Kathy Swanson was not particularly impressed to arrive at her desk early that morning to find a young, uniformed PC waiting for her. She didn't know him, and couldn't imagine what he might be wanting of her. Her hands were more than full right then with the Harkness assault case, and she had no time to devote to eager young PCs.

"Sorry to bother you, Ma'am," the young man said, standing up as she approached. "I was told to see you first thing."

She regarded him with weary resignation.

"What's this about, then?"

"Well... I'm PC Andy Davidson, Ma'am. It... Well, it's about Captain Jack Harkness."

Kathy felt her hackles raise instinctively. If this was another instance of 'he's Torchwood, what's the big deal', then someone was quite possibly going to get hurt.

"What about him, PC Davidson?"

"I saw him, Ma'am."

She looked up at him, taken by surprise.

"When? Before the assault?"

"No, Ma'am. Last night... Actually, it was more like early this morning. About one or two o'clock."

Her attention was well and truly piqued now.

"Where?"

"Out on the streets, Ma'am. Him and that other fellow, Ianto Jones."

Kathy blinked, trying to get her head around that.

"You saw him?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Outside, on the street?"

"That's right."

She was almost afraid to ask the next question. It was hard enough wrapping her head around the thought that Jack was up and about when, only twenty-four hours ago she'd witnessed him lying crippled in bed, able to blink and nothing more.

"How was he? How did he look?"

Andy snorted at that.

"How does he always look? Picture bloody perfect. Although... I might have let slip about the crime scene pictures on the tellie. You know, because I was so startled to see him and all. He had rather a bad reaction."

With some effort, Kathy avoided grimacing. She didn't doubt that at all. That, however, was beside the point, and she shook her head, trying to digest what she was hearing.

"Picture perfect...? That's not possible, PC Davidson. I saw him myself just a couple of days ago, and he was practically crippled! There is no possible way he could have healed so fast."

Andy gave a half-shrug.

"I couldn't say, Ma'am. I only know what I saw. Maybe he was faking it...?"

"No," she snapped. "There's no way he could have faked those injuries, so don't go there, PC Davidson."

"Well, maybe it just wasn't as bad as everyone thought," he suggested helplessly.

Kathy didn't respond to that. She could see no point in disputing him, despite her firm belief that there was no chance Jack could have fooled everyone with the seriousness of his injuries. In her mind's eye, she saw him bed-ridden and devastated both physically and emotionally, and knew in her gut that his condition had been every bit as serious as it had looked.

Getting to her feet, she dismissed Andy with a wave of her hand, and grabbed her bag and coat as she headed for the exit. She was going to get to the bottom of this, and find out exactly what the hell was going on.

"You let him do what?" Owen exploded. He, Gwen and Tosh had arrived that morning to find Jack shut away in his office and Ianto in the process of disposing of Jack's torn and bloodied shirt from the previous night's hunt. Owen had promptly hustled Ianto upstairs into the greenhouse and demanded to know what had happened. The medic had, predictably, been furious.

To Ianto's credit, he didn't flinch in the face of Owen's anger, though he did at least have the good grace to look guilty.

"When did you last successfully tell Jack no?" Ianto asked wearily. The night's tensions and activities had exhausted him greatly, and he had little strength left to argue with his colleague over Jack's welfare. Owen hesitated, brought up short by the plainly put argument.

"Okay, fair point. But why the hell didn't you call me, anyway?"

Ianto ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, all the while glancing out through the clear glass of the greenhouse wall to where Tosh was currently attempting to keep Jack distracted with whatever was on her computer monitor.

"I don't know, all right? I thought it'd be okay. It would have been okay if we hadn't run into bloody Andy Davidson!"

Owen blanched.

"PC Andy? Gwen's old partner, PC Andy? Fuck, Ianto! Could you have cocked this up any worse?"

That was all Ianto could take, and he rounded on Owen angrily.

"Me? What about you, Owen? When were you going to tell us about the crime scene pictures that have been splashed all over the bloody tellie?"

Owen paled slightly, caught off-guard by Ianto's rant.

"You, uh... You know about that, then?"

"Yes, and so does Jack. You should have seen his face, Owen. He was devastated. I think it's mainly the reason that he did what he did."

"You mean suicide by weevil? Yeah, real moment of brilliance, that was. Not sure whether to be sympathetic, or just slap him over the head."

"He's hurting, Owen, and it's bad enough that he can't hide away behind a mask, like he usually does. No, now all of bloody Cardiff knows what happened to him!"

It was Owen's turn to scrub his hands over his face and head, then.

"I swear, I don't know which fucking way to turn at the moment. Can hardly get my own head around it all, so God knows how Jack must be feeling."

"He's hurting," Ianto said again softly. "I don't think I've ever seen him like this before. I don't think I'd even thought it possible. I don't know what to do, Owen. I don't know how to help him. I... I tried to kiss him a couple of nights ago, and it triggered a panic attack. It's just getting progressively worse. It's terrifying to watch him break down like this, and not be able to do anything to stop it."

"And there's not a single bloody person we can go to for help," Owen muttered. "None of us are quipped to deal with this. He needs professional help... outside help, but who the hell could we possibly send him to? Even if he was willing to talk? Ianto? Has he talked to you about any of it?"

"No," Ianto admitted. "Although, I have to admit that I haven't really tried to make him talk about it. Not yet. He just doesn't seem to be ready to face it. The closest we got was..."

"What?" Owen pressed, and Ianto shifted his stance uncomfortably.

"He was talking about ret-conning himself, Owen."

"Fuck. That's not gonna help him."

"I know, and I think I managed to talk him around from it, but it might come up again the next time he hits one of these... lows. It worries me that he has such ready access to the retcon, not to mention all the weapons in this place. But if I change the access codes to the secure archives, it could just makes things even worse."

Owen sighed heavily.

"If he was just a regular bloke, we wouldn't even be having this discussion, because he'd still be laid up with those injuries."

"Owen," Ianto corrected him in a strained voice, "if Jack was a regular bloke, he probably would have died long before anyone found him."

"Fair point," Owen conceded again bleakly.

"What if we were to bring someone to Torchwood?" Ianto suggested. "A psychiatrist, someone who's equipped to deal with that kind of trauma. We could always retcon them afterwards, if we need to."

"That's... actually not such an idiotic idea," Owen mused. "We'll see if we can find someone. It's gonna have to be done behind Jack's back, though, at least while we're looking for someone. He'll be pissed enough when he does find out what we're doing."

"No more than when he finds out that you're running an investigation into the attack," Ianto added, and Owen grimaced in response.

"Fair point," he mumbled a third time as he imagined Jack's reaction to both things. They had no chance to continue the discussion, though. The door of the greenhouse opened, and Tosh looked in at them.

"Owen? We may have a problem. Detective Swanson is upstairs in the tourist office. It doesn't look as though she's planning on leaving anytime soon, either."

"Shit," Owen hissed. "I'll bet I know why she's here, too."

"Tosh, where is Jack?" Ianto asked, noticing that the Captain had disappeared from the main floor of the Hub.

"He's gone up to Myfanwy's nest," Tosh said. "Gwen mentioned that she seemed to be unhappy at the moment, so he's gone up to spend some time with her."

"Good," Owen muttered. "Okay, I'll deal with Detective Swanson. Ianto, you tell Tosh and Gwen what we were just talking about."

Tosh raised an eyebrow at Ianto quizzically, but said nothing as she followed them out of the greenhouse.

Kathy Swanson glowered as Owen emerged from behind the beaded curtain, into the tourist office.

"You," she snapped, "have some explaining to do, Dr Harper."

Owen didn't flinch. He was more certain than ever what this was about, but at the same time he had no intention of giving her any leeway.

"Oh, yes? About what?"

"Don't you screw with me, Harper. You know what I'm talking about."

"Let's pretend that I don't," Owen said blandly. "Why don't you tell me what you're going on about?"

"All right," she growled. "We'll play it your way. I just spoke to PC Andy Davidson this morning, Harper."

Owen kept his expression carefully veiled.

"Who's that, then?"

Kathy bristled in anger, and Owen fancied that he could almost see steam coming out of her ears.

"You are not helping your captain with this attitude," she fumed. Owen looked unapologetic, to say the least.

"Look, Detective, I know what you want. You want to see Jack. Well, it's not going to happen, so I suggest you just turn around and take yourself out of here. All right?"

"No, it's not bloody all right!" she exploded at him. "Damn it, I want to know what the hell is going on here!"

Owen leaned forward into her personal space, his expression hard. To her credit, Kathy didn't flinch away, but rather glared right back at him.

"I'll tell you what's going on, Detective. You're going to walk out of here, and forget about Jack. Forget about this case. We appreciate the care you've shown him…"

"Doesn't look like it from where I'm standing," she said sourly. Owen's expression softened just fractionally.

"I know what you did for him, Detective. I know you sat with him until the rescue workers freed him, and I know you stayed at the hospital when you didn't have to. Thankyou for doing that for him."

Kathy frowned, but some of her animosity evaporated just a little. Owen went on firmly.

"We do appreciate it, and so does Jack, but it's over with, as of right now."

And with that, the anger was back.

"You're insane if you think I'll just forget about this," she growled angrily.

"You will if you know what's good for you, Detective," Owen shot back, and Kathy blanched.

"Are you threatening me, Harper?"

"Take it however you want. You're not winning out over Torchwood on this."

Kathy uttered an incredulous laugh.

"You arrogant bastard. Do you really think that's all I care about? Getting one up over Torchwood? Bloody hell…"

"Then what is it about, Detective?" Owen asked scathingly. "You tell me."

Kathy paused, taking a moment to draw in a calming breath before speaking again.

"I've been doing some research, looking for assaults similar to the one on Jack. In the past two years, there have been eight. Not quite frequent enough to light up anyone's radar, but obvious enough to anyone who bothers to look. All the victims have been men, and all of them tortured and pack raped. There's just one significant difference between them and Jack, though."

"And what's that?" Owen asked, not entirely sure that he should be asking. Kathy stared at him hard.

"None of the other victims lived through their ordeals. Jack is the first to have survived."

Owen felt the bottom drop out of his stomach.

"Fuck…"

"Exactly. Now, are you really going to tell me that you won't do anything to help me catch the bastards that attacked your captain?"

Owen was suddenly feeling very sick, but he managed to maintain his resolve.

"I'm sorry, Detective Swanson. I really am. But there is nothing we can do to help you. Jack is off limits to you, as of right now."

She stared at him for several long seconds before turning on her heel and storming out of the office. Owen waited until she was gone before sinking into the chair behind the counter, and burying his face in his hands.

Kathy literally burst out of the office, and strode away across the Plass, beyond furious. Fine – let Torchwood have their secrets. She would do this without their help. She stormed away, so caught up in her own anger that she never paid any attention to the young woman who passed her, heading towards the tourist office that she had just exited.

The detective went on her way, more determined than ever to see the case through, no matter what obstacles Torchwood threw in her path.

When the door of the tourist office opened again, Owen was sure that it was Kathy Swanson come back for round two. He sat up, bracing himself for another fight, only to find himself staring at a young woman who couldn't have been more than twenty.

"Excuse me…" she said tentatively. Owen help up a hand to stop her.

"Sorry, love. We're closed. If you need information, there's a booth on the other side of the square."

"Actually," she said, "I'm looking for a friend."

Owen bit back a sigh.

"This isn't missing persons, sweetheart. You'll need the police for that."

"No, he's not missing," the girl said, with the first hint of impatience creeping into her voice. "His name is Jack. Jack Harkness. Looks, this is Torchwood, isn't it?"

Owen blinked comically, caught completely off-guard. The young woman went on quickly.

"Look, just tell him that Tish is here to see him."

Owen swallowed the urge to make a snide remark about one night stands, and got wearily to his feet. He'd tell Jack, and if Jack didn't know her… or want to know her… then she'd be out on her arse before she knew what was going on.

"Wait here," he told her tersely, and slipped through into the back room, where he could call Jack in privacy, away from prying eyes and ears.

Jack sat comfortably in the warmth of Myfanwy's nest, his eyes drifting closed as he took what had become a rare pleasure in the attention that he was getting from the prehistoric creature. He took a good deal of comfort in knowing that there were no ulterior motives in the almost maternal way that she was fussing over him – unless, of course, he counted the obvious grab for the bar of chocolate that he'd slipped into his shirt's breast pocket before climbing up to the nest.

No, the pterodactyl expected virtually nothing of him except regular meals and a clean nest, and in return for that he got the pleasure of being mothered by a dinosaur.

The chocolate was now long gone, eagerly demolished, and now Myfanwy was cawing affectionately and playfully mussing his hair with her long beak. He felt a gentle nudge against his shoulder, and smiled faintly as he reached up to rub the pterodactyl's neck.

"I know, sweetheart," he murmured. "I love you, too."

His Bluetooth earpiece suddenly blinked to life and emitted a distinct beep, disturbing the moment of peace, and he watched regretfully as Myfanwy hopped away from him; her affectionate mood spoiled by the interruption. He spoke, not bothering to try and conceal his irritation.

"This had better be good. I was busy with Myf."

"Sorry, Jack," Owen's voice answered in a tone that suggested he wasn't particularly sorry at all. "But I've got a girl up here…"

He paused mid-sentence, half-expecting to hear a crack about it being too early to be out on the pull, but no such line was forthcoming. Instead, Jack spoke even more snappishly than before.

"Today, Owen."

"Sorry. Like I said, there's this girl up here in the tourist office, and she says she knows you."

"That doesn't exactly narrow the field."

"Right. Sorry. She said her name is Tish. Jack, she knows about Torchwood."

Jack froze, his breath catching in his throat as he was assaulted by yet more memories that he'd tried so hard to suppress. Then, just as quickly as they'd surfaced, those memories faded once more, and he felt his mood lift slightly at the thought of seeing Tish again.

"Bring her down, Owen."

"Excuse me?"

The young medic sound predictably incredulous, but Jack was of no mind to be explaining anything.

"You heard me. Bring her down to my office. She's okay. She's a friend."

A really, really good friend, he thought silently as he picked himself up slowly and began the descent back down into the main body of the Hub.

He headed straight back to his office, paying only cursory attention to the way that Ianto, Gwen and Tosh were trying almost too hard to be inconspicuous in what they were currently doing. He put it down to still being nervous around him and chose to ignore it, along with the deep, aching hurt that he felt.

Back in his office, he quickly slipped his greatcoat back on. He'd left it off to visit Myfanwy – she had a tendency to try and nip pieces off it for her nest. Once more protected by the all-encompassing coat, he sank into his chair and tried to at least make a show of working.

Minutes later, the door to his office finally opened, and Owen showed in a young woman whose face lit up at the sight of the Captain.

"Jack!"

He stood up to greet her, some cheeky comment on the tip of his tongue, when she flew towards him and wrapped her arms around him in a ferocious hug.

Jack's heart skipped a beat and his stomach lurched unpleasantly at the enthusiastic embrace, and it was all he could do not to shove her away from him. Over her head, he saw Owen wince before reluctantly retreating. Struggling not to tremble at the contact, Jack tentatively hugged her back.

"Hey, gorgeous. It's good to see you."

And it was, he couldn't deny that. The last time he'd seen Tish had been as he escorted her and her parents onto a UNIT helicopter that would take them off the Valiant and back to their home in London.

"You too, Jack," she murmured, clinging to him tightly. "Really good to see you."

"C'mon," he said with a smile that was slightly more genuine as he guided her to the couch in his office. "Come and sit down, sweetheart. Do you want coffee?"

"Only if it's no trouble…"

Jack snorted, starting to regain some of his stride once she'd let go of him.

"Hardly." He tapped his Bluetooth. "Ianto? Could you bring up coffee, please?"

After getting an affirmative reply from his lover, Jack returned his attention to Tish, and was slightly taken aback by the excited grin on her face.

"What?" he asked, and her grin widened.

"Ianto? As in, Ianto Jones?"

"The same," Jack confirmed, feeling slightly bemused by her reaction. The look on Tish's face by then was positively gleeful.

"So… You and he?"

She didn't need to elaborate. Jack knew what she meant. He knew also knew he should have anticipated it, given how much he'd talked to Tish about Ianto during that year, but somehow he had still been caught off-guard, and the could barely keep himself from cringing as the unpleasant memories of Ianto's perceived rejection clawed their way back to the surface.

"Jack?" Tish asked hesitantly, starting to realise that something wasn't right. "What is it? What's wrong?"

He forced a smile onto his face, trying hard to focus on Ianto's declaration of love to try and blot out the bad memories. The only problem was that one lot of bad memories invariably gave rise to others, and oh, but he was desperate not to open the gateway to those memories.

"Nothing, gorgeous," he told her lightly. "Everything's fine."

He knew from the look on her face, though, that she didn't believe him.

"Jack…"

"How are your parents?" he asked abruptly, perhaps with a little more enthusiasm than might have been warranted. Tish seemed slightly taken aback, but recovered quickly.

"They're doing okay. You know they're back together?"

Jack chuckled softly.

"Yeah. Bet Clive's old girlfriend fried a few brain cells trying to figure out how that one happened."

"You're not wrong," Tish said with a giggle. "She hung around for a little while before she finally took the hint and went off looking for some other sucker to fund her lifestyle. Now, Mum and Dad are off on a holiday together. Second honeymoon, they called it. Leo's gone home again, Martha's off somewhere with her new boyfriend… It was just me on my own, so I decided it was time to take you up on that invitation."

Jack smiled and took a moment to brace himself emotionally before leaning in to brush a feather-light kiss over her forehead.

"Well, I'm glad you did."

His office door swung open, and Ianto let himself in, carrying two steaming mugs of coffee.

"Ianto," Jack said, "this is Tish Jones, a very good friend of mine."

Ianto offered her a warm smile as he handed her one of the mugs.

"Pleased to meet you, Tish."

"Likewise." She glanced from Jack back to Ianto, grinning delightedly. "I hope this big bozo is treating you right, Ianto. I told him I'd be after him if he didn't."

Far from the laughter she'd anticipated, though, she could have sworn that Ianto actually paled slightly. The younger man's eyes fixed onto Jack who, in turn, was staring intently back at Ianto. She suddenly got the powerful feeling that there was something going on here that was intensely personal.

Jack broke the stalemate, and spoke in a soft, trembling voice that Tish found to be almost disturbing.

"I'm trying to. I really am."

Ianto's breath caught, and he stepped around and ran his fingers lovingly over Jack's hair.

"You are, cariad. I promise you, you are."

Silence reigned briefly, almost oppressive in its quality, before Ianto finally straightened up and hurried from the room. Tish watched him go, and then looked back to Jack and was startled to realise that he was on the verge of tears.

"Jack," she said softly, but in a compelling tone, "what is going on here? Please, tell me what's wrong, because something definitely is. I'm not a fool, I can see something's wrong."

He smiled tremulously and shook his head roughly, moving to get up. Anxious not to let him go, Tish shot her hand out and clamped it down over his wrist to keep him beside her.

Jack went rigid at the sudden pressure on what was still a hyper-sensitive part of his body. His breath caught in his throat, and his eyes glazed over as he quickly became lost in his memories.

"Jack?" Tish asked, suddenly frightened by his lack of response. "Jack, what's wrong?"

Even as she watched him, though, she thought she knew what was wrong. It was something she'd seen before, during that year. She would come to feed him, only to find him unresponsive and in a state of near catatonia; trapped by the Master within the horror of his memory of whatever torture he'd most recently endured. It had happened frequently enough that she'd been able to devise methods to draw Jack out of that state – a kiss, or a hug. Usually some degree of intimate contact was sufficient to bring him back to reality.

It broke her heart to realise that he was still suffering like this now, months after their ordeal had ended.

Letting go of his wrist and got up on her knees beside him, intending to do what she had done so many times before, and kiss him to draw him back out of the prison of his own mind. She was within millimetres of making contact with him when a voice shouted at her from the doorway of Jack's office.

"Stop!"

She froze, and looked around to see Ianto had reappeared. At first, irrationally, she thought that he just didn't want her kissing Jack – possessive boyfriend, maybe? But there was no jealousy there on the man's face; only fear.

Slowly, Tish leaned back, glancing uneasily between Ianto and the near catatonic Captain.

"It's okay," she tried to reassure him. "He's gotten like this before. I can help him..."

"Please, stop," Ianto begged her even as she began to lean towards Jack again. "Don't touch him. I don't know what you think this is, but trust me. It's not what you think. If you touch him now, he might hurt you."

Tish couldn't help but scoff.

"Don't be ridiculous..."

"Please," Ianto said hoarsely as he walked over. "Just trust me."

He then crouched down in front of Jack, peering up at him in deep concern. This was far worse a turn than the one that had happened when he'd attempted to kiss Jack a couple of nights ago. Right at that moment, Jack was sitting frozen on the edge of the couch, his eyes dim and unseeing, and his chest barely moving as he took only tiny, intermittent gasps of air.

Not willing to waste time to try and force Tish from the office, Ianto reached up and rested one palm lightly on Jack's knee. It was the only contact he dared to make.

"Jack? C'mon, cariad, I know you can hear me. Wake up, Jack. Please, come back to me, love. You're safe, those men can't hurt you anymore. Do you hear me, Jack? You're safe, totally safe. Now snap out of it, please. You're starting to scare Tish."

Tish frowned a little, but didn't protest at him using her to try and draw Jack back out. He was right, it did frighten her, especially as she began to realise that whatever was the bottom cause of this, it had nothing to do with that year. Which meant, she realised with growing nausea, that something horribly traumatic had happened to Jack in the time since they'd last parted company.

She sat back a little further, and watched as Ianto gradually drew Jack back to reality with murmured words of comfort, and feather-light touches. Finally, the glazed look faded from Jack's eyes altogether, to be replaced by a look that was full of grief and despair.

"Ianto..." Jack whimpered as his eyes found his young lover. The Welshman finally acted and sat himself carefully on the couch, on the other side of Jack. He guided the Captain to lean in against him as he finally broke down.

"That's it, anwylyd," Ianto murmured, stroking Jack's hair softly. "Let it out, don't hold it in."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tish watching in confused dismay, but there was no shock or horror on her face. She'd said that she knew what to do, which told Ianto that Jack had suffered PTSD turns like this before, and that she had been witness to them.

The minutes ticked by, and gradually Jack's heart-broken sobs eased, and finally stopped altogether. It was another couple of minutes, though, before Ianto realised that Jack had actually dozed off where he sat slumped against him. Deciding against waking Jack up and trying to coax him into going to lie down, Ianto spoke to Tish in a low whisper.

"Tish, help me lay him down on the couch."

Tish immediately moved from where she sat, and helped Ianto to lay Jack down on his side on the couch without waking him up. Ianto slipped a cushion beneath his head, and gently tugged the greatcoat so that it covered his legs, before pulling the rug that draped over the back of the couch down to cover Jack with.

"This isn't about what happened on the Valiant, is it?" Tish said softly, and Ianto looked at her quizzically.

"What do you mean?"

Suddenly, Tish realised that Jack had not told this young man anything of that year. And if he hadn't told the man that he was in love with, then it was a fair bet that that he hadn't told the rest of his team anything, either. If that was the case, then it was not her place to be talking about it, either… was it?

She wondered on that. After all, she had experienced it as well, and wasn't it her choice whether she talked about the terrible things she had seen? Even if that included witnessing a brave, good man being repeatedly tortured and killed at the hands of a psychopath?

Her gaze went back to the Captain. His expression was far from peaceful, even in sleep, and the tear tracks that marked his cheeks were just more evidence of a pain that she was starting to realise that she didn't understand at all. Turning, she faced Ianto and spoke in a soft, tense tone.

"What happened to him?"

Ianto looked past her to Jack for a long minute before motioning to the door.

"Let's go out of here, leave him be for a while."

She nodded, and followed him out of the office in silence.

tbc...