"Right, pleasantries over with; Suzie, Owen I need you to go and check out a potential Weevil sighting, located between zones 2 and 3. Hopefully it's still earlier enough for it not to have encountered any humans, but just in case takes these." The captain commanded as he threw a small bottle of pills and a medical kit to the pair. I wonder what 'retcon' does…

"Tosh, I need you to get to work fixing the rift activity detector, a pterodactyl has managed to cross through in the last few days without us being alerted. And Ianto, with me, office." He continued as the team jump started into action.

Was every day here like this? So fast paced, without time to stop and catch a breath from the minute you arrived here?

"It's not always like this" Toshiko said quietly as she squeezed my arm, answering my un-asked question perfectly. "To be honest I think Jack's just trying to show off a little bit, don't let it all over whelm you." She finished and walked over to the impressive set up of computers and got stuck straight in.

In this brief moment I realised that the Captain had already got half way up the stairs to his office, I ran frantically up after him; I just couldn't afford to make a bad impression on my first day.

"So Ianto" he began, "After what I saw of you in action last night, I think you could make an excellent field agent. But I don't want to push you, after the awful things you must have experienced at Torchwood one, I can understand that you would be hesitant. So for now, it might be mainly paperwork if that's alright with you?"

"Certainly Sir" I replied "I wasn't joking when I offered to be a butler, I'm just grateful for the opportunity."

"Ah, yes, I had forgotten about the butler offer…" the Captain mused with a devilish look in his eyes." You'd better not keep reminding me or I might take you up on that. But today I'd like you to go down to the archives and gather up the files we have on the Gelth if you'd be so kind?"

"My pleasure Sir" I said as I headed downstairs to the archives.

Bloody hell! Excuse my language, but the state of it down here! How on Earth does anybody ever find anything? I don't know who invented this filing system, or even if beneath this chaos there was a system, but I do know that it needs sorting out. Desperately. Never mind aliens, this was enough to terrify a man on one's first day at a new job. It might take me all morning to find what I need, I thought I'd be back up in ten minutes, ready to start a report on whoever or whatever the Gelth may be. Perhaps it was best just to cut my losses and start reorganising the files before I looked for the ones I needed, I mean I didn't even know where to start looking for them anyway. Besides, I'd been given a communicator, so if there was a sudden emergency for the files I could be contacted. So I set to work. After an hour or so sorting through these files I was starting to think more and more that they couldn't possibly be in any sort of order, not by date or alphabetically. I'd settled on using both, by the alphabet first and then chronologically within that. Currently I was up to D, 1947. I needed a coffee. I went back up the stairs to the hub to find that Owen and Suzie had returned, Owen at his autopsy table dissecting what appeared to be some sort of reptile and Suzie coming up from the vaults after imprisoning the sighted Weevil I assumed. Toshiko was still at her desk working away, she smiled when she saw me. I think I'm going to like Toshiko very much. I started making myself a coffee and then decided a little 'sucking up' to the colleagues never hurt and brewed enough for four. There was currently no sign of Captain Harkness.

"Thank you Ianto" Toshiko said and smiled again as I handed her the cup, taking a sip she continued "This is the best coffee I have ever had, Jack was right about you."

"You're welcome Toshiko" I said, returning the smile.

"Please, call me Tosh"

"Whatever you wish Tosh" I said adding in another smile.

It strangely seemed so much easier to call her Tosh than call him, the Captain, Jack. Suzie was also appreciative, despite having her head fixed to her microscope. Owen however…

"So this is why Jack hired you then, to make us the tea." He said sarcastically, I decided not to point out that it was actually coffee. Instead I continued to smile and turned to walk back to the stairs.

"Seriously though teaboy" (internally I prayed that it was not a nickname in the making) "Why did he hire you, he told us he'd never take on anyone from Torchwood one, not after what happened, why you?"

"Well, I just begged and eventually wore him down I guess, that and the pterodactyl of course." I replied.

"Ah begging, I bet Jack would have liked that" he retorted back.

I hurriedly rushed back down to the archives to evade a bout of blushing.

On my way back down, I decided to head to the floor below the archives, just to be nosey. And I was glad I had. The lower floor contained half a dozen or so disused vaults. Perfect for me to bring Lisa to, it had a power supply, and no one would have a reason to go down here as we had many 'renovated' (is that the right term?) vaults on a floor further up. Admittedly, cosmetically it was less than ideal, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind after all it was a means to an end. It struck me then that that was the first time I had thought about Lisa all day. A horrible guilty feeling that seemed to be growing more familiar spread through me at the realisation that I had managed to forget about her again, even if it was just for a short while. It was imperative that I got Lisa into Torchwood as soon as possible, that way I could visit her every hour or more often. I hated the idea that I could be here happy (or at least not unhappy) and not thinking about her, whilst she was stuck by herself in pain thinking about me…

It was quarter to four by the time I had got up to G and found the Gelth files the captain wanted. I immediately hurried upstairs with them, expecting him to be there waiting to complain. To my surprise when he saw me he simply said

"You were quick, I was expecting not to see you until home time - the state those archives are in" accompanied by a large grin.

"Yes, I couldn't quite get the hang of the old filing system … so I started re-organising it all, well I say all, but I've just finished G".

If it's possible the grin got even wider as he questioned "You re-organised the files?"

"Yes, I hope that was ok Sir?" Suddenly nervous that perhaps I should have checked beforehand.

"Oh that is so more than ok, remind me why I was unsure of hiring you in the first place Ianto?" I could tell that it was a rhetorical question. "How about coming to help Owen and I catch some form of Cnidarian that has fallen through the rift?"

"I think, if it's quite alright Sir, then I'd like to finish off this filing, if you don't mind?"

His eyes widened for just a second before replying "Of course, whatever you like, I just don't want you to feel like you're stuck down there with the paperwork missing out on the action."

"Don't worry I am quite content down there Sir" and I really was, I didn't mind paperwork nearly half as much as I should have. I couldn't, however, bear the thought of the mess they called the archives and was glad to tidy things up.

"If you're sure, and stop calling me Sir!" he replied as he gave me a friendly elbow dig in the arm. "Owen lets go" and the pair fled the room, armed only with a tranquiliser between them. One could get the impression that Torchwood had a death wish.

I'd lost track of what time it was when I had got to Z in the archives, there weren't too many files left to go now, but still a surprising amount for the letter. I heard the sound of footsteps, the door to the archive room opened to reveal the Captain on the other side.

"Ianto!" he proclaimed a slight tone of anger in his voice. "What on earth are you still doing here, it's gone 11.30!"

"Oh" How had it got that late? "I'm sorry Sir, I just wanted to finish"

He looked at me incredulously for just a moment before replying "Sorry? Why are you sorry? I should have checked back in with you hours ago."

"It's fine, honestly. Don't worry about me; I've only got Z left to go now"

"It's late Ianto, just go home, you can finish it tomorrow. Not that I have anything against you staying here with me tonight" He finished with a wink, and I with a blush.

"Goodnight Sir" I managed to get out, just.

"See you tomorrow, bright and early" He replied.

As I got outside and realised it was dark (have I mentioned that there are no windows in the hub!) I also realised how late it really was, how long I'd left Lisa by herself. And more to the point how strange it was that the Captain was still there at this time… Did he ever leave? Suddenly getting Lisa in seemed a whole lot trickier than I had thought just a few, or rather several, hours ago.