only way to contain it because otherwise--"

"Jack, this is inhumane! Just because it's not human does not give you the right to just lock it up against it's free will. It's a LIVING CREATURE!" the Doctor hundered, arms flailing to stress his point. "It's whining, it doesn't like this. You've got at least half a dozen here! Is this some kind of prison?"

"Doctor, you don't understand--"

"No, I think it's you Captain Jack Harkness who doesn't understand!" the Doctor hissed. "I'm an Alien, aren't I? So, don't I pose a threat to Humanity. You've seen me Jack, I've killed many a times and you know it.So how come I'm not locked up, hmm?! Isn't it a Torchwood procedure to lock up a threat to Humanity? What you waiting for; GO ON THEN, LOCK ME UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY! Just like you've done with the rest of these creatures. Go on then handcuff me!" The Doctor turned his back on Jack and crushed his wrists together, as if he were about to be arrested.

"We can't do that! You're family to us?"

"Did you stop to think about that too, Jack? That these weevils have families too. They probably had a life before you took them away from their home. They had a place to feel loved and they belonged to their own community, before you took them away! Why couldn't you just leave them be?"

"Leave them be?! Leave them to kill other innocent life; that's not what we do…WE DO WHAT WE HAVE TO!" Jack interrupted fiercely. "It's my job, because you're not here to save the Human race every time, you're on and off. We have to protect everyone! I know that it's a living creature as well as you do, and I do care about it's welfare. That's why it's here; to heal it. It was sick and deluded when we first found him Doctor, all that weevil ever did was kill and murder because of its fear of the human race. And the only reason that it's whining is because Ianto hasn't fed it due to the fact that you're here. So I suggest you listen to the facts before jumping to conclusions; we're not like the other Torchwood! We don't torture these creatures; we're here to help them!" Jack hissed, glaring at the Time Lord with barely controlled rage. "We save them from themselves."

The Doctor was off again, up the stairs and away from them all. Gwen gestured a look of confusion to Ianto, but he shrugged and dug his hands back into his pockets signalling to follow Jack and the Doctor.

"Jack, you're all the same! I thought you were different, but you're exactly the same as the old Torchwood I saw; it's still guns, violence and locking things up for you, isn't it? This is just as bad, as the other Torchwood. You can never break from the habit!" the Doctor roared.

"It's changed over the years Doctor, how can't you see that? I've tried to use fewer guns, but the guns aren't only for our protection but for the aliens too. They're just there as a threat; Plan B. Everyone's provided with a basic stun gun, along with the bullet gun; it just sends a shock down the spine, it doesn't kill and we barely use them anyway."

"Well you haven't convinced me so far."

"Let's just all calm down and get on with thinking of a way to get Rose back. As Mickey said, she's closer to dying than any of us. You can debate about everything else later when we're at peace! Talking of homes, what did you do to Rose?! You took her away from her home and dumped her in another Universe, when you knew very well indeed that her home was here. You locked her up there. So don't you think your words are a contradiction upon themselves!?!" Jack snarled, each word spouted out spite and emotion. But as much as Jack hated saying these words, he wouldn't let the Doctor enter his life and stamp all over him. He couldn't let that happen; not again, not this time.

"I think you should think before you act Jack, 'cause you don't know a thing that you're saying right now! Leave her out of this; Rose has nothing to do with this, at this moment! She can wait, because right now I want to put a stop to all of this. You're not even helping to be honest, all you're doing is using that smart mouth of yours--" The Doctor clearly didn't know what had come over him, but the recent events of Davros and the 1869 Christmas seemed to have stirred up the rage inside of him and he just needed to release some of it for once.

Jack was not happy; not one bit. "We're trying to help, Doctor, but you don't seem to be cooperating very much. Why? You know what I think, Doctor?" Jack supplied angrily, grabbing the Doctor by the collar and slamming him against the nearest wall. The Doctor stayed silent, breathing heavily as he refused to defend himself.

"JACK!" Gwen and Ianto yelled simultaneously.

"Stop it, you're going to hurt him!" Gwen warned, striding over to relieve Jack of his hold. Mickey stood in a dark doorframe, unable to offer any help for his own safety – he didn't want them both turning on him.

"Jack, you're going to regret this," Ianto concluded in agreement, in tow with Gwen. "And to be on the safe side, if I were you, I'd take a step back before I fell into the autopsy bay."

"Thank you, Ianto." Jack nodded briefly at the man and stepped backwards, away from the steps leading down into the autopsy bay. "I'll tell you what's wrong, Doc! I think you don't want to save her; I think you don't give a crap whether Rose Tyler dies or not. Why do you think about that now? So is it true? Gwen, Ianto, what do you think?" Jack said, his accent becoming more pronounced with each word that passed between his lips.

He loosened his hold on the Doctor slightly before spinning his head round, eyes shifting to Gwen and then Ianto and vice versa. The pair stayed silent; it was obvious that Jack was trying to wind the Doctor up, and it would be foolish of them to get any more involved than they already were.

"Captain--" the Doctor started off, evidently hurt and shocked at this sudden outburst.

Jack interrupted him and continued. "Oh come on folks, you have to hand it to the Doctor for dumping his needy girlfriend by palming her off on a copy of himself. Don't you think? He tried leaving her in a Parallel Universe and that didn't work!" His attention turned away from Gwen, Ianto and Mickey and shifted back to the Doctor, whom of which was still held firmly in his grip. "But Rosie just came running back, thinking that you still wanted her but obviously she was wrong and you didn't even bother to tell her! I bet you were secretly annoyed that she'd managed to get back. She must've struggled through hell to get back to you; traveling from Universe to Universe and yet, ya just dumped her back where you left her, not caring to hell what happened to her. I bet you didn't even stop to think of any flaws…"

"SHUP UP! You don't know what you're saying," the Doctor yelled back defensively, then lowered his voice until it was scarcely audible. "I did, no, I do care for her. All of what you just said isn't true and you know it Captain; she means the Universe to me and you know I'd never let her get hurt,"

Jack had completely released the Doctor from that point onwards and in his mind he was satisfied with what he just said. He only hoped that it would get a cog or two going in the Doctor's head and get the alien back to his senses.

"Thanks, Jack," the Doctor muttered, getting his balance back and uncreasing his jacket. He was back to his energetic old self… "And just to clarify Rose is my main priority and I'm going to do whatever it takes to save Rose Marion Tyler and bust her back into this Universe, because I'm the Doctor and I am very good."

Ianto found his cue to interrupt. "Now that this is over, I'm just going to feed the Weevils." And with that, Ianto stalked off quickly, leaving Gwen and Mickey to deal with the rest.

Torchwood burst out into true smiles for the first time in ages and Captain Jack Harkness knew one thing for certain. "Looks like we've got the Doctor back! So Mister, where's my consolation hug?" Jack outstretched his arms hopefully, as Mickey and Gwen grinned.

"Jack?" the Doctor uttered sweetly.

"Yeah?" Jack responded with a grin.

"Shut up," the Doctor supplied happily, spinning round on the balls of his feet to face Gwen, shoving on his infamous pair of dark-rimmed glasses as he did so. "So, Gwen Cooper, where is my Life Knife?"