Author note: Yesterday was Tiffany's birthday! I can't believe I wrote it and then forgot about it... I should have gotten her a fictional cake or something... Err. Umm. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews people! I'll be trying to get the next chapter written as soon as possible but as I appear to have just come down with influenza, I'm not making any promises.

Part Four: Alleyways Are Never Good

Tiffany and Tosh sat before Tosh's computer screen. Tiffany's eyes were filled with tears. "None of them? Not— Not even Adrian?" Suddenly she felt empty inside. She'd never liked the brat all that much, but now he was gone.

Her little brother, gone.

Toshiko shook her head.

"So..." said Tiffany. "So, I don't exist? Just like that? Everyone I have ever loved is gone?"

Gwen opened her mouth to speak but Owen cut her off. "The way I see it, no."

Gwen looked down at where he sat spinning himself around on an office chair. "What?"

"Think about it, she's come from somewhere, some odd parallel world or something, and in that world all her family are still going to be there," Owen said, shrugging. "She's the one that's gone."

Tiffany burst into fresh tears and Gwen clobbered Owen over the head with a rolled up inventory form. "Why would you say that, eh? Can't you see what it's doing to—"

"I think Owen has a point." Jack's voice drifted across the room and Gwen stopped her assault.

"Really?" Her tone was one of disbelief. Owen scowled in her direction.

"Parallel worlds do happen and we don't know everything the Rift is capable of," Jack said. "Have we scanned her for Rift energy?"

Owen raised his hand to his head. "I knew there was something I forgot!"

"You 'forgot'?"

"Hey," Owen said, "Jack, you had me run so many tests on her—"

Tiffany's head came up. "What?"

"—I was bound to forget something."

"Tests?" Tiffany repeated, her voice squeaky. "What kind of tests?"

Tosh turned away from the screen, scooting her chair along the floor to come beside Tiffany. "Just tests. We had to be sure you weren't alien."

"Oh. Er, did I pass? 'Cause mum's always saying I spend so much time watching Doctor Who that I—"

"'Doctor Who'?" Gwen asked. "What's that then?"

Tiffany looked at Jack; he shook his head.

"Nothing, just some obscure little sci-fi show," Tiffany said, grateful the lie detector was nowhere near.

"Owen, can you scan her now?" Jack asked. Apparently the Doctor was going to be just between the two of them.

Torchwood's own doctor got up out of his seat and walked to the medical bay, coming back with a strange looking device that Tiffany recognised. A few minutes later she was looking at its readout in shock.

"The Rift doesn't even exist, how can I be covered in it?!"

***

Jack took Tiffany back down to the cells, catching her shudder as she passed the temporarily imprisoned Weevils. "Do you want your drawings?" he asked.

"Why? Going to take them away in case I try to commit suicide by paper cut?" Tiffany replied dryly.

"No," Jack said. "Just wanted to know if you'd like to take them with you."

She stopped walking and stared at him. "I'm not going back in?"

"Not unless you want to."

Tiffany shook her head to fast that Jack grinned. "God, no."

"It's settled then."

After she'd been inside to rip up the dreadful sketches, Jack closed the door and the pair walked away from the cell block.

"What about my dogs?" she asked. "Where are they? Are they alright?"

"They're fine," Jack assured her as they walked back into the main room of the Hub. "They've just been—"

"I've found Janice Scott!" Toshiko shouted, her voice echoing in the large room.

Tiffany ran toward her. "Where?"

"I couldn't find a trace of her where you said, but I did found a house owned by a Rita Scott, her mother."

Tiffany clapped a hand to her forehead. "I forgot about that!"

Jack shook his head. "Always the case."

"Dafydd's from Newport originally," Tiffany explained. "He and his dad moved to London when he was five, we've known each other for years, best mates really. He came to Cardiff university and met Janice and moved in with her at the end of the first year. I visit as often as I can. I'm the one that pushed him into going to Cardiff, he thought he wasn't good enough."

"Tosh," Jack said. "Check up a Dafydd Williams in London."

"Already done." Tosh tilted the screen for them to see. The picture of Dafydd made Tiffany feel intolerably lonely. "Lives with his dad not far from where you and your mother—"

"But this Dafydd never met me. He never came to Cardiff and he never met Janice. They never fell in love."

"No," Toshiko said. "Well, er, no, he didn't. I'm sorry."

"You alright?" Jack asked Tiffany. She brushed away a tear, staring at it as if it shouldn't exist.

"Fine. I'm fine."

Tosh and Jack shared a glance over Tiffany's head, not sure of what to say. Thankfully Gwen chose that exact moment to pop around the corner and ask, "Anyone fancy a pizza?"

"God, yes," Tiffany choked out.

***

Jack shut the door to the tourist office behind them. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes. For starters—" Tiffany paused, not sure if she should still be calling them Jack and Ianto... "For starters the dogs need walking. Second, I've been dying for some fresh air, and third, it's worth a shot, right?"

Tiffany offered Jack the leash to the dog named after him. Jack took it, saying, "Why can't I walk Ianto?"

"Because the images that have just flooded my mind are far too much for me to handle, thank you very much."

Jack chuckled into the cool night air. The laughter stopped as he was unexpectedly dragged forward by the leash.

"And also because Jack is extremely troublesome," Tiffany explained. "Much like his namesake."

Half an hour of walking later, they arrived outside Rita Scott's house. Jack put his hand on the gate as Tiffany pushed at it, blocking her way. "Still sure?"

She tilted her face up to see him more clearly. "Nothing to lose by it. I might as well try."

"Alright," he said, letting her past.

Tiffany walked across the cracked paving and toward the door. She could see the ghostly, flickering light that indicated someone was watching TV. She knocked on the door. Seconds went by, then Janice Scott opened the door and stared at her.

"Yeah, can I help you?"

"Janice, I just—" Tiffany started.

"Do I know you?"

Tiffany blinked, she really shouldn't have gotten her hopes up. "Apparently not, sorry to intrude."

Janice looked past Tiffany to where Jack had been standing, now out of sight; giving Tiffany a moment of privacy. "Can I help you at all, then?"

"No, no," Tiffany said. "Sorry, my mistake."

The door closed in her face. Tears of humiliation coursed down her cheeks before she could stop them. All alone, she was all alone in a fictional world.

Jack's hand appeared on her shoulder and she turned to him. "Come on," he said kindly. "Time to go."

When the pair were halfway back toward the Hub, Jack's comm. bleeped.

"Ianto? Yeah, I'm just with— Are you serious? Wow, they have rubbish timing. Yeah, I'm right on it." Jack handed the black dog's leash to Tiffany. "Got to go, Weevil sighted not far from here. Need to get to it before anyone else."

Tiffany nodded. "Go, I'll find my own way back."

"Not going to run away?"

The girl laughed darkly. "Nowhere to run to, remember?"

"Here." Jack passed her a mobile phone. "I'm on speed dial one, call me if you need to, 'kay?"

"Sure, thanks."

Jack flashed her a grin, and then he was running.

***

Shit, shit, shit. Tiffany knew she was lost. She should have asked for directions or something, and now here she was, trying to persuade Jack-the-Labrador to come out of a dumpster. Typical.

"You are on your last warning, Mister!" she shouted in after him. "I'll get another dog; I mean it!"

A growling sound caught her attention. Tiffany glanced down to where Ianto stood with her hackles raised, eyes fixed on the opening to the alley. Tiffany looked up.

Shit.

The Weevil growled back. It began to advance.

"Oh, you have no idea how much I want you to be a man in a mask," she told it. "No bloody clue." With shaking fingers she took out Jack's mobile and brought it to her ear. "Jack? Please pick up, oh God, please pick up!" All Tiffany could hear was static. When she looked at the screen, it was flickering like water had been thrown on it. "Bastard technology! Jack! Jack fucking Harkness! You'd better come out of the bloody blue in time to save me or I swear I'll tell you spoilers! I swear it!"

The Weevil was three metres away. She brought the phone back up. "Jack," she whispered. "Please, anyone. Please. Please pick up."

Two metres away. In the dustbin, the Labrador whined.

The Weevil was one metre away when Tiffany closed her eyes and screamed.

Seconds past, To Tiffany's shock, there was a complete absence of teeth biting into her shoulder, claws raking into her skin, death and darkness clouding her vision.

There was, however, the body of a Weevil at her feet, blood seeping from a hole in its head.

Tiffany felt the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed against her temple and she froze where she stood, not even daring to shiver. Her eyes flicked down and saw dark jeans tucked into mid-calf brown boots... pistol holsters... a gold brocaded scabbard...

Well, shit.

"Hmm. You're new."

She recognised that voice.

"Oh Gods," Tiffany moaned. "Not you, anyone but you."