After negotiating the exit from the garage Gwen turned towards the city and moved into the late afternoon traffic. It was only a short journey to the station and Gwen parked in the yard that had for so long been her place of work.

"Will you be alright in here for a while?" asked Gwen who wasn't really bothered but didn't feel like she could just walk out of the car.

Owen reached into his bag and pulled out a file and started leafing through it. Gwen raised an eyebrow

"Jack will do his nut if he finds you with an official file outside the base."

"Well what Jack doesn't know won't hurt him and I have permission from the subject." He paused and looked directly at Gwen. "You know I did actually mean it when I said I didn't think we should have let her go so easy, I mean when do you actually get to talk to a real live alien that doesn't want to rip your throat out? And she might have been able to fill in the gaps in Torchwood history" he said with a knowing glance.

Gwen slammed the door, messing around with the past didn't seem like a good idea. That thought was brought into sharp focus as some of her old colleagues struggled past her with one of the local criminals. She smiled and waved at them though they were too busy to wave back, give me a Weevil any day, she thought smiling to herself. After many more smiles, waves and pointless platitudes she ended up in the custody suite where Andy was just coming back from adding the last piece of human scum to the list of inmates.

"Glad you could spare the time, I've been ringing you all afternoon, too important to answer now are we?"

"Nice to see you too Andy, yes I've had a lovely day at the seaside and I'm sorry I didn't instantly jump to it." She said pouting.

Andy looked at her and then collapsed on the desk,

"Yer sorry Gwen, bad day. Some idiot took a swing at me on Saturday night and I ended up in casualty so they put me on light duties, they call this light you know."

Poor old Andy, thought Gwen, always on the receiving end of the flack. Back in the days when she had been out on the beat with him fellow officers had made a beeline to be partnered with him as he always went in first and got the punch.

"Sorry to hear that Andy, did it effect your writing hand too?" asked in her innocent voice

"No it was a concussion, look I've got a lump on the bad of my head the size of an egg."

"So the reason you haven't replied to my wedding invitation is?"

"Well I don't know if I'll be working, a Saturday there's bound to be a rugby match on and you know what the sarge is like on rugby days."

"And you think Rhys would organise his big day at the same time as he could be drinking beer and shouting at Gareth Thomas? Oh come on Andy it would make me happy to have my friends wishing me well."

"Well I am sure you will have you new friends, the tall one with the coat and the little sneaky looking one." He had the grace to look a little sheepish after that comment and fiddled with a few bits of paper on the desk.

Gwen would have walked out at that point but he had called her for a reason.

"So why did you drag me here? And how did you get that number, that's my Torchwood mobile that is."

"So you give that number to any old soak in the street but I have to make do with the emergency number and get the sarky one telling me unless the sky is about to fall in never to call again."

"What are you going on about now" she asked starting to get a little scared, there obviously wasn't a Weevil or another Centurion in the cell so what the hell was he going on about.

"Cell five, get a call just after lunch about some sort of commotion at the pawnbrokers on Saint Martins Row some drunk trying to pawn a ring that was worth a mint, had no ID with them and wouldn't take no for an answer. So they dragged her back down here and we gave her a bed for the afternoon but the curious thing is we can't find any reports on this ring being stolen, stunner it is."

"And this involves Special ops how Andy, really I don't have time for this." She was standing with her hands on her hips looking just a little menacing thought Andy, how times had changed from those shapeless police issue wool trousers.

"I'm just getting to that bit and not everything revolves round you precious Torchwood. Went through her bag to get some ID as she wasn't making any sense by the time they got her back here and the only thing in there is your name and phone number, so I thought you might be able to help. Glad I called you now are you?" asked Andy to what was the quickly retreating form of Gwen Cooper.

The penny had dropped with an almighty clatter, she started taking the familiar route to cell five with Andy shouting about not being allowed back there any more. Jenny should have been on a train to London where she was going to sort out some documentation and then get the Eurostar on the first part of the journey to Geneva. Why was she trying to hock a ring in a pawnbrokers in Cardiff at lunch time? And how was she drunk, she had told her she didn't drink much by herself as it didn't touch the sides before her efficient body metabolised it. She skidded to a stop outside the cell and dropped the small communication hatch shouting out her name and getting no response, she tried again as Andy came up with a large bunch of keys, dropping them in his haste and earning himself a good cursing in the process. Muttering something about there being no fire he swung the heavy metal door open and let Gwen in. She rushed to the figure curled up on the bench, the body language radiated pain but as she was facing the wall Gwen couldn't tell if she really was just sleeping off a hang over. She touched the shoulder and instinctively pulled it back as she touched the warm, damp patch of blood.

"Jenny can you hear me?" she asked in hope and didn't get a reply, she gently pulled the hair that had fallen across her face out of the way to check that she was still breathing. Her skin was ashen grey and covered in sweat, trickles of blood ran in bright red rivulets from both nostrils.

"Shit, shit, shit," said Andy loudly as he realised that this wasn't just a drunk and he had failed to check properly since he had got upset that Gwen wasn't answering her phone. "I'll ring for the doctor."

Gwen reached back and just caught a handful of clothing as he ran from the cell.

"No, I can deal with this from here." She tapped her ear piece and got Owen immediately

"Your wish is granted Owen, get your boney arse in here now and earn your money."

"What?" said Owen confused

"Jenny is in a cell and bleeding from every where you can loose blood from" she said trying to remember about recovery positions and ABCs

Andy Stood perplexed at the doorway

"This isn't one of your spooky dos Gwen, you can't just get your friends in this is police business this is."

"Andy you would never believe me even if I told you, now go and show Owen where to come unless you want to wait three hours for the police surgeon to find his arse from his elbow and get here."

She had a point thought Andy and he supposed that the snarky little one probably had some sort of medical training, well he hoped, and he might just get him out of a very deep hole. Gwen cooed and spoke softly at the prone figure, she never knew what to say to someone who didn't respond. Suddenly she thought of all those hours she sat holding Jacks cold dead hand after the Abbadon, then not a day later he up and left without a by your leave.

Owen came into the cell with the medical kit he always seemed to have at hand, he called it small but it took up most of a rucksack and contained everything from needles and plasters to anti toxins and Weevil spray. She took a step back before Owen pushed her out of the way, medics were always like that caring and sharing but they treated their patients like lumps of meat. The only he could cope he had once told her. He looked at her face and then took her pulse quickly, why hadn't she thought of that and satisfied that there was still life in her he tried waking her a little more roughly than Gwen but with the same lack of response.

"Help me turn her over." He said to the room at large even though it was actually directed at Gwen. Andy however barged past and Gwen remembered his pseudo-chivalrous attitude to what men and women could do. The movement must have caused some pain as it elicited a response from Jenny which Owen pounced on tapping her lightly on the face at first and then rubbing viciously on her chest with his knuckle till her eyes opened.

"Quickly tell me what is happening to you." Owen had learnt over the years that patients of an alien variety often knew more than he did about their own conditions, however much he would deny the fact to Jack.

"What sort of medic are you to ask the patient their diagnosis?" asked Andy indignantly as Gwen pulled him back to let some light fall on her face.

"Reaction" she wheezed between short, painful breaths. Owen motioned at Gwen to get the oxygen out of the bag but she was already on it.

"Blood, you gave me your blood" she managed as Owen pulled open her shirt exposing the reopening wound in her shoulder.

"I'm sorry I didn't know." He said waving the oxygen mask over her face but not securing it as he needed to hear her talk. "What do I now to make it better?" he asked hoping that there was something as he genuinely felt bad about what was happening, he had rushed ahead to prove how good he was when they had dragged her into the medical room so her death would be on his hands.

He did what checks he could with one hand from where he crouched down until she could answer again, there was blood on the bench from her nose and ears, a trickle coming from the side of her mouth, obviously a larger patch from the shoulder and finally a circle of red forming on her hip, just where the bruise had been. He pulled at the top of the trousers she wore to expose the area and got a pain response as his fingers touched the raw and bleeding skin, if he had still been alive he would have thrown up he thought as he looked down on the Torchwood symbol branded into her skin.

Gwen had been efficiently passing him pads to cover the wounds until she saw the symbol. Andy who had been standing like a lemon in the doorway agonising between leaving them to it and running to get the desk sergeant gasped too.

"Are you marked as Torchwood property too?"

"Drop it Andy or so help me God I will make you forget you ever knew what Torchwood might even be." Snarled Gwen quickly covered up the offending mark

"Would help if I knew in the first place." Said Andy petulantly

Owen stroked Jennys head for a second or two, his faith in mankind suddenly knocked out of kilter.

"I'm sorry, they did this didn't they, tell me what to do, I don't want to make it worse again." He murmured half aware that Gwen was trying to raise Ianto in the SUV to get them.

"No time Gwen we have to go right now."

She nodded and knew there was no point in asking questions about how that could happen in a Saab.

"Tell me what her pulse feels like." He said realising how much he had come to rely on the scientific instruments of the Hub over the last few week.

"Weak, very fast and really faint." She said after a few seconds.

He pulled out a plastic bottle of saline

"Jenny is this going to harm you?" He asked knowing he was only going to get answers to direct questions. Weakly she rolled her head to indicate it wouldn't and Owen took the needle placed it straight into the vein in her neck. Andy had to leave the cell.

"Oi Plod get back in here I need you now." Shouted Owen and when he came back in shoved the bottle into his hand, "Save the PC case PC and squeeze this."

Thoughts were racing through Owens head about what he would do normally and what he could do now, the only thought that won was that the Hub was the only place he could deal with this. With Andys reluctant help they half dragged half carried Jenny from the cell while Gwen pulled her car as near the door as possible. Owen settled her in to the back seat as Andy called to Gwen urgently.

"Gwen you can't do this, there's paperwork and everything."

"Don't worry Andy shred everything you have on the case and Torchwood will do the rest."

"You can't just disappear a suspect like that." He hissed.

"Trust me, it will be fine." She soothed and ran back to the drivers door, looking round as Andy shouted and threw something at her.

"I don't think we should disappear this." He said throwing an evidence bag with the ring across the roof of the car.

"Wedding Andy" was all she said as she slipped into the car and gunned the engine.

She looked back at Owen crouched in the back foot well and pulled forward willing the heavy metal gate to open a little faster.

"Gwen, you've got to drive like Jack" said Owen simply as she opened up the engine.