A/N: Hello! Seeing as I usually post a new ch. of this every other day, I thought I had better warn you that I won't be posting on this story again until Sunday (but I will post on 'A Captain and a Gentleman tomorrow) as I have a very hectic Friday and Saturday planned. So don't worry, I have not given up writing, and I have not fallen of the face of the Earth :D Hope you enjoy this Chapter! Hannah xxx

As much as a bad idea it might have seemed to allow Rhys to keep his memories regarding Torchwood, keeping him 'in the know' about the whole organisation is actually proving to have been a wonderful decision. Gwen and he have been getting on much better, now that there is no need for secrecy between the two of them. I mean, after the pre Himalayas break-up, they had 'rekindled their love' but it had still been difficult for Gwen to lie to him to in day out, and fob him off with excuses. Seeing how things were between them before Rhys found out everything to do with Torchwood and what we do, makes me very very glad that Jack and I have never had that issue to overcome. It's nice knowing that we don't ever have to keep things hidden or cover anything up, that we can share every little detail with each other.

Oh and it's not only details about our days at work that we can share, yesterday Jack asked me if I wanted to share part of his chest of drawers with him, and if he could have a drawer in my wardrobe. When he posed the question, we were just casually sat in my living room, half watching a game of rugby (Wales were winning of course) and half day dreaming, and all of a sudden he just came out with it ever so casually. But that didn't matter, the notion of it still set my heart racing, does this mean we are in a proper relationship? I don't want to be too quick to label anything, and I know how much Jack hates labels, but it's reassured me that things are going well. It's only a silly little gesture; on of practicality even seeing as we are constantly staying over at either one of our places, but it means a lot.

I hadn't ever really had a long term relationship before Lisa, I'd always been quite shy around others and, though I had been on dates with many lovely girls, I had just never clicked with anyone enough to get to the 'drawer' stage. And with Lisa, the two of us had planned to go straight into living in sin, and skipped out this step all together. So, basically, my dilemma was – how much of my clothing should I bring to put in it? I came to the conclusion that it was a brilliant idea for me to take the sonic tape measure from the hub's toolbox, and use it to calculate the area of one of Jack's drawers. Tosh saw me carrying it out.

"Putting up some shelves are we?" She asked winking, remembering the last time I had used it and taken nearly an hour to figure out how it worked. I had vowed to stick to good old fashioned tape measures and spirit levels.

"Something like that" I replied, heading up to Jack's office, and eventually down to his bunker below.

I was initially glad that he wasn't there, I was worried that he would think that I was over thinking everything, making it in to too much of a big deal, and that he would regret ever having asked me. So I thought – hey if I can get everything measured up and calculated whilst he's out, then I can turn up tomorrow with coincidentally the exact right amount of clothing to fill one drawer. But of course, it took me ages yet again to get the bloody device working! I totally should have listened to my past self. By the time I had finally got it working, Jack arrived in his office calling out my name – Tosh must have told him I'd gone in there.

"Down here" I called back up.

"What are you doing down here?" He said, a hilariously bemused expression blossoming on his face as he took in the sight of me de-jacketed, ruffled up with frustration, and pointing the sonic device at his opened drawer. "What is that thing?" He asked pointing at the sonic measuring tape.

"It's a sonic measuring tape" I said, as if it had been obvious.

"I see, and why are you attacking my dresser with it?"

I sighed. I was going to have to explain. "I just wanted to see how much I should bring with me to put in it, thought if I could calculate the area using this then I wouldn't over pack" I tried not to blush, I think it worked.

"Cool" He replied, casually, as if it made perfectly logical sense – maybe I am over thinking this all too much.

"Does it work like a normal measuring tape, as well as some weird space-agey area calculator thing?" He asked, with a curious expression in his eyes.

"Yes…." I replied back cautiously, as I began to straighten out my tie and went for my jacket.

"In that case stop everything you are doing right now, and start taking them off instead" He said, wiggling his eyebrows and beginning to unbutton his own shirt.

"Why? If you don't mind me asking" I questioned, as I began removing the offending tie.

"We, my dear friend, are going to have some fun with this here measuring tape." He winked.

Honestly, that man's mind is never far from the gutter. And I think he must have fixed that sonic measuring tape somehow, or changed the setting or whatever, because there is no way that he… I mean I know that he is definitely not tha… well you know. Damn lying measuring tape.

Anyway, back to Mr Williams, which is what I think I began this entry with and had intended to elaborate on…guess my mind wandered a little. Well, Rhys has surprisingly enough become a well-established member of 'the gang'. He may not be coming out on missions with us, or even employed with Torchwood (Gwen is making very sure of that!) but he has joined us on every social outing and even pops down to the hub occasionally to pick Gwen up for lunch or just to pay us all a little visit. The first time he joined us for a little jaunt to our local, I think we were all a bit anxious that it was going to be an extremely awkward occasion. After all, I know that Jack isn't in love with Gwen, but I also know that he once did have feelings for her (which doesn't bother me at all, of course it doesn't) but the pair have a very intense relationship which could easily be misread. And Rhys had seemed to take against Jack from that very first day, and Jack had been a bit miffed at being called a show off, so I thought that the two men wouldn't be able to stand spending prolonged time in each other's company. Not to mention Owen, I mean he did have an affair with Gwen. All in all, I thought Tosh had been crazy to suggest a group outing to the pub. But we all had a right laugh.

She'd decided that it was high time we gave pub quiz nights a second chance as, with Jack back and the addition of Rhys, we had more than enough people for a team. Reluctantly we had all agreed, but instead of the disastrous occurrence that was our last attempt, we had thoroughly good time. Despite the extra team members we didn't win, as most of the team had all had one too many pints to put forward sensible answers by the final round, but we did just about scrape third. As the evening wore on, Rhys asked me a question that I had been dreading being asked, but at the same time had been anticipating.

"So Ianto, what's the deal with you and Jack. Gwen hasn't said much, says you like to keep things private but while it's just us blokes…" The ladies had gone to the bathroom, and Owen, thought obviously counted as a bloke was half comotosed in his seat. It was just Jack, Rhys and I there, I had no reason to hold back but I was still unsure of how to answer.

I looked to Jack for guidance, he just gave a nod which seemed to say 'tell it like' it is… but that was so much more easily said than done.

"Well…" I began. "We like each other, I make Jack's coffee and we share draws" I smiled at Jack, opting for the truthful yet ambiguous answer, he smiled back.

"Is that like some gay thing or what? Cause, no offense boys, I have no problem with it but I really don't want to know." He replied, slurring his words ever so slightly.

I just sat there dying of embarrassment, whilst Jack couldn't contain his laughter.

A few minutes later the girls re-joined us, and we decided it was time to get Owen home to bed, so we set off. As we were walking out along the front of the millennium centre, Jack's wrist strap started beeping manically, there was a rift alert. We all groaned in unison (bar Owen and Rhys, Owen was still semi-conscious and Rhys was just not used to this routine.) as none of us were awake enough or could be bothered to go trailing after a Weevil. Tosh reluctantly pulled out the portable monitor from her bag, which had also begun to beep, and traced the signal. The only silver lining to the situation was that it was close by, just down a small side street about a minute away.

Jack quickly ran back down to the hub to grab a few essentials and 'the sobering solution from hell' before we got to it. I asked him why it was 'from hell' he told me to ask Owen in a few minutes after he'd taken it, and winked wickedly. Gwen filled Rhys in with what was going on, he was so excited bless him.

Yes, I can definitely see why it was the solution from hell, seconds after drinking the repugnant and peculiar black liquid Owen was wheezing, vomiting and choking back to soberness. It did not look fun.

We ran to the corner of the road, sun guns poised, and sharply turned around to greet whatever had fallen through the rift this time. Apart from the fading circular, blue light at the end of the alley, we didn't notice anything at first. Then we heard a small yelp and looked down simultaneously to see a small quaking little animal, covered in rather a lot of black slime – not too dissimilar in appearance to what Owen had just drank. It was about the size of a Yorkshire terrier, and even seemed to resemble a hound somewhat; despite the razor sharp fangs and third eye of course… it didn't look harmful or menacing, just kind of cute. Almost like a

"Puppy. It looks like a puppy" I said, causing everyone to laugh.

Well everyone expect Owen, who was evidently in a foul mood now. "Are you trying to tell me that you think a three eyed puppy has fallen through the rift?"

"Yes"

"Dream on teaboy; Jack I think perhaps I'm not the only one who needs sobering up." He said, laughing. How dare he! Aside from Jack, I was probably the least intoxicated of the lot!

We determined to take the little creature back to the hub, give it (him/her?) a nice warm bath and try and identify a) if it was in fact some sort of deadly beast in the disguise of an adorable pal, and b) what it even was.

Gwen carried it wrapped inside Rhys's scarf (which was totally ruined by the way – it's such a coincidence that it seemed to be the blue striped scarf that Gwen had often complained about) and was happily cooing over it until we got back to the hub. When she placed it in the bath of warm water the poor little dear began to shake as the hot water met cold skin, and so Gwen began talking to it almost as if it were a baby, trying to soothe it. To an extent, it seemed to work, Owen was rolling his eyes as she fussed over it, but I thought it was adorable. Whilst I had always know Gwen was compassionate and kind, I had never thought of her as being particularly maternal before, but I bet she would make a great Mother.

After the little creature was now cleaned up and warmed up (and looked even more like a puppy than before); Tosh took a sample of the black slime that was now coating Rhys's scarf and began analysing it's composition and running it through an NMR, Gwen began making up some sort of bed for it commanding Rhys to help her, Owen began running tests on her (as he had now confirmed it was) to try and determine what she was. Jack and I just stood back watching, there was no paperwork for me to do, and he neither of us were quite as interested in the animal as the others. It was nice to just be able to watch for once, to be able to see what everyone is like when they're working. Well I say that, Owen was being about 10 times as productive as usual – determined to come up with and answer quickly, to dispel my puppy comment. And Gwen, and Tosh to an extent, kept leaving their work to come and gaze at the little being, and so were being far less efficient than usual. But anyway, it was nice.

Within 40 minutes Tosh had come to the conclusion that the black slime was, rather than some horrible form of radiation or disease, simply some sort of amniotic fluid – our new little friend was new-born. Owen had his conclusions ready for us a few minutes later, and called us all into the medical bay to examine the complex display of X-rays and DNA analysis (and in Gwen and Tosh's case the little animal) that he had produced. He gave a grand presentation on how he believed it was a creature from Earth in the future, that the third eye had come from the mutation of the something or other gene, and that the sharp fangs were an adaptation to a change in food supply. He said that:

"It's a female, infant Canis lupus familiaris that is from about 900 years ahead of our time."

He might have got away with it if I hadn't had a biology teacher who was very keen on us learning the proper, Latin, scientific names for different organisms. 'Canis lupus familiaris' meant dog.

"So, basically… it's a three eyed puppy." I pointed out, triumphantly, encouraging a laugh from the rest of the room.

"Yes, it's a three eyed puppy" He said, scowling slightly.

"So what are we going to do with her?" Toshiko asked Jack.

"Try and send her back I guess" He shrugged, giving its head a stroke.

I heard Gwen's intake of breath, and I think Rhys must have realised what she was about to say because he rolled his eyes and muttered 'here we go' under his breath.

"Jack…"

"Yes Gwen"

"Can I take her home? Oh please can I Jack?" She begged.

He turned to Rhys, "You have no problem with adopting a three eyed, fanged, puppy right?"

Rhys shook his head. "Had you asked me that a week ago I would have said you were a bloody nutter. She may not be your typical little dog, but she is quite cute and I can't take her away from Gwen now – look at them" He pointed towards Gwen who was delicately holding the little puppy.

"Quite right." Jack replied. "Just don't go showing it off to your neighbours"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Gwen said kissing Jack on the cheek and then Rhys on the lips. "I think I'll call her… Daisy" She grinned.

"DAISY?" The five of us called out incredulously, in unison.

So, maybe I lied when I said that Rhys wasn't joining us on missions, I suppose that technically makes it up to two that he's been on now. Gwen won't be happy if he comes on too many more, though she loves him and loves the fact he knows all about Torchwood, I get the feeling that she wants to keep him away – keep him safe. I don't suppose it matters too much now anyway, after all, he won't have the time now that he has 'daisy' to look after while Gwen is at work!