Hey kids did you miss me?

Sorry it took a while, loss of Mojo and a holiday but I'm back now. Never fear it will be completed but I now have no idea where it is going!! Ah the joys of letting your imagination loose once in a while.

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Owen would never admit it but he enjoyed working in a partnership, Jack could tell as he watched him and Jenny working in the lab. He tapped his pen casually on a pile of reports he couldn't be bothered starting wondering if he only picked people with personality flaws or if Torchwood caused them. He was dragged out of his reverie by the quiet sounds of Ianto climbing the stairs, coffee time, he clicked the CCTV on to the Plass. Unobtrusively Ianto came through the crack in the door and proffered a mug of steaming Blue Mountain. Jack made space and noted the second mug on his tray, Ianto only brought his own drink in when he wanted to talk, Jack raised an eyebrow and quickly bent his head to the door and Ianto quietly closed it even though they were effectively alone in the vast main space.

Jack moved over to the sofa, another unwritten rule in their ever so difficult to separate relationship, desk was work sofa home. They sat next to each other in silence for a few seconds, savouring the smell of the fine coffee while each waited for the other to break the silence. Ianto broke first,

"Not that I am judging but did you snog her back into life like you did with me?" The smile let Jack know that it was said in jest but he also knew that humour might not fit this situation.

"I swear on your life I did nothing, perhaps it is just my electric charisma and the fact that this jaw line is just too much to leave behind."

Ianto smiled and punched him lightly on the arm and subconsciously moved a little closer so there was contact between them and Jack lifted an arm over his shoulder. They had started this relationship keeping work and home as very separate entities but over time they had realised the physical barrier wasn't needed. It made Torchwood bearable for both of them, sure when there was work to be done they got on with it but Jack had reasoned that as he was permanently on call and Ianto worked the longest hours of anyone he ever knew they might as well snatch the opportunity when it came along.

"Go on, say it." Said Jack after a pause

"What?" asked Ianto with a note of incredulity in his voice. He would swear Jack could do psychic, a conversation with Tosh after the Mary incident had planted that seed, Tosh had been worried about him but he had deftly turned the conversation away from him and she had let slip Jacks comment on scrabbling about in his head.

"What ever is on your mind, say it before you explode."

Ianto leant back and felt Jacks wonderful fingers stroking his upper arm through his suit, Jack had tried to get him into something a little more casual today but Ianto wanted to cover the bruises garnered from the numerous walls he had slammed into last night. Never show weakness, never want pity.

"What happened the other night?"

"Bygones Ianto, just a blip, completely over it. Finished."

Ianto sat upright and pulled away

"That wasn't the deal Jack, we said we would sort this together, you promised to let me help."

"Ianto I've sorted it, sifted and stored all the information. It won't happen again." Jack was lying, he never looked Ianto in the eye when he was covering something up. Ianto put a hand on his knee and waited till he had eye contact again.

"You said something about the Time Agency teaching you how to forget things but it was dangerous, has it happened before?"

"They stole two years of my life Ianto, in a time when two years were precious, I thought," his breath hitched, "I hoped that one day I might be able to unlock that part but now," He stopped and looked at the ceiling.

"But now you are worried what could be hidden behind there?" finished Ianto succinctly.

Jack said nothing but put his hand over the other mans and sat breathing deeply till Ianto lovingly pulled his head towards his chest, curling his fingers through Jacks hair while making a gentle shushing sound.

Ianto was in a dilemma, really he should let Jack tell him in his own time but every extra second he gave him he would be making an excuse not to let him in, building back up his defensive wall brick by brick.

"You do know I won't judge your past don't you" he said quietly "And you have more past than most of us." He said trying to make light of it.

"You don't know the half of it." Replied Jack quietly

"Which is what got us here in the first place."

They sat quietly again until Ianto spoke, it was always the way.

"Start with a happy time Jack, I dunno tell me about meeting Estelle, I know enough about her that you aren't going to open black hole into the future with that revelation."

Jack pulled up and looked directly at him,

"I don't want to hurt you Ianto, she's in the past now."

"How many times do I have to tell you Jack I understand I am not the first, probably not the last and some of the time not the only. I don't expect that you sat round for 150 years waiting for me, Ianto Jones Sex God of the Welsh Valleys, to appear, nor do I judge you on the fact that you come from a time when humans might act differently. What do you think would happen if I was transported back 3000 years? We were still living in mud huts and had only just discovered how to smelt metal so I can't even imagine the changes you had to go through."

"Do you know how much I craved them inventing the mobile phone?" asked Jack with a quiet chuckle. "Primitive but effective."

Ianto punched him lightly on the shoulder "Oi Stop dissing one of the technological marvels of my age."

"There are things out there that would blow you away, did you know that you are slap bang in the middle of the fastest growth of technology the world has ever seen?"

"I heard on the radio the other day that we have advanced more in the last 40 years than in the thousand before it." Said Ianto with a little awe in his voice "And all you can bring from the future is a tacky looking toy wrist watch."

It was Jacks turn to resort to mock violence, Jacks wrist toy had got them out of more than one scrape when 'primitive' state of the 21st century art PDAs had found it impossible to stay in one piece when dropped from a great height or while immersed in water. He would let no one see it or touch it and Owen had once joked that the reason Jack came back to life was to protect that damn wrist strap.

"Tell me something." Asked Ianto with a serious tone, running his finger over the cover and then sensuously round the inside of Jacks wrist. "How on earth do you keep the leather looking so supple, I could save me an awful lot of shoe polish."

Jack snatched his hand and tugged Ianto towards him catching him in a deep and sensuous kiss.

"Who said it was leather?" asked Jack cryptically when he finally let Ianto go.

Ianto looked back at him as he took a sip of the now cooling coffee and raised an eyebrow.

"Don't think I haven't noticed you changing the subject Jack." Said Ianto over the mug.

Jack loved that about Ianto, he could process a thousand things and still come back to the one that mattered, many times Jack had asked him an unanswerable question and three days later he would come back with a heavy file of carefully researched answers and start the conversation in exactly the same place he had laid off. Jack was much more superficial than that, he reacted and then parked it but that was what got him in this mess.

"Tell me where you met her, what you were doing, what brought you together, every detail Jack, all the good ones and any bad ones, how did you feel after you left her." Jack gave him puppy dog eyes but Ianto knew he couldn't give in. "Baby steps Jack we have a life time to go through everything but we have to begin somewhere."

Jenny had taken Owens proddings and pokings with an excessively good humour though three hours crunching numbers and searching every known database for answers had left her wacked. She didn't want to admit it but she still wasn't on top form. She was close to nodding off when Owen gave a holler of joy then shoved a wavy computer printout in her face.

"See told you nothing to do with nanobots." He said grinning as she took the paper off him. "Funky DNA is your answer, you have a fifth base that we mere humans don't"

"I see why Jack brought you here, too clever for your own good Doctor Owen Harper." She held out her hand and shook Owens heartily "But I have to say that is a brilliant pick up, pity we can't send it off to the Lancet, paper like that you could be set for life, the new Crick and Watson." She gazed at the paper and looked at the figures. "Does this new molecule have a name?"

"Not yet, the computer is doing the numbers at the moment and with a little help from a programme scavenged by Tosh from a small fragment thrown through the rift last year we should have a full pictorial of the structure by tea time." His smile was broad, some days were worth coming in for.

"Then I think we should call this new molecule Owenine." Said Jenny with a flourish.

"What you want a little piece of me flowing round your veins for eternity." He said arching an eyebrow.

She picked up a pencil and flicked it expertly with a swift motion of her wrist at his head.

"Putting it that way perhaps not." She said laughing until she started coughing and gasping for breath again.

Owen came round the desk quickly and pulled he shoulders back to allow a little more air to actually reach her lungs and break the vicious circle caused by the lack of oxygen. He swivelled the chair round and took her racing pulse quickly before visually checking the paleness of her face.

"Need something for the pain again?" he asked, doctor to fellow doctor, no need for fancy platitudes or explanations and no need on her part to even try refusing. As if he knew it would happen he whipped out a hypodermic from his back pocket and then crouched down while it took effect.

"Do you always carry controlled drugs in your jeans?" she asked quietly.

"With this lot you need to." He said sardonically gesturing back at the Hub.

After a few minutes she felt able to breath normally again and waved the paper clutched in her hand in Owens face,

"So what is your suggestion for this nameless molecule that makes me so special then?"

"I have no idea, but I know a man who will." He said sauntering out the door and shouting for "Teaboy" with a note of satire in his voice as it disappeared up the stairs.

Jenny put her head in her hands and took stock of what was happening, she had walked away from her last life thinking it would be the last time she would have to do it. Now she realised that The Rift opening up on cue to swallow her whole was a long shot and to be honest it had been so long since she had been to Cardiff she forgot that they had built a lovely new pedestrian Plaza over the spot. The last few years had been hard and the rise of computers was really starting to hinder her transition from life to life so she had stayed a little longer than normal and with a boss who was really annoying. Keeping her head down meant she couldn't ever take the step to becoming a consultant, she couldn't move out of the NHS Trust she was in because they would do background checks and there was only one way her git of a boss was going and that was in a wooden box. Even if he had dropped dead the numerous times she had silently prayed for it she would never be able to do the job properly, it would mean attending lectures and conferences where she might meet one of her former student colleagues and one of them was bound to notice she looked nearly as fresh today as she had in a cap and gown at their graduation. Not that she felt that fresh at the moment. She dragged a hand through her hair and was not surprised to find that more than was normal detached itself from her head and wrapped round her fingers. She needed time and space to think but at the same time was so desperately lonely she wasn't sure she could do this by herself, seeing the Torchwood Team happy together wasn't helping but she just had to snap out of it. She took a deep breath and straightened herself up before walking smartly to the door and up to the Hub.

She was able to stand for a few moments to watch as the team worked, Gwen tapping on the computer and throwing suggestions over her shoulder while Tosh held Iantos pond bound space junk with one hand and looked at Owens amazing discovery held in the other. She caught a hint of admiration in Tosh's eyes for that, though it might not just be about a new chemical compound. She saw them looking up at the closed office door and the knowing glance that went between them and the flick of irritation as Gwen shouted another preposterous suggestion at them. Suddenly they seemed aware of her and looked at her together as if some telepathic link linked them together – which knowing the energies running through the Hub and the Rift there could well be. Gwen ever the caring one rushed to help her to a chair but she used the extra arm to propel herself to Tosh's desk instead.

"May I?" she asked holding out a hand for the tooled metal box.

"We found it a few days ago but we don't know what it is." She said sheepishly, as if it was a personal failure on her behalf not to know what every piece of flotsam was.

"I say it a space brick." Said Owen dismissively

"I think it could be some sort of cremation urn." Said Gwen as Owen pulled a face and Tosh pulled her hand away quickly.

Jenny turned it over in her hand then asked for a small screwdriver to insert between one of the cracks. Owen was about to protest it could contain some evil sex gas when they heard a tiny hiss of hydraulics and a tinkley noise that could be from an underwater orchestra. She put the box down so they could all see the holograph it was projecting over itself and the contents.

"Oh pretty sparkly" said Gwen in a childish voice and putting her hand through the hologram "That tickles" she said taking one of the jewel like objects from the case.

"My guess goes for alien music box" said Jenny

"Are they what I think they are said Owen as he too tried to reach for the stones held inside but got a shock instead.

"It doesn't like you Owen." Giggled Tosh and reached in herself and handed him what looked like a princess cut ruby.

"How did you know?" asked Gwen.

"Seen one in London, took weeks before someone slipped with the screwdriver and managed it and yes Owen if it is the same they are real, how do you think they could afford Torchwood Tower?"

They all stood silent taking in the new information.

"I wonder if someone is looking for it?" asked Gwen sadly.

"I hope not." Said Owen "I always though this place could do with a bit of interior design."

"Whatcha playing with?" Asked Jack from the gantry, he draped himself casually over the rail while Ianto came down the stairs with the tray.

"Alien toys and about a million pounds worth of shiny rocks" said Owen casually.

Now that peaked Jacks interest, once a mercenary always a mercenary. Ianto put the tray down and came over to look, it was the alien toy bit that had caught his fancy, his achieves were full of unexplained objects and to be able to actually catalogue something properly would be a joy in itself. The two men advanced towards the box and realised three pairs of eyes watching them a little too intently, Jack also noticed Owen was rubbing his hand. Ianto picked the box up whole and moved it round to see the hologram better, Tosh wanted to scream at him to pick up a sapphire but she held herself in check, barely.

"What do you think it is?" he said looking at the moving form, there was a hint of humanoid with a touch of fish and what could possibly be described as a lions mane shimmering in the image.

"Don't think it would win a game of marry, shag or throw off a cliff do you?" said Owen

"My guess is from the Araxian quarter" said Jenny, Jack pursed his lips and nodded slowly.

"In which case we won't be looking for Mama anytime soon." Said Jack squinting at the figure.

"Why's that Jack?" asked Gwen turning an emerald over in her fingers, Jack reached in and picked out a fire opal, routed round and then found another and held them up to her ears.

"Their sun went supernova a few millennium ago." Said Jenny quietly.

They all sighed and Ianto put the box down and went to reach in but pulled his hand away swearing in Welsh.

"That didn't sound pretty." Said Jack suppressing the laughter more successfully than the others.

"Seems it doesn't like us real men" said Owen looking directly at Jack. Jack squirmed a little bit and shrugged.

"Perhaps it has personality issues." Suggested Jack trying to deflect the question as he noticed Jenny sniffing the air like a wolf. She moved round the desk and stood next to Jack.

"May I she asked?" but not indicating what she wanted permission for. Jack tensed and Ianto looked a little concerned but he nodded, there wasn't much that could phase him anymore. She sniffed a little harder round his ear and then softly ran her finger across Jacks forehead and licked it.

"Gross" said Owen loudly.

"Hormone lock" she pronounced. "My guess would be oestrogen, which would lead me to believe the species would be similar to honey bees mostly male with one alpha female and she would be the only one able to access the stones."

The team nodded and took in the information before one by one the added information clicked into place, Jack was the only one not staring, because it was hard to look at yourself.

"What? I've told you before, the pill is killing this planet, it's in the water supply" the answer was unconvincing and Owen opened his mouth but quickly closed it again when Jack scowled at him. Ianto raised an eyebrow and muttered "later" under his breath while Gwen and Tosh tried everything to avoid looking at anyone else.

"So is this what all the fuss is about?" Jack was trying to regain control with his masterful attitude.

"Oh no, there is this too." Said Tosh pushing the spectrometer printout across the desk. He looked intently at the readout and smiled,

"I think a conference is in order."

With that he started up the stairs and shouted an order for more coffee over his shoulder while turning the paper round in his hand. The team started shambling over to the staircase and then all three turned round to invite Jenny into the group, it was good to feel wanted.