Thanks again to everyone who's reading and reviewing this little story. I hope you're all enjoying it! The song reference is Mo MhÀili Bheag Òg, my recording is by Mary Jane Lamond. It's beautiful if you haven't heard it. Oh and the choir is called the Victoria Gaelic Choir or Guth nan Eilean. (A little trivia for everyone.)

Ianto watched the young woman sitting in the hotel restaurant, looking like any other tourist ready to start her day of sight seeing. Only a close look showed the shaking hands, and the nervous tension hunching her shoulders. Slight head darts showed that she was watching every movement near her, as though checking everyone for suspicious pills.

Ianto wondered at the strength of the girl sitting across from him. He could tell she was fighting the need to run back to her room. He'd been watching her ever since the disastrous talk he'd had with her through her door. She'd spent the last two days forcing herself to spend more and more time out of the hotel room. She was up to five hours, but Ianto had yet to see her leave the hotel itself. Guilt tore at him, as he witnessed what they had done to the independent and care-free young woman he had met just a week ago. The whole team prided themselves on their ability to manufacture evidence and situations, but they had missed badly on this one, and now this girl was suffering. He couldn't leave her like this.

Ianto had prepared for this encounter. He'd dressed in jeans and a dark tee-shirt, to keep her from recognizing his habitual suits. The last thing he wanted was for her to tie him to her fears. Ianto finished the horrible hotel coffee he'd ordered, stood up and walked toward the young woman as though heading for the door, as he passed her table, he dropped a bar of chocolate and a pamphlet for Joe Coffey's on her table with his name and phone number printed across the top. He hoped it would be enough…

Ianto absent-mindedly cleaned up the cups, plates, crusts, and pizza boxes from the team's lunch. He had been on eggshells since he'd left his clues for the girl in the restaurant. Ianto had been waiting anxiously for her to call ever since. No one had noticed his nerves, or if they had they hadn't commented on them. He wondered idly if he was really that good at hiding his emotions, or if his friends were that self concerned that his own emotions went unnoticed. Usually Ianto found his teammates' lack of interest in him mildly annoying, but on days like today he blessed them for their oblivion. Ianto took the cups and plates to the kitchen to be washed, threw the pizza boxes in to garbage, and wiped down the conference table almost obsessively. He didn't want to leave himself time to be still. The nerves were worse when he didn't have something to do. He hated going behind Jack's back, but he couldn't leave the young woman in that state. Ianto had been a little surprised by the young woman's reaction. He'd expected her to handle everything better. How can she deal so well with aliens, and dinosaurs, and be thrown by a little memory loss?

Ianto's phone chirped cheerfully, and he glanced around carefully before answering it.

"Hello?"

"What happened to me, and why can't I remember?" She asked calmly. Ianto glanced around a second time.

"I can help you remember, but I can't talk right now. Meet me at the coffee place on the flyer I gave you." Ianto hung up, and took a quick steadying breath.

She was waiting, when Ianto finally came through the doors. Joe was cleaning one of the coffee makers, and started to greet the young Welshman. A quiet head shake sent him back to his project.

Ianto saw the slightest spark of recognition in the young woman, but he couldn't be sure if it was from the encounter at the tourist office, or from earlier. He sat down opposite the tourist, and waited.

"Alright, you've done something to me that I don't remember, and that the police don't want to get involved with." The girl's natural logic seemed to have reassert itself. "What is going on, and why are you suddenly ready to have me remember it?"

"Let's say that up until recently, you've been an amusing annoyance to my boss. He tends to have one response to annoyances: he wipes their memories, and sends them on their way. However, you've taken that memory loss, and drawn the worst possible conclusions. I couldn't leave you with that, especially when I saw how you were affected."

"I'm not a fragile as you think. I just had to work through things a little. I'd worked out that I probably wasn't raped, but I hate not knowing for sure what happened." The young woman's expression was a combination of indignant and anxious.

"How?" Ianto asked

"No bruises." She responded. "There would've been bruises."

Ianto decided not to argue.

"What—" Inato began, but she interrupted him

"Wait a minute. You're boss wipes memories…" anger rushed into her face. "You wiped my memories THREE TIMES." the young woman's voice rose into a angry shout. She was suddenly standing, glaring at the well dressed man before her. Joe looked up from his coffee maker and then back again. "What didn't it take the first two times?!"

"Basically…"

"What did I get a bad dose?!" The girl looked ready to throw something

"Please sit down, and I'll explain." Ianto said soothingly. He put his hands up to placate the young tourist, and after a few moments she settled back into her chair. She continued to glare at Ianto.

"Retcon, the drug we use, is designed to wipe a person's memories, but it can be…overcome." Ianto paused, but the young woman just continued to glare. "If the person is smart, then strong specific images can trigger the memories. It's why I dropped those things on your table. I was trying to trigger your memories."

"Okay." The woman's glare relaxed slightly.

"You've managed to throw off the retcon twice. It was a partially bad luck, but partially we just weren't careful enough, and you became suspicious." Ianto looked slightly exasperated. "You just kept showing up! We go out on a job, and there you were. Owen would start singing The Cat Came Back, and there you were." He shook his head.

"Owen…I know that name." The anger had been replaced by a searching expression.

"You should. You're one of the few people that Owen has managed not to completely alienate. For some reason, you like him." Ianto shook his head again.

"He looked after this." She gently touched the fading bruise on her face. "He was very…gruff really, but gentle too. He reminds me of…someone." The girl's face dropped into a polite mask. The silence stretched out.

The girl took a deep breath.

"I think I'm going crazy…" She sighed.

"Try me." Ianto waited.

"Okay…a Pterodactyl…" She left the sentence hanging.

"The third time we met you, you were feeding Mafanwy, our guard Pterodactyl, chocolate, and singing an Irish drinking song…Why was that by the way, I never got the chance to ask you."

"I…"Her face showed the struggle, as she tried to remember. "I think, I thought that, as she was a Welsh Pterodactyl, the Gaelic might be close enough to sound familiar." The young woman smiled a little, "It worked, she wouldn't let me sing anything else. I'd sung it three times over by the time you showed up. She'd screech and snap whenever I stopped."

"But where did you get that song." Ianto asked curiously, relaxing as the young woman began to settle down.

"The Victoria Gaelic Choir. I was a member for a while before it conflicted with my classes. It's not an Irish drinking song, by the way, it's Scottish, and Cape Breton. It's about a man who accidently killed his love, and goes to prison for it." She smiled again.

"Cape Breton?" Ianto was enjoying the distraction, and sensed that the tourist was enjoying the break too.

"What? You think Great Britain has the only Gaelic speakers in the world?" The girl suddenly grinned, and Ianto relaxed even more. "I'll have you know there are towns in Eastern Canada that still write their signs in Gaelic." The smile switched off again, and she tensed again.

"Is there anything that I'm going to regret remembering? Are you or your boss going to show up at my door because I remember?" She hesitated. "Is my remembering going to cause problems for you?"

Ianto simply stared. Of all the questions he was expecting these weren't even on the list.

"Why?"

"I need to know the consequences of what you're offering." She looked soberly at Ianto. "You're boss has rufeed me three times, presumably because I learned something dangerous. He can't keep doing this over and over. It's already starting to cause problems, and he's got to be thinking that I have some sort of immunity. I don't want to put my family or friends in danger because he's learned that I still have my memories, again." She looked at Ianto.

"I can't be sure. You've had private talks with nearly everyone at Torchwood, but as far as I know, the only thing you learned is that we exist, and as most of Cardiff already calls us 'Bloody Torchwood,' it's not that big a secret. I'll deal with Jack."

Her face showed sudden recognition "Jack…your boyfriend…your boyfriend is your boss?"

"Yes." Ianto was suddenly uncomfortable with the new turn to the conversation.

"Gotcha."

"It's not like that!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize I suggested it was like anything."

"I'm not sleeping with him to get favours!"

"I didn't suggest that. However, being in a relationship suggests that you'll have some sort of influence, whether you like it or not." The tourist raised an eyebrow.

Ianto was quiet. He supposed that was true, and he had to admit it gave him a warm feeling around his heart when he thought about it. He just didn't like the idea of using his influence on Jack. It made the whole relationship seem…calculated.

"I think I remember him." The girl broke the silence, "Dark hair and blue eyes in a world war two costume?" Ianto nodded," He's hot isn't he. Really hot. You'd have to be blind not to be attracted to him. Blind…and deaf, and probably lacking a sense of smell." The girl shrugged. "At least he has the good taste to go after someone like you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ianto asked defensively

"Most people that good looking end up with a bimbo. You know, good looking, but with less intelligence than the average cat. With you, he's got a guy that is smart enough to keep him challenged. Of course, he probably went for the looks first, and got the brains as a side benefit. I think I could like him, if he'd stop wiping my memories." The girl looked thoughtful.

"You're changing the subject.' Ianto stared at her suspiciously.

The girl shrugged, but didn't deny it. "I tend to turn things off myself when I'm uncomfortable. It's easier to focus on other people than on my own problems."

"Do you want to remember what happened?" Ianto asked.

"I don't think I have a choice any more." The girl smiled though. "Now that I know I met a Pterodactyl, I have to find out what else is real. Also, I think I need to talk to your boss."