"Bloody hurry up Ianto." Rhys muttered.

The five of us stood outside the Torchwood warehousee, watching Ianto open up the door with a crowbar.

"Yes, yes ok." Ianto muttered before the lock finally flew off. He pushed open the door and we all walked into the wet, empty, concrete and corrugated metal room. "This is us." He said proudly. "This is Torchwood. This is home."

...

"Whoa!" Rhys exclaimed, jerking back as the barrel set alight. "Almost lost my eyebrows! Still, I'm good for something, see? Old Boy scout!" He grinned as he and Gwen stood around, rubbing their hands together over the fire. Jack, Ianto and I sat a few metres away on a old sofa we found. Me sitting on a arm with my chin resting on Ianto's head with Jack sitting on the seat on the other end.

"I'm freezing." Gwen muttered.

"Is anyone gonna see us in here? You know with all this firelighting stuff?"

"It was abandoned in the '90s." Ianto called over. "Used to be a Torchwood holding facility, Torchwood one."

"Been rusting away for years." Jack added.

"So what do we do?" Gwen asked. "Just sit here?"

"Worse than that, do I have to stay in these clothes?" Jack asked. "I mean, come on. Tracksuit bottoms. Not a good look."

"Jack, they're arriving today. That alien voice-thing said today and we're stuck in the back end of beyond."

Jack slapped the spare seat in between him and Ianto, "Yeah. But we're together. The old team. We're down, but not out, yeah?" Gwen walked over and sat in between them. "We've survived worse than this."

"Yeah."

"Besides, I don't know how much fighting you should do, in your condition."

Gwen raised her eyebrows and Ianto looked over sideways at Rhys.

"What does that mean?" Rhys asked rudely.

"Christ. Jack!" Gwen hissed.

"He knows you're pregnant? You told him before me, didn't you?"

"Rhys, he happened to be there, and it happened really, really fast."

"Last to know! Last to bloody know! Well Thank you very much!" Rhys shouted, stomping off.

Gwen jumped up, watching him storm off, "Don't be stupid, man. Hey, don't be so..." She turned back and looked at Jack. "Couldn't you just keep it shut?"

Jack smirked as Gwen ran after him.

"All together." Ianto sighed. "The old team."

...

"So, we've got..." Jack said, pointing at the bits spread across the table we'd collected. "Guns, OK, and a pen knife. Laptop, now dead. Credit cards and a phone, which they can trace. Lemsip. Book of stamps. Pair of contact lenses. And fifteen quid."

Gwen reached into her pocket and pulled out some change putting it on top of a couple of notes, "Plus 25p. With And some bloody alien thing turning up today."

"We've still got some of the Torchwood software though." Ianto said. "We've lost the Hub, but the software still exists on the server. But trouble is we're gonna need some more equipment, and not to mention electricity."

"And how are we gonna manage that, hidden away like criminals?" Rhys asked.

"Well that's it. Brilliant!" Gwen nodded.

"What? "

"Criminals. Thieves. Us."

The boys frowned at her, "Well, they're treating us like criminals, let's be criminals." I said in agreement.

"Listen, I trained with the police, I know every trick in the book! And Flo's been travelling round the universe for the last 3 years. We've seen the lot! Come on, boys. We're gonna learn some tricks!"

...

Jack and I sat at the desks, covered in lanterns, sitting round laptops.

Jack kept typing, "Let there be light!" He cheered, pressing the last button which turned on the whole lights through out the warehouse.

"Oh, yes!" Gwen cheered. "Britain's most wanted!"

"Hey, how about that?" Rhys called over. We followed his gaze to see he'd wiped the dirt of the rusty wall behind us and had written HUB2 in chalk.

"Guess that makes you an official member of the team." Jack said.

"You can stick it, mate." Rhys muttered, walking over to us. "Get on those computers, and get me home, yeah?"

Ianto walked in, carrying some bags, "I see we've got a new car outside." He called. "Nice, very smart."

"Where've you been?!" I asked, spinning the chair round to face him. "We thought you'd got arrested."

"Just buying essentials. Technology's one thing, but let's not forget the creature comforts." He put the bags down on the table and pulled out a bag of coffee. "Coffee, obviously. Got some do da..." He pulled out a pack of toilet roll.

"Thank God." Gwen cheered.

"And more importantly... I didn't know your exact sizes, but I reckon I've got a good eye." He pulled out several smaller bags, throwing Gwen and Rhys one each.

Gwen opened the bag and pulled out some clothes, "Oh, brilliant, I am stinking!" She cheered.

"Nice one!" Rhys grinned.

"And for you, sir..." Ianto said, pulling out a brown parcel and handing it to Jack. "Army surplus special."

"Oh, you are kidding me!" Jack gasped before he, Gwen and Rhys walked off to get changed.

As the three of them, Ianto softly handed me a bag. I opened it up and inside were clothes and... something blue wrapped up.

"I know it's a bit stupid buying it now but..." Ianto began. I pulled out the blue bundle and unfolded it to find it was a baby grow reading Mummy's Little Hero on it.

I grinned and looked back up at Ianto, "Thank you Ianto."

...

The five of us sat around a computer, Ianto and Gwen on their own and Jack and I sharing one.

"And we're in!" Jack called as he managed to get into the Torchwood software.

"Just like the old days!" Ianto grinned.

"I'll patch into the new channels, see what's happening." Gwen called.

"Black, no sugar, yeah?" Rhys asked from over in the small kitchen we'd managed to put together.

"That's the one." Jack replied.

Gwen sighed, leaning back from her laptop with a sigh, "No sign of anything. Empty skies."

"Right, where do we start, what are we looking for?" Ianto asked.

"Run a check on that Clement MacDonald." Gwen said. "See if there's any change. And those names Lois said, Captain Andrew Staines. Was it Ellen Hunt? Michael something. All assassinated the same time they tried to kill Jack."

I turned and looked at Jack, "Andrew Staines, Ellen Hunt, Michael Sanders, mean anything to you?" I asked.

Jack frowned, shaking his head, "No, nothing."

"We need to get inside Whitehall." I sighed.

Gwen turned and looked at Ianto, "Have you got the I5 software, Ianto?" She asked.

"Yeah, it's still on the site, why?" Ianto asked.

"Download it onto the laptop... cos these are not just contact lenses. These are Torchwood contact lenses."

"But what do we use them for? Who's gonna wear them?"

"Well, there's only one person still talking to us."

Of course. Lois Habiba. The new girl working at Whitehall, the only person still talking to us.

...

Jack, Ianto and I sat at the computers, watching glumly as we waited for Gwen to come back, hopefully she'd convinced Lois to wear the contacts so we could see inside Whitehall.

"Frobisher's the key to this." Jack sighed. "He's just a civil servant, he's nothing. What makes him start authorising executions?"

There was a long silence.

"What did it feel like?" Ianto said suddenly, making Jack frown at him. "I mean, getting blown up."

Jack breathed in sharply, "It wasn't the best of days."

"No, but... did you feel it? Or did everything just go black?"

"I felt it."

"Shit." Ianto and I muttered in unison.

"Yeah."

"D'you ever think that, one day, your luck'll run out?" Ianto asked. "That you won't come back."

"I'm a fixed point in time and space."

"That's what the Doctor says." I explained as Ianto frowned. "It means it's forever."

Ianto looked over at Jack sadly, "So... one day, you'll see me die of old age. And just keep going." Ianto said.

"Yeah." Jack replied.

"You're not the only one." I smiled sadly, squeezing Ianto's hand. "When I'm old and wrinkly, a man who hasn't aged since his mid twenties will be standing there, watching me die. My son will watch me die, and he wouldn't have aged."

We all looked over at Ianto's computer as it beeped suddenly, showing a picture of the man from the clip we'd seen back at the hub, the only man who was chanting with the children.

"Whoa, that's nice, look at that... face recognition software." Ianto said. "And... arrested two hours ago in London. He wouldn't give his name, but that is Clement MacDonald."

"That's the man from the hospital." Jack said.

"Could be useful." His phone suddenly rang and he picked it up, "Gwen?" He asked.

"I've given her the contacts, but God knows, I think she's too scared." I heard Gwen reply in the background.

"No we've got a little new mission for you. That Clem's turned up, in Camden police station of all places, arrested for theft and minor affray. Could you get him out?"

"How am I supposed do that?!"

"You were a policewoman."

"Oh, OK. Bloody hell, anything else while I'm at it?"

"Fillet steak would be nice."

"Yeah, don't push it, see you later."

Ianto hung up with a smirk as Jack stared carefully at the photo of Clem. "So Ianto, what's his story?" Jack asked.

"Well, according to Gwen, it was your classic alien abduction, as back when he was a kid." Ianto said. "1965. He was living ten miles outside Arbroath, the Holly Tree Lodge, it was an orphanage." I looked out of the corner of my eye, watching Jack tense, not that Ianto noticed. "I looked up the files, the kids were taken away in November 1965, the Lodge was closing down, they were being taken to a second care home called Harbour Heights in Plymouth. Except, that's where the records stopped, there's no trace of them arriving. I mean It was the '60s, a lot of the paperwork's gone missing. But if what he's saying is true, maybe they never got there." Jack got up and looked over Ianto's shoulder.

"Show me those people."

"What people?"

"Andrew Staines, Ellen Hunt, Michael Sanders. The ones that were killed the same day as me."

"Why, d'you think there's a connection?"

"Show me!" Ianto quickly turned back to his computer, bringing up some pictures of some elderly people. "No, no, give me their history, show me them 40 years ago."

"What for?"

"Just do it!" Jack barked. I reached over with a frown and squeezed Jack's hand. The photos changed, showing the people when they were younger, in uniform. Jack stared at the photos, stunned.

"Who are they, Jack?" Ianto asked nervously. "Did you know them?"

"I never knew their names." Jack whispered.

"Who were they?

"Jack, tell me." I said sharply, standing up to look him in the eye. "Did you know them?"

Jack moved away from me and grabbed his coat, running off.

"Jack!" Ianto shouted.

"Oi!" Rhys called over from the small kitchen. "The beans are ready!"

...

And we waited a while. And he didn't come back.

Ianto and I stood nervously round the computer as Rhys hurried over, news reports coming throught about the children.

"It's them, it's all of them, the kids." Ianto said nervously.

"What are they saying?" Rhys asked.

"I don't know, just pointing."

"It says, all the children in America are pointing east." I said, reading off the screen. "And all the children in Europe are pointing west."

"It's us." Rhys said. "They're pointing at us."

"They're pointing at Thames House." Ianto said. "Come on!" He turned and ran off. Rhys and I shared a look before chasing after him.

The three of us ran up the stairs and to the roof, looking out across London. We looked over at the top of Thames House as a column of fire decended from the clouded sky, lowering itself quickly to the roof of Thames House and in.

"Oh shit." I breathed as the fire died down and dissappeared inside Thames House.

"Do you recognize it?" Ianto asked.

"No." I shook my head. "And that worries me more than anything. What the bloody hell is it?"

...

The three of us stood round the computer back in the HUB2, watching the computer as the news feeds fled through.

"It is all kicking off now." Ianto gulped. "Just when we need Jack."

...

And so Gwen brought back Clem to us. And the bastard was eating all our food.

"There you go." Gwen said, handing Clem a cup of tea as he sat on the sofa, watching everyone cautiously. To be honest, the man was a bit of a nut.

"Save some for the rest of us, mate!" Rhys called over.

"He's your husband?" Clem asked, eyeing Rhys.

"Yes. Yes, my beloved." Gwen replied.

Clem looked up and around the warehouse innocently, "Nice house, isn't it?"

"Well, we do our best!" Rhys said sarcastically. "It's got shower facilities. Just stand under the skylight."

Clem laughed, "I've stayed in worse." He looked over at Ianto. "And who's the queer?" He asked in a sort of 'eeeew' voice.

"Oi!" Ianto yelled, glaring at him. "It's not 1965 any more."

"He's queer. I can smell it."

...

Gwen sat at her laptop with Rhys, Ianto and I reading over her shoulder.

"What d'you think's in there?" Rhys asked.

"God knows." Gwen sighed. "That's why we need Lois."

"No sign of her." I sighed, looking at the blank screen. "Lenses inactive." I turned and walked off a bit, pulling my phone out of my pocket and flicked through my contacts.

Alan

Alistair

Amy

Clyde

Donna

Gita

Gwen

Haresh

Ianto

Jack

Jackie

Leo

Luke

Maria

Martha

Mels

Mickey

Mum

Owen

Rani

Rory

Rose

The Doctor

The TARDIS

Tish

Tosh

Wilf

I had people on my contact list who were dead, in parralel worlds, and couldn't even remember me. There was nobody I could call. I was stuck.

"Online!" Ianto called over. I ran quickly over to them, pocketing the phone again to find Lois had put the lenses in. "She's doing it!"

"Oh, good girl!" Gwen cheered,

"I knew she would!" Rhys grinned.

Thanks. Gwen typed.

"Oh, God!" Lois said, blinking into the mirror of the toilets of Thames House. "Don't do too much of that."

"Sorry." Gwen laughed.

"She can't hear you." Rhys said.

"I know."

"Is that you, Gwen?" Lois asked, the computer talking through the lip read system.

Yes its me. Gwen typed.

"Right then. Good luck." Lois said.

Ianto leaned in and typed awkwardly.

"Oh, don't do that, I hate smileys." Gwen frowned, watching him send her a smiley.

"Took me a while to get used to those things." Rhys shrugged.

I looked up and shared a look with Gwen

"What, you've used the lenses?" Ianto asked.

"Yeah. That's why Gwen had them."

"I just took them home for a bit of fun." Gwen said quickly.

"Fun?" I laughed.

"Yeah."

"Y'know." Rhys said. "Fun."

"Yeah, well been there, done that." Ianto shrugged. "It is fun."

"Yeah." Rhys and Gwen said in unison.

I burst out laughing, "What sort of kinky shit do you lot at Torchwood get up to?"

The three of them glared at me and we turned our attention back to the computer as Lois got into the lift, followed by a man and a woman as we recognized as Bridget Spears and John Frobisher.

"That's him, that's John Frobisher." Ianto said.

"Bastard!" Rhys exclaimed. "Fat lot of good that is, back of his head, how do we know if he's saying anything." We watched as the three people on the screen stepped out of the lift. There were guards carrying guns around as another man lead them and a line of other people into a room, dark and marble, with a big tank with gas in at the end of the room. "What the hell is that?"

"Some sort of tank." Gwen said. "There's something inside the smoke."

We watched as Frobisher and Bridget walked up and sat at the main desk at the front of the room by the tank as Lois took a seat at the back, taking out a notepad.

Get closer. Gwen typed.

Lois shook her head.

"Clem, come and see this." Gwen called over. I looked round to see Clem cowering a few metres away. "Oh, come on. Don't be scared, it's miles away. What d'you think?" He edged closer and sniffed. "Anything you've seen before?" She asked both me and Clem. I shook my head, frowning. I still didn't recognize it. What the bloody hell was it?!

"Can't smell it from here." Clem muttered. "Is that what tried to take me?"

"Yeah, I think so."

We turned back to the computer as we watched Frobisher get up and walk into the middle of the room and looked up at the tank.

"He's got his back to us!" Ianto complained.

"Yeah, we can see that!" I hissed.

Need his moth. Gwen typed.

"Need his moth?" Rhys frowned.

"Shut up!" Gwen snapped.

Need his mouth. She typed again.

Slowly, Lois got up and started edging around the room to get a view of his mouth.

"That's it. Come on, good girl." Gwen whispered.

"You've got eyes." Clem said. "You've got eyes in the room."

"Software's not so good in profile." Ianto said as Lois managed to get a sideways view of Frobisher.

"And according to the rules of protocol, as established..." Frobisher said on screen.

Gwen rolled her eyes at Ianto, "It's not too bad."

"It's working."

"No way!" I whispered sarcastically, earning a playful nudge in the side from Ianto.

:-) Gwen typed.

"You hate smileys." Rhys said.

"Shut up." Gwen hissed.

"I must ask you to state whether these greetings are accepted." Frobisher continued. There was no answer, only some spooky noises. "Do you understand me?" Lois looked over at the box of smoke. "I repeat, according to the rules of protocol, as established by the United Nations in the directives of..."

"Then I thank you on behalf of the United Kingdom."

"Did it speak?!" Rhys asked, stunned, although we heard nothing from the alien.

"It hasn't got a mouth, it's got bloody speakers!" Gwen hissed.

"It hasn't got a mouth!" Clem exclaimed.

"The Russian Federation, the Commonwealth of Australia... the Citizens and territories of Canada and Japan and the Hellenic Republic, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Iraq..." Frobisher said.

Can't hear alien. Gwen typed quickly.

Lois looked down at her notepad and wrote something down squiggly.

"It's bloody shorthand!" I hissed.

"No, I can read it, it says "yes"." Ianto said, leaning over and peering at the screen further.

"This is a nightmare!" Gwen exclaimed.

Frobisher continued, "...and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It might be easier if we take those names as read from now on, don't you?"

The 456 banged against the glass, some sort of brown liquid and rough shapes flying onto the glass from the inside.

Lois wrote on the paper again.

"What's it doing?" Ianto transcribed.

"What, is that what it said?" Rhys asked.

"No, that's Lois, saying that!"

God knows. Gwen typed.

"Are you all right?" Frobisher asked the creature. "I'm sorry, but I can't help being concerned, is there a problem? Do you want me to continue?"

Lois wrote again.

"Yes." Ianto said, reading what Lois wrote.

"Right, then." Frobisher continued. "In the spirit of co-operation...we have a formal request to make. We ask you not to use our children for communication. In case certain parties or territories might consider that a violation. Is that acceptable?"

There was a big long pause before Lois scribbled something down.

"Yes." Ianto read.

"Thank you." Frobisher sighed. "And, as a gift, and as welcome to this world, we've prepared a document summarising our culture and history. This document can be made available to you immediately. Though its format remains undetermined. Said format remains of your choosing, though this does not constitute a request for information on, or transfer of, specific 456 technology." Someone got up and passed him a note, which he opened up and read. "I have been given a request for specific information. It has been asked... why the 456 chose Great Britain as its chosen point of embarkation."

Lois began to write again.

"We came here..." Ianto mumbled.

"Because?" Gwen asked.

"That's all it's said!" Ianto frowned before she started writing again. "You have no significance, you are middle men."

"That's a lie, cos it's been here before that's why it's here now. Why… Why is it lying?"

"It's Frobisher. He's got that thing to lie. They're on the same side. Whatever happened in the past, they're hiding it." Ianto muttered before continuing translating. "We have a request."

"By all means." Frobisher replied on screen.

"We want a gift."

"Of course. But... what nature of gift... What nature of gift exactly?"

"A gift."

"Gladly. But what d'you want?"

"We will take your children." Ianto gulped as Lois looked up in shock at the 456 in the tank as it bashed against the glass.

"What the hell for?" Rhys asked loudly.

"I'm, I'm sorry, I think that there might be a problem, with the translation." Frobisher said nervously as Clem began to pace behind us.

"They want to take them, like they did before." Clem babbled. "Like the man did." He stopped, sniffing sharply. "He's coming back. He's coming back."

"Not now Clem, just wait." Gwen said.

"He's coming, he's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming." Clem repeated. I looked over behind him, by the barrel set on fire as Jack stepped out of the shadows.

"ARSEHOLE!" I shouted, running forward and lunging at him. Jack grabbed me by the arms as I stood, staring at him sharply. He stood, sharp to attention as he gently let me go and Clem broke into panic, Gwen trying to calm him down.

"He hasn't changed." Clem gasped. "He's the same. He's the same. He's the same. All those years. How can he be the same?"

"What's he talking about, Jack?" Gwen asked.

"Clement MacDonald." Jack said, to me, more than the others. "Just another name. It was easier, if you didn't know the names."

"You were there." I said, more a statement than a question. "In 1965." I frowned to myself. "Why didn't I figure that out sooner?"

"Walk into the light. Go on."

"He was the man!" Clem exclaimed.

"No, no, this is what he does, you see, he fights them." Gwen reassured him before looking up at Jack. "He fights aliens, isn't that right, Jack?"

"No." Jack said.

"Then what were you doing there?"

"I gave them the kids. 1965, I gave them 12 children."

"What for?"

"As a gift."

A gift. He gave 12 children to the 456. And the bad thing is... I still trusted him with my unborn son.