The American and his buddies moved further into the warehouse, the American wearing a perfectly fitted military-style navy blue trench coat, and with his back to the brothers and their angelic companion, still gesturing towards his friends. Cas stood stock still as he stared at the man, his brow furrowed. Clearly something about this man agitated the angel. There was something not right about him, something…unnatural. He had behind him three other people and they had noticed the intruders. One, a dark haired woman with a smattering of freckles on her nose, tapped the American on the shoulder and he turned around to face the Winchesters and Cas, his eyes widening as he took them in. Sam swallowed whilst Dean muttered a string of profanities under his breath. For a moment, there was a still silence as the two groups of people stared at each other.

The American dude, aside from having a rather tasteful choice in coats, was wearing old military style clothing: a blue shirt with braces and dress trousers with boots. His brown hair stood up in spikes and his eyes, at first glance, appeared to be merely a sparkling blue. However at a closer glance, they seemed to hold a deeper sadness that only came from living for far too long. Castiel knew the feeling well and could only wonder at what this poor man had seen. Out of the other strangers two were women and one a man. The man was wearing a suit and red tie whilst the other woman was Japanese and standing with her nose pressed so close to a screen that she barely noticed anyone else. The first woman- the one with freckles- stood studying the men and angel, her dark eyes narrowing curiously as she took them in.

The American also stared at these three men- at least they appeared to be men- and couldn't help but find them attractive. The shortest of the three, with piercing blue eyes and a pale trench coat, not so unlike his own, he found to be particularly interesting. It didn't matter to him that this stranger appeared to have a slight…almost repulsion to him. The other two he assumed to be brothers, the shorter of them wearing jeans that pronounced his bowed legs and toned figure rather delightfully. The taller- seriously, he was like a freaking mountain- possessed a beautifully muscular figure and were those dimples he saw? The man could only marvel at the tricks these guys could pull. That was, until the taller brother cleared his throat rather awkwardly and he was shaken out of his fantasising.

Sam searched through his pockets and picked out a fake ID, before offering it up to the team.

"I'm Johnny Cairns and these are my partners-"

He was cut off by the man in the suit holding up a hand.

"Actually, that's a fake ID," he said matter-of-factly, his voice revealing a thick Welsh accent.

"Wh-No it's not," Sam stuttered.

The Welsh man raised his eyebrows. "Yes it is."

The American snorted, disguising it with a cough. Dean elbowed Sam in the side, muttering, "Nice one Sammy," before grinning awkwardly at the strangers.

"Uh… we come in peace?" he offered, shrugging his shoulders. Castiel dragged his eyes away from the American to throw a confused glance at the eldest Winchester. There was something seriously bugging him about this stranger, but he just couldn't put his finger on it (Even if Cas didn't exactly know what that expression even meant…).

The Torchwood team glanced at their leader to see his reaction and it was something that no one expected. He started laughing. Not just an 'Oh, that's rather amusing' chuckle, but full on, hard to breathe, 'I think I've just broken my lungs because I'm laughing so hard' cackling.

After a rather awkward minute, he calmed down and straightened up, before pointing at the Winchesters and Castiel. "Alright," he grinned. "Well, we'll be on our way."-He gestured to his team and himself before pointing back towards them- "You never saw us!"

With that, he pointed for his team to follow him and began to stride towards the Winchesters before walking straight past them and carrying on, his team casting them apologetic glances as they went.

"Oh, and I'd get outta here if I were you guys," he called back. "It's about to get a lil' violent."

Dean and Sam watched the team go, completely flabbergasted at what had just happened. As soon as they had disappeared around a corner, Dean rounded on the other two.

"Did that just- did you- What just happened there?" he demanded, throwing his arms up. Sam just blinked, still feeling shell-shocked. He was also pretty sure that the American had been checking him out and wasn't sure whether to feel violated or flattered.

"I believe that someone just stole our job," Castiel pitched in, sounding annoyed.

"Oh, you believe so do you?" Dean mocked, running his hand through his hair. "Well, that isn't allowed. No guy in freaking suspenders is stealing a job from me!"

Dean began to march in the direction the team had disappeared into and Sam and Cas had no choice but to follow the determined hunter. However, they didn't have to go far before they crashed into Dean who had in turn crashed into the back of a rather irate American.

The reason? Well, there was no obvious shape shifter to be seen. Only a pile of gooey skin on the ground.

Lovely.

Captain Jack Harkness was having a rather entertaining day, to put it mildly. The case was a simple one; a shape shifter had fallen through the Rift and then decided to piss off people by disguising itself as someone and then robbing banks. Clearly, the innocent parties who had been arrested for armed robbery and a few counts of murder hadn't exactly been thrilled. Annoying bastards, those shape shifters. Thankfully, there were only so many banks in Cardiff and the team had managed to track the shape shifter to a warehouse not too far from the Hub that specialised in delivering gloves of all things.

Owen had decided to stay at the Hub, mumbling something about some autopsies he wanted to catch up on or whatever. Secretly Jack wondered whether the doctor had decided to stay behind because he was still not feeling entirely comfortable with being…well, dead. The other three had been perfectly compliant and he had driven to this warehouse expecting to have an evening of killing a shape shifter followed by a beer in the pub and, for the luckier ones, a nice quiet evening with their loved ones. They certainly were not expecting to run into the warehouse to be confronted with three rather confused looking men. Still, they were attractive ("Oh come on Ianto, don't tell me you couldn't see it! I think the one with the green eyes was checking you out! Not that I'm jealous but still." "…Shut up Jack…") and none of them had seemed like a threat and so Jack had been quite happy to bid them farewell and carry on his way.

Well, that was what he had thought.

Unfortunately, Dean Winchester was nothing if not determined and in no way would he allow this…this…jackass to do him out of a job. Especially when said job involved a shape shifter.

These men could quite possibly have been the biggest threat the Torchwood team had ever faced.

But of course, they didn't know that at the time.

Jack wasn't in the best of moods to begin with when Dean Winchester walked smack bang into his back due to the fact that the shape shifter had completely disappeared. The only thing that even indicated towards its existence was the pile of gunk on the floor that had once been its skin. This also meant that the beast had changed its appearance yet again. It could be anyone.

"Oh shit dude, I'm sorry," Dean mumbled as he saw the slightly murderous look on the Captain's face at his collision with the man's back. Dean made to brush down Jack's coat apologetically but was stopped by Jack throwing up his hands. An easy grin appeared on his face as he took in Dean, Sam and Cas.

Any one of them could be the shape shifter.

Best drug them all, just to be safe.

"Ianto, could you pass me the retcon injections?" Jack held out his hand where the ever obedient Ianto quickly placed the three needles. He had designed a new type of retcon that only knocked out aliens but didn't wipe any memories. However, the fact that it was so strong that it was able to knock out every type of alien the team had ever encountered made up for this.

"Alright fellas, this won't hurt a bit," Jack grinned and threw the three needles in quick succession at the three men. They had been designed to attach on to the nearest living being that wasn't any member of Torchwood. (The process of getting them to work had been incredibly stressful and was full of Owen screaming that he was dead and therefore the drug wouldn't leave his damn system, so "for God's sake, get them away from me!")

Jack had formulated a quick plan in his head that consisted of knocking out the three men, taking them back to the Hub where they would determine and contain the shape shifter before properly retconning the other two and letting them go back to wherever they had come from (America by the sounds of it…). Overall, it was quite a good plan for one that had been thought of in a split second.

All three were hit by the needles, not being given a chance to properly react before a needle was sticking out of their chests. Sam and Dean merely looked down at the contraptions before they hit the ground, completely unconscious. Castiel however did not. He watched alarmed as the Winchesters fell before turning to the shocked group in front of him. It was only then that he noticed the needle stuck in his chest. He yanked it out without so much as a wince, much to the surprise of the Torchwood agents seeing as that wasn't supposed to be possible, before throwing it on the floor and casting a murderous glare towards the people in front of him.

"What did you do to them?" he thundered, his eyes flashing dangerously. It was only now that the Torchwood team got even the slightest glimpse of the soldier that Castiel truly was. The angel was truly worried for his human friends, despite the fact that he could still hear their heartbeats signalling that they were still alive. For now at least.

"Are you sure that was the highest dosage?" Jack murmured to Ianto, not taking his eyes off of the furious angel. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Ianto nod and gulp. Shit. Now they were in trouble; they had a creature stronger than any they had ever faced before…and he was pissed off.

"Great plan Jack, well done," Jack muttered sarcastically to himself, searching his brain for something to do. He came up more clueless than before.

"They'll be alright if we can get them back to our base. You can come with us so that you can see they'll be okay," Tosh spoke up quickly, making Jack sigh in relief. Of course Toshiko would be able to save him from impending doom. Cas looked nervously down at Dean, whose head rested next to his foot, before turning to face Sam who was lying face down, looking to the entire world as if he had merely collapsed from exhaustion.

"Very well. But if you hurt them further in any way at all, you will all be dead before you can open your mouth to apologise," Castiel stated, his eyes darting from the Winchesters' prone bodies towards the group. Jack took this as his cue to move and he hoisted the taller man onto his shoulders. Ianto quickly did the same for the other, eyes nervously watching the man in the trench coat. As Ianto lifted the weight onto his shoulders, he buckled briefly causing the man's head to hit the floor, making Ianto wince and Castiel to growl warningly at him. Ianto mouthed an apology before shifting the man more stably onto his shoulders and rushing towards the SUV as quickly as he physically could. Tosh followed, with Castiel behind as he seemed to be more comfortable around the technician than any other member of the team, and then Gwen who kept her eyes trained on him whilst Jack brought up the rear with Sam on his shoulders.

The team quickly exited the warehouse and got to the SUV. Jack offered the spare seat to Cas who stood statuesquely by the door with his eyes trained on the Winchesters who lay inert in the back. He shook his head and, to the complete bewilderment of the whole team, simply vanished. Jack blinked, having to remind himself that he had seen way stranger, before getting into the driver's seat and driving as quickly as he dared back to the Hub. He only prayed to God that the unknown man hadn't gone to call for backup and that the other two wouldn't wake up and kill him. And to think, this case was supposed to be simple.

But then again, when were they ever?