In the wake of the ATMOS crisis, Loch Ness was tourist-free. It seemed that even during what seemed to be the end of the world, people had feared Nessie enough not to approach her rather infamous lake home.

Ianto took off his jacket and we sat on the grassy shore. I let him work his way through his bad mood in silence. I knew he was feeling better when he hooked his arm about my shoulders and pulled me close for a tender kiss.

"Why didn't you say no?" he asked me. I guess he'd heard me after all, even in his pain and rage.

"Remember how I was when we met?" I said softly. "I only remembered eight years of my life. The rest was a blank. Blanks are awful."

"It was only a few days for Laura. Don't you think she could have handled it?"

"Truthfully? No, I don't, Ianto. She doesn't have much self-confidence as it is." He nodded, conceding the point.

"You knew it could kill you."

"Jack needed me," I shrugged.

"I need you, too," he chided. "Are you just going to abandon me if he asks you to?"

"No, Ianto," I said gravely. "That's the one thing he can never ask of me. But I don't want to outlive you," I admitted. "I want to live one lifetime, love you, and die. Be a person, you know?"

"Outlive me, Sage," Ianto murmured, kissing my temple. "Please. And if you can, outlive Jack, like you said you would."

"I don't know why I said that," I reminded him. "I don't remember knowing anything even remotely like what I said."

"You said you were still young, still you, but that Jack would die a long time from now. Do you think that means you're leaving?" Ianto asked me.

"I'd never leave you, Ianto. Not ever," I told him firmly.

"You said I was already dead."

"I said 'lost', not dead. That could mean anything. Rose is lost, but she's very much alive, and I think she's trying to get back, don't you?"

He nodded. "I still think you meant dead, though, Sage. You said you'd fade away."

I shushed him, pressing my lips to his, tears slipping through my lashes. "Let's just love each other, Ianto, all right? You, me, and that arrogant man called Jack."

He chuckled, pulling me into his lap so that I straddled him. "That's the easy part."

We kissed languidly for nearly an hour before stepping into the trees and teleporting back to the Hub.


"I don't understand you anymore," John told me. He'd long-since vented his frustrations about what Jack had asked me to do that day, and we were sitting outside, having ice cream, just like tourists, while he told me exactly how much he thought I'd changed. "The risks you took when we were kids... none of them would have killed you."

"Oh, do you think?" I countered. "I'll tell you how the Council never detected you on Gallifrey. Maybe that'll change your mind."

"How?" he asked me. It was something he'd always been curious about and I had never said.

"I blocked your Vortex Manipulator's signature in the system. Made you invisible. I was under house arrest the day of Planet Fall; they'd caught your new signature leaving. Why the hell else would I have teleported out of the dorms? They wanted to expel me, but there was no one to take me in and a reputation to uphold," I told him. "They only allowed me to undergo Initiation because they hoped I'd be one of the ones to go mad, and when I passed they allowed me to continue my studies, but nothing else. I think they were afraid of me."

"Why didn't they confiscate the old Vortex Manipulator? How did you hide it?" he inquired, looking impressed, albeit confused.

"You know that case that holds my TARDIS key? I hadn't put a deadlock seal on it yet. And it's bigger on the inside, of course. I sealed it up, tucked it away, no one was the wiser."

"How could you fool the entire Council? I mean, the Arteran Seek is one thing, but Time Lords of the highest order—"

"Johnny," I interjected, "I'm an Individual. I can shield my mind. The Arterans only caught what they did because I didn't think to hide it."

"Aren't Individuals born only once every thousand years?"

"I'm an exception. A freak of nature," I said.

"Well, long live the freaks," John remarked, licking strawberry ice cream from my fingers without even thinking about what he was doing. It felt delicious, so I didn't stop him. "Does Jack know?"

"Nope," I admitted. "No one does. Just you."

"Not even your father?" he pressed.

"I think he suspected. I'm beginning to think that's why he left me on Gallifrey for Initiation. He knew I was special. There's a lot I don't know because I was never schooled in it, but there's a lot I can do that no one can begin to fathom. Like the Empathic Healing trick, or re-wiring Laura's brain. These things cost me, but no one else can do them. No one ever could! Do you see?" I tried to explain.

"You get off on it, don't you," John remarked.

"Always did. Why do you think it was me who found you when you first crossed into forbidden territory? I was sort of waiting for someone like you," I admitted.

"You should come with me when I leave, Sage," he said. "I know a girl who can fix your Vortex Manipulator. We could go anywhere and everywhere, you and I."

"I'll think about it, Johnny," I told him.

He looked wounded. "No you won't. You've got your boys," he said shortly, tossing the rest of his ice cream in the trash.

"That's why I'm going to think about it," I admitted softly. "I'm too dangerous."

"And you think I can handle you?"

"Maybe," I murmured. "I might get you killed, though. You know that, don't you?"

"Better than they do," he agreed. "You think about it, then. I doubt I'll be staying put much longer. Jack's only letting me stay because he thinks you're good for me. Poor sod."

"I'm your angel and your devil, John Hart," I said. "You think about it, too, all right?"

I kissed him softly on the lips, then stood to walk back inside the Hub, looking right at the camera above me as I approached. I knew Jack was watching me. I'd known all along.


"How does she do that?" Gwen asked Tom as I was pirouetting madly to a piece by Lizt. (1)

"Do what?" he asked her mildly as he watched me.

"Not fall off the boardroom table," she pointed out.

"Russian training," he smirked.

"Jack should stop her before she breaks something," she remarked. "Hers or ours."

"Too busy watching her," Tom said, and he was right. Jack had me on CCTV in his office. He had no desire to stop me. When the Lizt piece finished, I slowed into Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". (2) Gwen rolled her eyes and got back to work. Tom, not having any work, kept watching.

"Glorious, isn't she," John remarked suddenly from beside him, making Tom jump. "You don't want to stare too hard. You'll make a lot of people jealous."

"Who are you really?" Tom asked him out of simple human curiosity.

"I was a con man," he replied. "The best. Now, though? Not sure. Still working on it," he admitted. "If you're smart," he added softly, "you'll keep your distance from her."

"Why's that?" Tom inquired, suspicious.

"All fire burns," John said simply, then turned to walk away.

Mere seconds later, I loosed an ear-splitting scream, falling limply across the boardroom table with a hand to my chest. Jack came at a run, calling for Ianto through his comms. John and Tom were too stunned to move at first, the former springing to action far sooner than the latter, but both arriving after Ianto and even Gwen.

"Is she breathing, Jack?" Gwen inquired shakily. He shook his head, clasping the hand I had put to my chest. Ianto took my other hand. Both my hearts had stopped. Clinically, I was dead.

"Come on, Sage," Jack murmured through his tears. "You're supposed to outlive me, remember?" He kissed my stilled lips, the healing kiss he so rarely used, and I gasped, my eyes flashing open as my hearts kicked back to life.

"Jenny," I whispered.

"What?" John blurted.

"She's okay now," I said softly to Jack and Ianto, squeezing their hands. "It sorted itself."

"What did?" Jack asked me.

"The paradox. The paradox that stopped one of my hearts. I couldn't see past it until he experienced it."

"The Doctor?" I nodded. "What paradox, Sage?"

"Jenny," I told him. "Ontological Paradox Jenny. She's one day old."

"Wait a second... The sister you were so worried about is a baby?"

"Sister?" John echoed.

"Soldier," I clarified. "She was, anyway. My dad... he changed her. She's a bigger pacifist than I am. And the way she moves! Oh, Jack, she's wonderful... and terrifying."

"Why were you dead just now?" Ianto inquired, which was an interesting question.

"Jenny was," I said, frowning. "Did I die?"

"Jenny died?" John pressed.

"I guess it must have shocked my system. I've been tied to that paradox since Initiation; my father never saw it coming. Probably because it was supposed to happen. Jenny was supposed to happen."

"I'm lost," Jack admitted.

"Dad was cloned. Well... sort of. His DNA was replicated into an entirely new person. Gallifreyan, but not a Time Lord, and the TARDIS pulled him there because it was his DNA, but he arrived before Jenny was created, which is how they got the genetic material to create her to begin with."

"Right. Ontological Paradox," Ianto said in his calm, grave voice.

"You mean you just understood that?" Jack asked him.

"Chicken and the egg," Ianto simplified it for me.

"Exactly," I said.

"But she died?" Jack ventured.

"Shot in the heart."

"Can't she re-generate?" Gwen ventured. "I mean, you can, right? So can't your sister?"

"No," I whispered, "but there was this mist... Everything I can't see because of fog or mist turns out to actually be fog or mist, did you know that, Jack? Anyway, it was a terraforming agent, fantastic, and she inhaled it before she died. Then zap! Back to life. And she's out there now, somewhere, some when, trying to be like Dad. Isn't that incredible?"

"Jenny Smith?" John ventured. "Blonde girl, blue eyes, pretty smile, nice tits?"

"John!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's her. Do you know her?" I asked him.

"Who could forget her? I met her on Cerus in 6013. She's the one I said could fix your Vortex Manipulator," he admitted.

"Well, she can't now. I can't go see her. No idea what I might screw up," I pointed out. "She's an anomaly to begin with. Goddess knows what mayhem I could unleash," I remarked casually.

"She's your sister," Gwen said gently.

"Yeah, and that's why I can't seek her out. If we're destined to meet, I sure haven't been informed of it. The mere fact that we share DNA and I was aware of her nearly killed me. Twice. I can't risk it."

"Do you know if Martha's all right?" Tom asked me. Just then, his mobile rang. "Martha? Are you all right? Yeah, I am. Oh... sure. Sage, she wants to talk to you."

"Hey," I said into the phone.

"Did you know you had a sister?" she asked me. "Is that why you said not to tell him about you no matter what? You knew about Jenny?"

"Yeah, I knew," I admitted.

"Well, he's devastated," Martha told me. "He was finally feeling like a father again, and now she's dead. He says that part of him died when his children died. Can't you just tell him you're alive? He needs you, Sage."

"He's better off without me. So... how is this Noble woman? Is she good for him?"

"Oh, yeah. Puts him in his place right proper. You knew about Donna?"

"I do now," I said, but didn't clarify.

"Well, he's off again. Running. Can I have Tom back?"

"Yeah, just a—"

"No, put Jack on, please, Sage." I knew what she was going to ask of him before I handed over the phone. She wanted Tom Retconned. She wanted him back with no memories of us, no memories of her having gone missing... no memories of me.

Ianto was the one who took care of it in the end. He slipped it to Tom in his coffee. I slipped into Tom's mind and made him believe he'd just gotten back from Africa that day. The nosebleed was very minor. I don't think I fried too many brain cells doing it. It was the right thing. She deserved him back intact, unchanged, without guns. She deserved the man she'd never intended to leave behind.

I loaned Jack my VM and went to sit with Ianto. Gwen went home. None of us noticed John leaving. I didn't know he'd followed Jack. They went to Cerus, the year 6013, and Jenny fixed my time travelling circuit, my hologram recorder... the works.

"Quite a young Time Agent, this one, eh?" Jenny remarked to John.

"She's pretty special," Jack replied.

"Well, bring her along sometime," she told them with one of her bright smiles.


1) Études D'exécution Transcendante D'après Paganini – La Campanella In G Sharp minor

2) Piano Sonata #14 In C Sharp Minor, Op. 27/2, "Moonlight" – 1. Adagio Sostenuto. (Yes, I was listening to 100 Best Piano Classics as I wrote these fics; Sage is following the track listing of Disc 1.)