Among the Forgotten

by LizzeXX

11/OC -Time Lady- When the Doctor's regenerates, his Mate, Angel, is in for the most heartbreaking time of her lives. Cracks in time, Amy Pond, River Song, and many more trials will be thrown at her. How will everything affect her? Will she survive losing her companion Rory? What will she do when the Pandorica opens? And what happened to the Doctor? Sixth in the Heart of Time Saga.

32. Miracle Day: The Families

A/N: This chapter is going to start with taking things just slightly out of order than the last 4 episodes of Miracle Day, mostly involving Jack's past with Angelo. It'll condense a lot of it and explain it more when we hear about the man, I'm hoping it might make things a bit easier to follow where it comes in. I'm going to format them more like the Doctor's memory-flashes and only have a few of them, just so you know :) And I also want to say, I apologize for any grammar/punctuation/spelling errors. I spent the weekend writing this and half of the last chapter and, by the time I finished, it was 2 am, editing (for these chapters) takes about 3 hours, and I had work at 6...so I chose sleep. I'll be going back and editing this chapter over the next few days, but nothing major will change. Enjoy!

Warning: This episode of Torchwood contains references to a pedophile, mentions of past rape, and past murder. This comes about mostly when Oswald Danes is mentioned and when scenes involving him occur.

~8~

Miracle Day: The Families

Gwen was striding through the airport, Gray rushing after her as he tried to calm her down. But she was a woman on a mission, her phone in hand, calling her house instead of Rhys's mobile, "Rhys, call me, ok? Mum, if you can, call me, ok?"

-Keep the lenses in,- she saw flash before her, -We are watching.-

"Gwen!" Gray caught up to her, grabbing her arm, "Gwen, hold on…"

"I can't!" she shouted, rounding on him, "They've got my daughter!"

And with that, she turned and stormed away, Gray shaking his head before rushing after her, trying to dissuade her from doing anything rash.

~8~

Owen stretched as he entered the sitting room to see Tosh on the laptop, at the table, Angel and Ianto talking quietly on the sofa, while Jack was on the phone in the kitchen.

"How many views have we got now?" Owen walked over to Tosh, dropping a kiss on her head as he saw her looking at their posting of the footage from the camps.

"Not enough," she sighed.

"They'll have to shut down the camps," Ianto nodded, there was no way the people would stand for that.

"No," Owen sighed, "It just says they're paused for now. The politicians are denying it all, but the camps still exist, with their ovens."

"Please," Angel called quietly, "Please don't talk about the ovens."

"Sorry," Owen murmured, wincing. Of all of them, Angel was the most upset by what they'd seen.

Actually, she seemed the most upset in general, she seemed more concerned, more worried, more fearful, than she had been last time. Almost like how someone had turned up the dial on life, someone else had turned up the dial on her emotions. But then again, Angel was just a kind soul, they could understand her being more upset to about it all. They were well aware of the cruelty humans could show, Angel always hoped for the best.

"Jack!" Gwen shouted, rushing into the house.

"Gwen, you're back!" Tosh smiled.

"Why didn't you call ahead?" Ianto frowned.

"We could have picked you up," Owen agreed, none of them noticing Angel look at her closely.

"Where's Jack?" she demanded.

"Right here," Jack entered from the next room, the phone to his ear, frowning when he saw her frantic state, "What's wrong?"

"You've got to come down to the car," Gwen began, "I've got to show you someth…"

"Don't!" Gray ran in, "Jack don't."

"Jack I just…"

"Jack, don't listen to her!"

"I'm just trying to sa..."

"Don't you dare Gwen!"

"Gwen?" Angel called quietly, cutting through Gray and Gwen's shouting over each other. They looked at her and she glanced at them, before putting her hand in front of her mouth, "What happened?" she asked the woman, getting up and moving before her.

"Why are you doing that Ang?" Jack looked at her in concern.

Gwen blinked rapidly, tears in her eyes, "It's the contacts, they're in them," she breathed.

Tosh's eyes widened and she frantically began typing on the software, hacking in, gasping when she saw the messages that had been left, "Oh my God!"

"What is it?" Jack looked at them.

Gray sighed as Gwen closed her eyes and started to cry, "They've got Anwen and Rhys and her mother. They said they'd let them go if she gave them you."

"They don't have them Gwen," Jack shook his head.

"They do," Gwen looked at him, "I phoned 100 times. There's no reply. They've got them and…"

Jack just handed her the phone at his shoulder.

Gwen frowned, but took it, "Hello?"

"Gwen," Rhys answered.

Gwen nearly fell to the ground in relief, sagging against the sofa as Angel ran to her side, putting an arm around her, "Rhys?" she whispered.

"And Anwen, and your mum and dad," Rhys replied.

"Why didn't you answer your phone you stupid ba…"

"Oi, you're on speaker Gwen, and Anwen's right here!"

Gwen took a breath, "Why didn't you answer?"

"Had to switch phones didn't I? You call that number and they'd be able to trace me. Jack said he'd give you the new number once you got in."

"How did you even escape?" Gwen wondered.

"Angel called me just after I left with your dad."

Gwen looked at the girl as she smiled, mouthing 'Thank you' to her as she nodded.

"Told me not to go back to the flat, said to head to the Hub instead. She called your mum too to get her and Anwen out, they were there waiting when I got there. Had that access you gave me and…"

"You're ok then?" Gwen cut in, not needing details, just needing to know they were safe. Torchwood, especially after all the break ins and other facilities trying to get in was like a fortress now. Only those with clearance could enter. And it was under the government's protection so no one from America would be able to force their way in on that ground either. If they were there, if they were inside, they were safe.

"Right as rain," he laughed, "And don't worry I've ordered your mum not to touch anything, and I'm keeping Anwen in her play area so she won't be near the equipment."

She let out a breath, "Thank God."

"You just focus on what you're doing Gwen," Rhys encouraged her, "We've got your dad set up in the medical area, we're monitoring him and we've got food and water and we're safe. You stay safe too."

"I will," she swore, "I promise. We'll stop this and I'll come home."

"Good," he told her, "I've got to go, Anwen's getting fussy and needs to sleep."

She laughed, "Kiss her for me," she whispered, "Bye."

"Bye," he ended the call and Gwen looked at them for only a moment before half throwing herself at Angel and hugging her tightly.

"I don't know what I'd do without you watching over my family," she whispered in the girl's ear.

"Of course," Angel nodded, hugging her back, "Anwen's as good as my niece isn't she?" she laughed, pulling away, wiping the tears that had fallen off of Gwen's cheeks with her thumbs, "Everything will be fine," she eyed her a moment before looking at Jack, "Is it alright if I talk to the lenses?"

Jack grinned, gesturing at Gwen, "Be my guest."

They'd kept in contact with Martha and UNIT before she'd quit, he'd heard about how she'd negotiated calmly and peacefully with the Sontarans. Even if peace hadn't been reached, those were warriors, whoever claimed to have taken Gwen's family were humans.

Angel nodded and looked at Gwen, "Is that ok Gwen?"

She nodded, "Give 'em hell."

Angel smiled and took a breath, "You lied to Gwen," she began.

"There's a cursor," Gwen told her, "They're listening."

"You don't have her family, I got them out. And I don't appreciate lying. If you want Jack, you either have to come and get him, which won't be easy with the team," she nodded behind her and Gwen glanced at Gray, Ianto, Tosh, and Owen who all looked ready to murder someone for the fright she'd been dealt, and then to Jack, smirking confidently, winking at her, and back to Angel, "Or…we can talk this out peacefully," she eyed the contacts, "Have you ever heard of me? The Angel?"

Gwen blinked, -We have- and nodded.

"I know you want to talk to Jack, that's why you wanted Gwen to bring him to you. You don't want to hurt anyone," Gwen scoffed at that, "But trying to upset Gwen wasn't the way to do it. You were using it as a way to make contact yes?"

-Yes-

Gwen nodded again.

"We'll you've made it. We're listening, but you need to listen too. Communication is two ways. You want to talk, we want to listen. Tell us where and when and we'll come to you."

The team stiffened at that.

"And we can talk. If you can promise that, just talking, we'll come on peaceful terms."

Gwen was silent a long while before…

-Nevada-

She frowned, "They said, Nevada."

"Where?" Jack asked.

"Nothing," Gwen said after a moment.

"Maybe they'll give us more when we get to the border?" Tosh suggested.

"Only one way to find out," Jack grinned, "Road trip!"

The team rolled their eyes at that before getting up to pack their things, not about to leave any of them or their equipment lingering in California. If someone was willing to go after Gwen's family, or try to get Jack as a hostage, they wouldn't hesitate to come after all of them. Ianto had worried that they would go after his niece and nephew, his sister, after Angel had called Rhys, and called them as well, just to be safe, they'd gone to stay with the in-laws for extra protection.

"Angie," Jack turned to her, pointing at her, "The best asset in the Universe," he winked at her.

She smiled, that hadn't had anything to do with her abilities, not really, that was just…her trying to get through to the humans. And she'd done it. She started to nod to herself, maybe she was an asset in other ways…maybe, just being her, made her special enough.

~8~

"…and allegations continue to surface about procedures at the new medical facilities," the radio played as the Torchwood team sat quietly in the van following the instructions on Gwen's contacts through the streets of a small, though seemingly prosperous, Nevada town, "But Oswald Danes has released a statement in which he says that a global emergency calls for emergency measures and he advocated a swift return to the category policy."

"This the place?" Jack asked as he pulled the van up to a rather large house, clearly the property of someone very wealthy.

Tosh nodded, looking at the laptop on her lap, "According to the map yeah."

"Gwen?" he looked at her.

-Step out,- came up.

She nodded, "This is it."

"Show time," Jack murmured as they all got out of the car, Jack and Gray in the front with Gwen between them. Owen to Gray's right with Tosh beside him, between Gray and Gwen, with Owen beside her, and Angel on the other side of Jack, just waiting.

"Angel…" Owen looked at her.

She nodded, "I've got it," she glanced down at her hand, a soft swirl of gold around it.

If this was an ambush, if her feelings were off about this being a peaceful meeting, if they were about to be fired on…she could protect them. And she would protect them, no matter what.

They watched as the front door to the mansion opened and a woman in a short-sleeved dress stepped out, short brown hair, looking about Gwen's age, and…quite familiar to Jack if he had to say.

"Know her?" Gray glanced at Jack, but he could only shake his head.

"Thank you for coming," the woman greeted, coming to step before them, glancing at Jack, "Captain Harkness, the last mortal man. It has been a long journey."

"Get to the point," Gwen cut in, still on edge about her family nearly being used as bait. Ianto and Jack had had the right idea keeping their families out of Torchwood's business. Alice and Stephen were still in witness protection, nothing about them could be traced back to Jack in a familiar sense, UNIT, Torchwood, and the government making sure to cover that up. Ianto took extreme measures to protect his sister and her children since the 456 incident, only really talking to them via webcam that Tosh had hooked up for him, using an image shifter that Gray had brought back from his travels to go see them under the guise of an old great-uncle till he was in the house.

But her family was one of the few that could be traced right to her, anyone would know that, and someone had tried to use it against her. That was not a good thing in her book.

The woman nodded, "Then I think you had better come inside."

Jack held up a hand, more to stop the woman turning around than to signal his team not to follow, "Why would we do that?" he eyed the house, for all they knew it was a trap.

"It's not a trap," Angel told him quietly, able to sense that.

"No," the woman agreed, "Inside that house…is the one man who knows how the Miracle began."

"And who's that?" Owen asked, crossing his arms.

But the woman looked at Jack, "Angelo. Angelo Colasanto."

"What?" Jack blinked, the team eyeing him as he stiffened.

"He's waiting for you, Jack. He's been waiting for such a very long time."

Ianto looked at Jack, not jealous, but genuinely curious and confused, "Jack, who's Angelo Colasanto?"

~8~

Angelo Colasanto was a name he hadn't heard in decades. Angelo Colasanto was a man he'd first met back in 1927, on Ellis Island when the man had stolen his passport off him and tried to pass himself off as Captain jack Harkness to gain access to New York. He'd discovered the man, of course, and gotten his documents returned, the documents claiming he was designated free passage by the British Consulate through the embassy in Rome. Angelo had been taken by the police, but there had been…something about the man that intrigued him.

And it had nothing to do with his name being like Angel's but with an o at the end. He hadn't even known the man's name when he'd gone to visit him in prison. As it turned out, Angelo had recognized that the visa was, in fact, forged, but hadn't said anything. He'd even got one-up on him by admitting he hadn't known for sure if it was forged till Jack had asked him how he knew. That had been another thing that drew him to the man. He was clever and adventurous, and a little bit pretty, he could have been in movies if he'd tried.

He had a red mark on his right eye as well. But it didn't take away from how gorgeous his eyes were. He'd learned a lot about Angelo just from meeting him in jail. He had a good eye for detail and made connections easily. Despite being Italian, his English had been nearly perfect, courtesy of a good school teacher back in his small village on the Amalfi Coast. He'd come to America, to New York, to meet new people, to escape his world of a little village of only 200 people, to see buildings taller than the cliffs that surrounded his village.

For a new life.

And that had been wonderful.

He hadn't met someone with that sort of…drive, with that amazement with the world around him since Angel. Angelo, in a way, reminded him quite a bit of her, to be honest. He was young and spirited, innocent and just a touch naïve, he'd thought the Fourth of July fireworks had been bombs. He looked at everything with wonder and appreciated all that he had. He never complained about the things the situations he found himself in and…he trusted him. He'd broken the man out of prison using the Vortex Manipulator to forge a passport for him as well, spooked the man a bit, yet, even after that, Angelo had trusted him, had even been curious as to how the Manipulator worked.

They'd gone to New York together, to Manhattan, and shared a small room…and an even smaller bed. That had been one of the most passionate romances of his life, before Ianto at least. Both men just seemed to know how to get to him. He could admit though, it was more of a physical attraction to Angelo as opposed to the love he did feel for Ianto. Ianto was quite the looker but he also had that inner strength that came from dealing with Torchwood and the strange that just…amazed him. He loved Ianto for his personality, his coffee, his style, his mind, everything.

Granted, he hadn't had time to truly get to know Angelo in that way. Their first night together, in a quaint little, cheap room, in Little Italy had been their first night together in that way too. It was a small, cramped, room, but Angelo hadn't complained, even offered to take the floor so their landlady wouldn't mind them sharing. He'd accidently let it slip that Angelo should save his money, given the Stock Market Crash that was coming in a few years, had even mentioned Torchwood. But, then again, Angelo, in his own way, had let it slip that he favored men as well, something he knew the man must have felt ashamed about given his religion and upbringing.

He'd learned more about it, about the man's life though, the longer they were together. Just…little details. He'd been bullied as a child, even his villagers suspecting his preference for men. Had had to learn to fight and defend himself, yet still saw good in others, still held firm to his religion despite his preferences. Though he desperately tried to hide that he was gay for self-preservation. Little Italy was a god-fearing town at the time.

Angelo had been scarred both physically and spiritually by his preference, he'd learned that at least. They had been in the middle of a Torchwood mission, not that Angelo was aware, sitting in the back of a church, watching a wedding, commenting on it. He'd thought it was great, he loved weddings, but Angelo had been more cynical about it, hadn't thought the couple would make it. He firmly believed that God had stopped listening to him for the things he did in secret with other men. Their discussion had been interrupted when he'd seen his target though, a priest who had access to the stores of sacramental wines.

It was prohibition in New York and men were desperate for their alcohol.

Well, that hadn't really been his mission, Torchwood wasn't getting involved in alcohol delivery in the States, no, it was about another man supplying alcohol that had them sending him across the ocean. He and Angelo had gone to the back with the priest, gotten the wine, and were about to leave, when the mob had gotten them, their leader, a Sal Maranzano, had almost had them killed. He'd kept his cool though, this was the man he'd been sent to find after all, he knew just what to say to get the man to wait. He'd given him a song and a dance about how he and Angelo could operate off the grid and not be traced back to him, how they could do whatever was needed.

Sal had caved almost immediately and tasked them with moving a box in a warehouse at Gallaco Wharf to another place. Not that he cared where the other place was, no, his orders were just to stop what was in the box. He'd been fully intent to send Angelo away after that, not wanting to have risked the man's life. If was one thing for him, not only was he immortal but he knew what he was getting into, Angelo had no idea at all what was waiting…

~oOo~

Angelo stood by the window of their small flat, looking out it, until he noticed Jack gathering things around the room and putting them in a suitcase, "You're running away?"

"No," Jack answered.

Angelo blinked, seeing exactly what items Jack had in his hand, "That's mine! What are you doing? You're packing my things!" he rushed over and tried to pull his shirt out of Jack's grip, but Jack wouldn't let go.

"You need to go now. There's a plan…"

"And I'm not part of your plan?" Angelo frowned, grabbing Jack's hands to stop him, looking at them, "Look at your hands. Not a scar on them."

"I'm tougher than you. Maranzano's people have stumbled across something they're not supposed to have. I've got to stop them."

Angelo stared at him, the horrible truth dawning on him, "You made this happen? You've planned this!" all of it, the wine, the priest, how calm he'd been when the mob had been taking them, how he kept shouting to just let it happen, he KNEW about it, he'd WANTED it to happen! He shook his head, "Since when? Since you got on the boat to America?"

"Just get out town, Angelo," Jack cut in, speaking firmly, not arguing but ordering him, "These people are bad. You don't want to be on their list. Get far away."

"Who are you doing this for? The government in England? Or the other thing you said, Torchwood?"

Jack just held up a ticket, "For the train. Go to the west coast. You're handsome enough. Get into the movies."

"I'm not letting you send me away," he stated, holding his ground.

"Why?" Jack glared, "Because you wouldn't know how to get another man? Because you're not brave enough?"

"You think I'm with you because it's easy?" Angelo scoffed, tears in his eyes as he spoke of their relationship, "It's not easy, trust me."

"I know," Jack cut in, "I hear the beads clicking at night, Angelo," he couldn't begin to count the number of times he'd woken up to hear Angelo praying, clutching his Rosary beads, "Everything we do, you ask for forgiveness afterwards. That's just sex. Imagine if it was love. What would he say then, your God? What would he say if two men could love? Oh, but no. No, that's impossible. And if it's impossible, then you can't stay with me."

Angelo sniffled, deeply hurt by what Jack was saying, but how little he knew of what he thought or felt if he could say that and honestly believe it, "You...you're an ass. For a man who knows a lot of things, you're not so bright. Think about it. I grew up in a village with 200 people. Only 200. The sun would rise and the sun would set over the same 200 people. And that was it. That was my world. And look at me now. I'm a bootlegger in New York City with you in my bed. You think any of your secrets can change my life more than it's already changed? And yes, I...I feel guilty about what we do. It hasn't made me stop doing it. Besides, I always hoped... if God is love, maybe...he loves me too."

"That's blasphemy," Jack warned.

"I think that's Christianity," he countered.

Jack stared at him for a long while before looking down at the clothes he'd packed for the man, slowly taking them out of the case.

"You're unpacking my things?" Angelo eyed him, hopeful.

"I've got this friend," he began, "He's called the Doctor. He explores the world...with a companion," he started to smile, "And with my sister, Angel," he let out a little laugh, "The Angel of the Universe," he glanced at Angelo, "She'd have liked you, she'd love to meet you, give you a hug…"

"Are you saying that I can stay?" Angelo asked, "Meet this Doctor? Meet your sister?"

Jack sighed, "Maybe."

Because he honestly didn't know. He hadn't seen either of them in nearly a century, not since his Manipulator had burned out in the temporal jumping side. It still functioned in other areas, was still useful, but it couldn't send him through time any longer. Who knew how long it would be before he saw them again?

What if, the next time he did, he still looked young as always, but Angelo was an old man?

~oOo~

If only things had been that simple. He and Angelo had gone to the Wharf, to the box they weren't supposed to look in, and looked inside it. Of course. And, of course, since Torchwood was involved, they'd found an alien, like a large worm with teeth on the end of it.

Torchwood had intercepted orders to Maranzano, told the man to hold this 'weapon' in the box until after the next state election, then ship it to Albany. It was a parasite. Angelo had been curious to know more about it, just like Angel had been of almost everything they'd encountered. It was a species of brainspawn that was usually seen as vermin on quite a few planets, but actually used as a meal on another.

It tastes like oysters.

But that wasn't the point, the point, he'd realized, was that this specific worm could drill into the brain of the host and deposit larvae that would hatch into little worms, sharp as needles, all of them pushing further and further into the brain, too slowly for anyone to notice. Most people assumed a host was just suffering from dementia, but they had no idea. The larvae could make someone go insane over the years. And given that the next state elections were what would get Franklin Roosevelt elected as governor of New York and eventually President, he knew what the hope had been for the worm. The owners clearly wanted to use it on the man during that election so that, by the time he was in his second term as president, he'd start making insane decisions. It would only serve to lead to the destabilization of America, it would force them to pull out of the war which would allow Germany and Hitler to rise with the Third Reich triumphant.

It would create an entirely new history and change the future of the Human Race.

Worse, it would destroy the future, create chaos that he knew only one being would be feeding on. He knew that the owners of the worm were the Trickster's Brigade, an organization determined to cause as much chaos in the hopes of strengthening their 'god,' The Trickster, so that he might one day return to this Universe and take over.

A quick bullet to the worm and a packet of special salt and other chemicals devised by Torchwood had stopped the worm and dissolved it, saving the future. Angelo had been impressed, had wanted to learn more about what was going on, about aliens and other creatures that he'd fought in secret, how many times he'd saved the world with no one knowing.

If only he'd gotten the chance to tell him. They'd stayed too long, been discovered, the alarms had gone off and they'd ended up being chased by the police through the Wharf. He'd gotten Angelo out, over a high wall, but hadn't made it himself. He'd been shot, twice in the chest, once right through the head as Angelo watched, as Angelo saw everything, including him die.

So it was no surprise that Angelo, who had been caught fleeing and arrested, had been traumatized and fearful when he'd been released from prison a year later…to see HIM standing just outside the doors, alive and whole.

~oOo~

"Nice suit," Jack called, watching as a more timid and shaken Angelo stepped out of Sing Sing Prison, looking lost and devastated even still. Angelo spun around and gasped, staring at him in wide-eyed shock "Look, it's alright," he held up his hand, slowly walking over, "Don't panic. It's me. I'm the same man."

"I saw you," Angelo shook his head, "I saw you get shot."

"I got better," Jack tried to wave it off.

"You got shot in the head. I saw it. I saw the blood. I saw your body."

"Want to see it again?" he smirked, trying to distract him, not wanting him to think more on it, not wanting the man to work out his immortality. When that happened, that was when things always went bad for him.

"Shut up, Jack!" he snapped, "This is so wrong. Tell me what happened. You were dead."

"Clearly, I wasn't. I was playing dead. Then I cleared out. I went to Los Angeles…"

"No, I saw you dead."

"But I'm alive," he reached out to take Angelo's hand, "Feel," but Angelo just pulled his hand away, "You wanted to learn the secrets? This is the best secret of all," he reached out again, this time Angelo let him take his hand and place it on his chest, letting him feel his heart beating.

"You're alive," Angelo whispered, looking at him, tears in his eyes, hardly daring to believe it.

He nodded, "I'm alive. I came back, Angelo. I came back for you. Believe me, I have never done that before. I-I even got us that same old room."

Angelo blinked, "You came back for me?"

"Yes," Jack swallowed, "Yes, I did," he looked into Angelo's eyes, "You don't know whether to hit me or to kiss me, do you? Come on," he took the man's hand, leading him off, "You can try both."

~oOo~

Angelo had stabbed him.

Angelo had stabbed him in the side as they were getting 'reacquainted' on the bed.

He'd started shouting about how he was the Devil, had rushed at him, ready to stab him in the heart. He'd tried to defend himself, tried to reason with the man, let him know he wasn't the Devil, he was just Jack…

But Angelo had won, had stabbed him again, right in the heart.

He'd died.

Only to gasp awake to see Angelo standing with the Butcher and his Wife at the foot of the bed, clearly in shock at what he'd done, at how he'd killed a man and needed help, needed understanding.

It had been the worst time to resurrect as now there were more witnesses. The butcher's wife had screamed at him that he was the devil, the butcher taken a knife to him again, stabbing him repeatedly.

Till he died once more.

He'd awoke again, chained up this time, before a gathering of Italian immigrants in the basement of the butcher's shop. He'd given them all a scare, but…it hadn't been enough to keep them back. They rushed at him, all of them, seeming to take turns trying to kill him permanently. They'd stabbed him and stabbed him and cut him and hit him, everything they could possibly do…they'd done.

And he just kept coming back to it.

And Angelo had just kept standing in the background, watching it happen, not trying to stop it, but looking fearful and sorry.

They'd even tried to bleed him dry.

He'd woken a few times to see women before him, collecting his blood from the various cuts on his body, but he was never awake long enough to explain what had happened, why he kept living, not that they'd believe him.

It was hard to change someone's mind when they thought you were the Devil they feared.

And so the torture and the killing just kept happening…

~oOo~

Jack's head hung, his chin to his chest, as he slowly woke once more, this time hearing only three hushed voices, three men and not the angry mob that had been attacking him. He blinked, lifting his head slightly to see there were, in fact, only three men standing before him now, two white men and a black man.

"I don't know," the man on the left was asking, "I just don't know what it is."

"Hmm," the black man eyed him, before glancing at the others, "How much is the butcher asking?"

"10,000."

"Not too much for something with so much potential," the man in the middle remarked.

"And we'd own him...together?" the black man asked.

"A partnership," the man to the left looked at the other two, "What do you say?"

The man in the middle held out his hand, "Agreed."

Followed by the black man, who grabbed the middle man's wrist, "Agreed."

The last man nodded, grabbing the black man's wrist as the first man grabbed his, their hands forming a triangle, "Agreed."

~oOo~

He'd been lucky though. From what he could gather, the three men were intending to buy him from the butcher. But Angelo had come back, the guilt having eaten at him, urging him to rescue him.

Angelo had released him from the chains, tried his best to clean his wounds, and told him that he had a way out. It had taken a few minute for him to gather his strength, but soon enough he was running through the streets of New York with Angelo in the lead.

~oOo~

"Hurry up!" Angelo shouted as they ran down the road, "Hurry, there's a train out tonight!"

"Train where?" Jack shook his head, following him with a wince, the cuts still in the process of healing, "Where are we going?"

"Like you said, we'll go to the west coast, Los Angeles, together," Angelo looked back, only to see Jack wasn't following him anymore, but had run across the street, "Jack!" he hissed, rushing after him, "Jack! Where are you going?"

"I left something here!" Jack called, making his way up the fire escape, Angelo rushing after him.

"You left something in a vent on a roof?" Angelo asked, seeing him pulling the top of a vent off.

"Ha!" Jack cheered, pulling out his WWII jacket, "Never go far without it."

"Ok," Angelo nodded, turning to head back to the fire escape, "But now we go."

"I'm going, yeah," Jack blinked, growing serious, "Time to move on," before adding, "But not with you."

Angelo froze and looked at him, seeing Jack had gone solemn, "I'm sorry," he whispered, knowing what this was about, how he hadn't helped, how he'd been the cause of Jack's hurt, "I was terrified, Jack. They said you were the Devil, but other people said you were a blessing…"

Jack swallowed hard, "Something happened to me once, a long way away. I was just trying to help the Doc and Angie, but I died. And then…I came back," he shrugged, "Time itself changed me to…I don't know," he shook his head, "A fixed point. And now I can't die. I suffer and I perish, but I always come back. I've lived through a lot of Earth's past and a lot of its future. And I'll keep on living this life, forever."

Angelo looked at him, "In the future, are we together?"

"What does it matter?" Jack frowned.

"Are we together?"

"We can't be, 'cos one day you're going to die and I won't."

"Then we forget the future. We make the moment now. We make a promise and we go forward."

"Angelo, don't," Jack warned as Angelo made his way over to him.

"What? You're lonely, too. You said you want a companion."

"Don't make me do this."

"You're not going without me!"

"Just let me go."

"But you can't!" Angelo cried, tears in his eyes, "I'm never going to let you go. I could travel this whole wide world, but where would I find another man like you? Please," he begged, "Don't leave me on my own."

Jack just looked at him, sorrowful, before pulling his hands away and shaking his head, walking back from him, "I'm sorry, Angelo, but this is the story of my life. It always ends the same way. You kill me," he told him quietly, reaching the edge of the roof, "Men like you...you kill me."

And with that, he opened his arms wide, and let himself fall off the roof.

"No!" Angelo rushed to the edge, looking down at Jack's prone form sprawled out on the pavement, "No! No!" he turned and ran down the fire escape, making it to the ground, "No, Jack!"

But Jack was gone.

~oOo~

He'd never heard from Angelo again after that, and as the years went on, he thought of the man less and less. He was just another man in the long list of lovers he'd had that had turned on him. Even if he was among the more repentant ones in the end, he'd lived too long to trust men who hurt him like that, he'd lived too long to be with men who he couldn't trust.

~8~

"Jack?" Angel asked, stepping beside him and touching his arm, "Are you ok?"

Jack blinked a few times and shook his head, "Angelo's in there?" he looked at the woman, not sure he heard her correction.

She nodded, "If you'd please?" she gestured at the house.

"Jack?" Gwen eyed him.

"Come on," Jack looked at the team, reaching over to squeeze Angel's hand before holding it, feeling like he was going to need her strength to face this.

The woman turned around and led the way into the rather lavish home, Jack and the team following her, "He talked about you all the time, Jack," she began, "His immortal man in old New York. He never forgot. You inspired him. You proved immortality was possible. And he devoted the rest of his life to finding out how to live forever."

"And he did it?" Tosh frowned.

"He's still alive?" Owen shook his head, that had to be impossible, the man had to be over 100 by then to have known Jack so long ago."

"He's still young?" Ianto shifted, now starting to feel uncomfortable with it. He always felt this way when Jack's old lovers popped up, mostly with Captain John, but…to know that this man that Jack had met so long ago, who he'd left such an impression on, was still around and thinking of him…

Jack looked over his shoulder at Ianto and winked at him, making the man smile at that. Jack was wonderful. He always seemed to know when he was bothered and did little reassuring things like that. He knew he was worried about Angelo and Jack, and Jack, in his own way, had just promised it was HIM, not Angelo.

He'd come to terms with it, during the 456, when he'd realized he might have died if not for Angel, that he and Jack wouldn't be together forever, not with one of them being immortal and the other mortal, with no way for either to become the other. He knew that, eventually, he would die and Jack would have to move on. In a way, he wanted Jack to move on, he didn't want the man to be alone or sad or unloving, he didn't want to hold him back from opening his heart to others. But, for the moment, he was Jack's and Jack was his and that was the moment he wanted to live in.

"No," Angel said quietly, "Alive, yes, but…" she looked at the woman, "He only that, isn't he?"

The woman sighed, "He's not young," she agreed, "My grandfather waited all this time to live forever. And his wish came true...too late," she pushed open a door and led them into a large room with medical equipment set up all around it.

There was a large bed in the middle, monitors and respirators set up on either side of it, with a very old man lying on it, a breathing mask over his nose and mouth, unconscious.

"What's wrong with him?" Gwen asked, eyeing him.

"At his age, just about everything."

Jack walked cautiously to the bed, alone, the team standing at the foot of it as he leaned over the body, lifting up the right eyelid to see the red marking the eye, "It's him."

He stepped back, staring down at the man as he laid there.

"You must be horrified," Angelo's granddaughter remarked, moving to her grandfather's bed, sitting on the edge and taking his hand, Owen moving to the various equipment to check for any alien properties while Tosh moved to sit at a small desk, opening her laptop to record this.

"Why would you say that?" Jack said quietly, looking at the man with a frown.

"He's grown so old."

Angel looked at Jack, seeing not…sorrow but…anger, in his eyes, and walked over to him, taking his hand as Gwen and Ianto watched him closely, seeing the same, and knowing that it could be dangerous to get near Jack when he lost his temper, much like with Gray. Oh there had been fights between the two men when their tempers flared, and they'd duke it out like children. But they knew Jack would never ever hurt Angel, which was why Gray was more interested in walking around the bed, examining it than watching Angel and Jack.

"That's how we see the whole world," Angel told her, taking Jack's hand, unclenching his fist to do so, "Everyone's young compared to us," she nudged him, "When you've lived so long."

"Not long enough," Jack muttered, and they could all hear his hidden meaning.

He'd never wanted to see this man again.

Angel frowned, "Jack…" she whispered, putting a hand on his arm as well, "What's wrong? What happened?"

Jack just shook his head, "He betrayed me," he told them, "He left me to the mercy of a mob. They killed me, over and over and over, tried to drain me dry, thought I was the Devil. And he just…stood there, watching it, didn't bother to stop them."

Angel looked at the old man, "He was scared."

"And he's dying," his granddaughter remarked, "When the Miracle ends, he'll die," she looked at Jack, "He spent his life trying to work out how to earn your forgiveness."

Jack scoffed, "I don't know if I can."

Angel squeezed his hand, "Jack…as terrible as that was…if he hadn't done it…would you have left New York?"

He looked at her, "What?"

"If he had never hurt you," she continued, "You might have stayed in New York, you might have started a Torchwood base there, but you would have stayed with him. You never would have come back to England, to Cardiff, you never would have found your team and Ianto and the Doctor and I…all the good you did over there, all the people you saved and the aliens you stopped…you never would have done any of that."

Jack blinked and looked at Angelo, thinking on that, it was true, he…he might have stayed in New York with him if he'd had the chance, if things had worked out. And it was true, all of that, all he'd done, he never would have if he'd stayed. But still…he couldn't help the feelings of anger and betrayal that rose in him at the sight of the man, "How do you forgive someone who hurt you?"

Angel looked up at him sadly, an empathy in her eyes, "Did you ever love him, even a bit?"

Jack swallowed, "I did," he nodded, sending Ianto another look that made him smile, not like he loved Ianto.

He loved that about their relationship. He understood Jack in a way none of his other lovers could. The things they'd been through, the secrets he knew, the people he'd met (like Angel) were things no other lover of his could claim to have. It had made them all the closer. They could communicate in a way that didn't always need words. Simple gestures and looks spoke volumes.

"Then you can forgive him," Angel murmured, "When you love someone, you forgive them anything," she looked back at Angelo, "Because you don't want to see them hurt when they're repentant. Because you know not forgiving them would hurt you, and when you love them, when they hurt you hurt too. Because you just want to see them smile again."

And sometimes, sometimes you had no idea what you might have done to someone else that would be cause for them to treat you the way they did. It was why she had forgiven River in the Library. She honestly had no idea what she might have done to her that made the woman hate her so much. Whatever it was, it had to be terrible for her to hold so much of it. She couldn't help but feel like…if she'd hurt River that badly, perhaps she deserved the treatment the woman dished out.

And she knew, she could forgive the Doctor for his amnesia, if he ever remembered what he'd forgotten. She didn't like the anger and hurt and…hate…that could come from not forgiving someone. To not give that out, meant you were holding onto your own feelings, it meant you wanted the other person to suffer in their guilt and that wasn't her. She didn't like people being unhappy or hurt or anything. She didn't like the feelings of anger that came with being hurt. She'd hated the Cybermen for so long, for what they'd done to her mother. It had blinded her to the fact that they had been humans at one point, that they had had their conversion forced on them in most cases.

She didn't like that feeling, to be filled with hate and anger. She found it was trying to do that, to hold onto those feelings. It was easier and more freeing, healthier, to forgive. Not just for her, but for those asking for forgiveness. Hatred and anger turned a person into something they weren't, into something dark. And that wasn't her.

"Love is always stronger than hate," Gray added quietly, making Jack look up to see Gray giving him a meaningful look.

Jack swallowed and looked back down at Angelo, Gray had forgiven him. Gray had been so full of anger and hate and bitterness at what he'd done, at how he'd let go of his hand as a child, but he'd forgiven him. And he'd forgiven Gray for attacking his team and city, because they were family and they loved each other and they couldn't stand to be angry at their brother.

"This is worse than you understand," Angelo's granddaughter continued, forgiveness, right now, wasn't the point to her, the point was the Miracle needed to be stopped, "The stock market is falling. It's been inevitable ever since Miracle Day, which I believe is a part of the plan…"

"Jack," Gwen called, having wandered over to the side of the room when she spotted something, the team looked over, seeing her eyeing a line of photos in frames on the fireplace mantel, "These are all of you. Some of these are..." she shook her head.

"That's Torchwood," Ianto squinted, seeing an image of Jack outside the Hub.

"That's Cardiff," Gray pointed out another.

"When was that?!" Gwen stopped at the last one, Jack…with a moustache and an afro.

"The 70s," Jack grinned, relieved to be off the confusing topic of forgiveness for the moment.

Angel giggled at it, "You've got a moustache."

"Jack…" Gray frowned, looking at one on the other end of the mantel, it was a three fold frame…that had Angel in it.

Angel blinked and stared at it, seeing an image of her 9th incarnation with Jack in Cardiff with Mickey, and then her 10th with Jack standing by the Bay just after the Master had been stopped, and her present self with Jack as they, and the Doctor and a few others, stood in the café with Lois Habiba.

"I told him you were my sister," Jack breathed, "I didn't think he'd work out that you could change your face though."

"It's not that hard to work out if you look closely enough," Angel swallowed, a little disturbed she hadn't noticed someone watching her like that when she'd been on Earth.

"My God, Jack," Ianto shook his head, "He watched you for decades."

"But he never made contact."

"You may not be ashamed of being old, but he was," Angelo's Granddaughter called, pulling their attention back.

"So Angelo didn't cause the Miracle?" Tosh frowned.

"Couldn't have," Owen murmured, before pointing at the equipment set up, "All this…it's human, it's natural. He's managed to live this long through completely natural means, look…" he pointed to a few monitors and regulators, "This keeps his body at a temperature two degrees below normal. And this controls his caloric intake, this medicine," he squeezed an IV bag hanging by the bed, "Keeps his blood pressure below 110…"

"And it worked?" Jack blinked.

"Given he's still alive Jack?" Owen rolled his eyes.

"Prolonging life is simple," the woman cut in, "But no one's worked out how to make a profit at it, so it's not advertised."

"And the whole time he was looking for immortality?" Jack murmured.

"It's not as impossible as it sounds. You are not the only remarkable thing on this earth, Jack. Consider the jellyfish. The species turritopsis nutricula is considered to be immortal. Its cells undergo a process called transdifferentiation. Quite simply, it can revert to a younger state, and grow old again. And then repeat, without limit. It's possible there are individual jellyfish upon this planet that have existed for thousands and thousands of years."

"I'm not as special as I thought," Jack smirked, almost pleased with that.

"You never were. Even within the human body, cancer cells are immortal.

Stem cells, in theory they can divide forever. And this is the research that Angelo investigated. Well, they all did, because my grandfather wasn't alone."

"Who were the others?" Ianto asked.

"The Families," Angel murmured as Jack looked at her with a frown, but she shook her head.

"That's what they call themselves," the woman nodded, "The story says that it started with three men, each representing a different family. And when you were being murdered over and over again, these three men came to witness your resurrection."

Jack started to nod, recalling that, "I saw them. They made a deal."

"They formed an alliance to purchase the power of resurrection. And when you escaped, the three families swore that they'd find the gift again."

"What were their names?" Tosh called, bringing up a search.

"The Ablemarch family, the Costerdane family and the Frines."

"Coster with a t-e-r? and Frines with an i or y?"

"T-e-r, and an i," the woman answered.

"Trace them," Jack ordered, "I want you to find every member of those three families."

"Keep in mind, it's nine decades later," Tosh rolled her eyes.

"And you're brilliant," Owen reminded her, moving over to her, putting a hand on the back of her chair as she got to work.

"Yes I am," she smiled, typing away.

"So what happened then?" Gwen got them back to point, "1928...what did they do next?"

"They lost Jack, but they still had his blood," the woman sighed.

"I thought they were draining it away, but they were collecting it," Jack muttered.

"So they just had to figure out how to use it," Ianto guessed.

"But that's not how it works," Angel frowned, "It's the Vortex not the blood that made him immortal."

"Then why would the three families want to kill you?" Gray frowned.

"I don't know," he shrugged.

"Whatever they were planning," the woman cut in, "My grandfather wasn't included. I think they considered him inappropriate."

"What's inappropriate?"

"He loved a man," the woman stated as though it should be obvious, "He did go on to have a family of his own, and I think he loved my grandmother very much, but he never lied about you, Jack. And I think that Ablemarch, Costerdane and Frines found that a little unfortunate. As a result, Angelo was forced to watch them from afar."

"Made enough money by the looks of it," Owen remarked, looking at the room.

"Well, Jack told him enough to navigate his way through the 20th century and make a profit."

"Jack," Angel nudged him playfully, mock-scolding.

"Hey," he defended himself, "And how many times has the Doctor helped someone win the lottery?"

Angel had to nod to that, the Doctor helped a lot of people make a profit now that she thought about it.

"But what did these Families do to the world?" Gwen had to ask, "They started in Manhattan. 80 years later the whole of the planet becomes immortal."

"And I become mortal," Jack finished.

"In 1998 we intercepted a message," the woman added, "It was just one word, 'Blessing.'"

"We've heard that before," Angel frowned, thinking about Owens, "They found it."

Jack nodded, "Whatever the Blessing is, the three families found it," he shook his head, now determined, now knowing he was, at least partially, responsible for the mess the world was in, "I think it's time we found them and had a little chat don't you?" he looked at the team who nodded.

"I don't think it'll be that easy though," Angel said.

Tosh nodded, "There's no one called Ablemarch or Costerdane or Frines," she called, "Literally, no such names. There's nothing. It's blank. They don't exist."

"Like Torchwood?" Ianto guessed.

"Exactly," Tosh agreed, "Just like when you run a search for Torchwood, you get nothing."

"Good thing you love a challenge eh?" Owen squeezed Tosh's shoulders.

Tosh grinned widely, "Oh yes," and got back to work.

"Is there anything you can tell us about where we can find the three families?" Gray turned to Angelo's granddaughter.

She shook her head, "We've searched for their physical location for decades," she told them, "They came out of New York with the motivation of keeping this secret. Where's the best place to hide yourself? In plain sight."

"They're everywhere," Angel repeated what they'd heard so often about it.

"Whoever they are," Ianto remarked, "They're careful and clever."

The room fell into silence a moment…when a soft rumbling was heard.

Angel blushed as they all looked at her, "Sorry," she winced, "Um…could I bother you for some crisps?"

The woman smiled and stood, "Angelo talked about you too, you know," she told her, "Jack's Angel, his sister," she eyed her, "Bribed quite a few people in UNIT to find out you were an alien, don't worry," she added quickly, seeing Angel's eyes widen and the others stiffen, "He swore on his life to protect you, to protect Jack and the people close to him," she looked at them all, smiling and nodding when she looked at Ianto, "It's a sentiment I've kept to," she put a hand on Angel's shoulders and gestured to the door, "I'll have the cooks prepare lunch for you all if you'd like?"

"That'd be good," Jack nodded, knowing that Tosh would need to eat, being pregnant, and that the rest of the team hadn't eaten much since they'd left, far too nervous about what they might encounter there.

"If you'll follow me?" she turned and led the way out of the room, Jack giving one more look back at Angelo before shutting the door behind him.

~8~

Jack slowly entered Angelo's room, lunch had been delicious and the team was taking a moment to just…enjoy the meal and try to find out more about what Olivia, Angelo's Granddaughter, knew about the families.

But he had something else on his mind that had kept him pretty quiet during the meal. Angel and Gray and what they'd said about forgiveness.

It wasn't fair, to hold this over Angelo as the man slowly died. It wasn't fair at all. It was literally the man's dying wish to know he forgave him for what happened in Little Italy. And it was the least he could do to forgive him.

Because Angel was right.

If Angelo had never hurt him the way he had, he wouldn't have left New York and done all he had since then. True, some of it was terrible, like handing over the kids to the 456, but others…like Ianto, were too good for him to regret leaving New York.

"All these years later and my life hasn't changed," he whispered, moving to stand at the man's bedside, looking down at him, the faint beeping of the heart monitor steady and slow, "I can't believe you were watching me. Maybe you said hello. Some old man asking me directions and I just...looked right through you. You saw him, though, Ianto," he glanced at one of the pictures, him and Ianto walking along the Bay, his arm around Ianto, "You'd have liked him. You'd have liked Angel too. I wonder if you ever said hello to them," he sighed, "I've got people in my life now Angelo, good people, people who have helped me to be a better person. And I never would have met them if not for you and everything that happened between us. So I wanted to say…I forgive you," he reached out and put a hand to Angelo's forehead, "I swear, I really and truly forgive you," he nodded, "And now I have to go, work to be done," he moved over, placing one kiss on the man's forehead, "See you later, old man."

He'd just straightened and turned to go, when the machines connected to Angelo began to beep furiously.

"What's the point of that?" he asked the monitors, as though they could reply back, just watching as Angelo's heart rate flatlined, "He's sick, I know. Tell me something new," but the beeping got louder, "Shut up! You want to tell whoever made this stuff dying's not quite the same anymore? Oh, how do I…" he looked around and grabbed the plug, unhooking the machine so it turned off, "That's better. Kind of cruel though. Angelo..." he gave a small laugh and looked down at the man, "Even if your heart stops, you go on living nowadays. Like I said," he put his hand on the man's, squeezing it, "I've got to…" he cut off suddenly, his eyes widening as he stared at the man's hand…it was growing cold, unlike the Category 1s in the modules that Ianto had seen, "No way," he quickly stepped back and flashed the man, scanning him with his Manipulator, staring at the results in alarm, "That's impossible. How the hell did you do this?" he ran to Angelo's side and started to do chest compressions, "I've got a man dying here!" Jack shouted, "Owen! Angie! Angelo's dying!" he shouted.

A moment later the team ran in, hearing his shouts, "Jack, what's happening?" Gwen gasped.

"He's dead," Jack pointed at Angelo, "He died. Angelo died right in front of me."

"He can't die Jack," Owen rolled his eyes, but Angel frowned and moved over to the man's side, putting her hand on his, feeling the same thing Jack had, the man had gone cold.

"This man's dead," he insisted, "Literally, stone COLD dead!"

"He can't be dead," Tosh shook her head, but urged Owen to go check anyway.

"It's impossible," Gwen agreed.

"Nobody can die," Ianto added.

"Isn't he just a Category 1 now?" Gray frowned.

"I scanned him," Jack held up his manipulator, "He's…"

"Gone," Angel breathed, blinking as she looked at them in alarm, "He's dead."

Owen nodded, "Did the world just change back?" he frowned, before looking at Tosh, "Tosh, go online for me? Check the hospitals, check with everyone, 'cos if he's dying, who else is dead?"

Tosh nodded, "On it," and rushed back to her laptop as Olivia moved over to her grandfather's side.

"He's dead," Olivia swallowed, feeling tears in her eyes.

"But how?" Gray shook his head.

Angel looked down, staring at the floor.

"It's just him," Tosh called, "There's no reports of any other deaths."

"So how did he do it?" Ianto eyed the body.

"How do you think it happened?" Gwen looked at Owen, "Was it some kind of drug? What makes him different?"

Owen just frowned, "I don't know, none of the medication here could do this," he looked at the IVs.

"If you'll excuse me," Olivia got up, "I need to make arrangements…"

Jack grabbed her arm, "You can't tell anyone he's dead."

"He planned this Jack," Olivia told him, "He planned that, when the Miracle came, he'd be free to die when it was time. He made arrangements himself, private arrangements, but I am not going to let him sit there and rot, have you got that?"

Jack swallowed but nodded, letting her go.

"Well, if he found a way to die," Tosh called, "We need to find it quickly, look," she turned the laptop around as they gathered over by the desk, except for Angel as she knelt on the ground beside Angelo's bed, feeling the floor, "Past two hours, Greece and Ireland have declared bankruptcy, and Spain is going under. They'll take the European Union down!"

Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "We need to find the three families…"

"I've looked. There's no one with these last names."

"There has to be," Ianto shook his head, "They're names."

"What names aren't names?" Gwen asked.

"These names," Tosh pointed to them, "According to every site I can think of, the names never existed."

"It's happened before," Jack had to admit, "After the Second World War, all the Hitlers disappeared from the phone book. Change your name, go back and erase passport records, birth certificates. Do that for decades and you're buried in the fabric of the world."

"There's got to be a paper trail," Gray argued.

Tosh just grinned, cracking her fingers, "Oh, I was born for this. Ok…" she typed away, "We've got Manhattan, 1928. Checking churches, schools, Western Union. I'll set the searches going for red flags, if they bought or sold or joined anything, it's got to be on paper somewhere. People always miss something."

"Brilliant," Owen beamed at her, kissing her head as he squeezed her shoulders, massaging them for her to keep her comfortable and going.

"Red flag the word 'Blessing' too," Gwen suggested.

"Make 'Blessing' a filter," Ianto agreed.

"Jack?" Angel called, pulling their attention over to see her kneeling on the floor, her hands pressed on it, "There's something under the floor."

The team looked at each other and down at the floor, seeing something they'd missed, the floor…wasn't the original floor.

~8~

Oswald groaned inwardly as Jilly followed him down the hallway towards his hotel room, rambling on and on and on about what was coming, really giving him an earache.

"I'm trying to set up a joint appearance for you with Madison Weakly," Jilly kept on, "She's the bisected bride. You know, car accident sheared off everything below the bikini line. Got married a week later propped up on a box. Basically, she's made up of positive thinking and colostomy bags. Anyway, they were thinking you and she could share the spotlight if they could manage a two-shot, obviously," she paused for a breath as Oswald opened his hotel door and strode in, her following him quickly, "Next, I've got you these essays by John Maynard Keynes. You've got interviews about fixing the economy tomorrow. Just call for more deregulation and a resumption of burning. Now, we've got this…" she sighed as he turned on the radio, turning the volume up as loud as it could go, "It's a request to speak to the Committee on Health and Immortality," she tried to speak over the music, but Oswald was just dancing around to it, ignoring her, "Oswald? What do you think? Yes, or no? If you could turn that down? Alright, I'm going to need a reply by Friday night or they'll ask someone else. I said…" she started shouting, "They'll ask someone else! Please, Oswald, I'm just trying to finish the day. Could you turn the music down?!"

Oswald rolled his eyes and turned the radio off, "Get me a girl."

Jilly's jaw tensed, "How old?"

"Legal age."

She scoffed, "Seriously?"

"I've made a new life for myself," he smiled, shifting awkwardly, "A new chance with new tastes. So I want a woman. Now get me one. A redhead."

Jilly tensed at that, not liking how he wanted a redhead, when SHE was redhead, that made her terribly uncomfortable. But she gave him a brief nod and strode out of the room as he turned the music on very loud again, ignoring it as she entered her room, searching through her contacts for a call girl.

~8~

Gwen stood off to the side, staring out the window of the mansion as Gray, Owen, Ianto, and Jack worked at tearing up the floor now that Olivia had had Angelo moved out to be prepared for a very private burial. Tosh was still at the computer, searching while Angel stood at the foot of the hole, watching the men.

"I can't tell you," Gwen said to Rhys as she spoke to him, "I don't trust the phones these days. And we've got these family people everywhere. And Jack's just as bad. God knows what's going on. What time is it there?"

"Ah, it's almost eight," Rhys sighed, "The telly's been on all night. They said there'll be a run on the banks. Like a Lehman Brothers' thing."

"It's the pensions, they've gone bankrupt 'cos of the miracle, that starts a domino effect 'cos it's all been on a knife edge since 2008. They said the best advice is to invest in gold. There we are, we'll be fine. Thank God for my vast reserves, eh?"

"How's dad?"

"Not so good, Gwen," he told her quietly.

"Is he conscious?" she asked, worried.

"Not so much, no. The trouble is, we can't get a doctor in 'cos they'll classify him Category 1. And them ovens are still there. They're only closed 'cos of the protests. They said if we get a recession, it's classic isolation policy. Given our lack of resources the camps will open again."

"Like someone planned it."

"Yeah. But does that include 2008 as well? I mean, you know, was that part of the plan? A first stage?"

"Could be. I think we've been manipulated for decades."

"Yeah, but what for? I mean, where's it all heading?"

"I don't know," she sighed, "Just…keep an eye on dad for me?"

"Gwen?" Angel called and she looked over, "What about Martha?"

Gwen's eyes widened, "Oh I am stupid!" she shouted turning back to the phone, "Rhys, call Martha, she's a doctor, she'll be able to help dad and she won't say anything!"

"That's brilliant!" Rhys cheered.

"Well get on it!" Gwen laughed, "Call me later with what happened ok?"

"You got it, bye!"

"Bye," she closed the phone and ran to Angel, hugging her tightly, "You are a genius!" she whispered to her.

"No," Angel laughed pulling away, though pleased to hear someone thought her clever, "I just remember everyone."

Jack let out a low whistle that had them both look over to see the panels had been removed from the floor, from the small platform that Angelo's bed had been placed on.

"What is that?" Gwen frowned, seeing an intricate series of metal work crisscrossing through the floor, Tosh getting up to look at it with them, all of them sanding around the edge of it.

"Some sort of transmitter," Jack looked at it, trying to scan it with the manipulator…but it didn't work.

"What's wrong with it?" Ianto looked at him.

"Nothing," Jack said, "It's the transmitter. It's creating a null field. Which mostly proves my theory that immortality is caused by some kind of Morphic Field."

"But we still don't know how, where or what is creating it," Gray pointed out.

"So it's transmitting what," Owen shook his head, "Some sort of field that cancels out the first one so Angelo could die?"

"And where did he get it?" Tosh asked. They already knew that they wouldn't be able to use it to help them any, a panel like that was only good for that area, they'd have needed one as big as the Earth to cancel out everything happening to the humans on it.

"I don't know everything," Jack rolled his eyes.

"Torchwood," Angel answered and they looked at her, "Olivia said that he'd bribed UNIT officials…"

"You think he bribed one of us?" Ianto frowned at that.

"No," she looked at them, "I mean that he has resources. He's been watching you Jack," she looked at him, "If he could bribe UNIT to find out that aliens exist, maybe he was able to buy scientist from around the world. Humans…could…create something like this with enough information and scientific knowledge. Maybe he just hired the right people."

They looked down at the panel, frowning, if a human and a few scientist could create this…they could only imagine what the Families' bigger picture was and how they were going to do it.

~8~

Oswald stood before a mirror, in a suit and tie, his hair slicked back, when there as a knock on his door. He grinned and opened it, a rather lovely ginger woman in a white dress entering, "Mr. Danes," she smiled, "My name is Claire. Or whatever you want it to be. Now," she moved to the back of the room and turned to him, smirking, "I did have to adopt a dress code in order to get through hotel security. You know how that is. But I have clothes in my bag if you'd like. Schoolgirl outfit maybe?"

"There won't be any need for that," he waved her off.

"Ok. Well, it's not about the clothes, anyway," she giggled, "I can act all kinds of innocent. Whatever you want."

"I was very clear I don't want that. Not at all."

"What do you want?" she blinked.

"I suppose...we could talk a little. Would you like a drink?"

"And then what?" she shook her head, "I need to know exactly what we're doing tonight."

"Maybe we could have dinner...on room service?"

She gave a small, disbelieving chuckle, "I'm sorry, you mean like a date?"

"If you want."

"Mr. Danes, I do know who you are," she cut in, "I mean, from your trial…"

"Except that's not everything that I am," Oswald glared at her, "Don't presume to know me. I am capable of much more than my reputation."

"So you want to date me?" she scoffed.

"To begin with."

"Oh, my God," she laughed, "So would that be like your first date ever?"

"I said don't presume!" he snapped, before taking a breath, trying to calm himself, "We could have a drink. Maybe a fine wine, civilized people, adult company…"

"Actually...no," she held up her hand to stop him, "If you don't mind, I think I'd like to go."

"But I do mind. I'm paying."

"Mr. Danes, the thing is, I could cope with this if it meant shoving my face in the dirt. I'm used to that. But if you want us to pretend that you're normal?" she shook her head, "No way. No. Don't, sir. Please don't do that."

"All I'm asking for is your company. That's all. Just your company."

"Well, I think I should warn you that girls my age fight back," she gave him a harsh look, "You know that already though, don't you? That's why you prefer kids in the first..."

"Stop!" he screamed at her, "Don't you dare!"

"If you want to be a changed man, you're running out of time. The way I heard it, you've been classified a Category 0," she pushed past him towards the door.

"What's Category 0?"

"Oh, that day will come," she laughed, opening it, "Category 0 is you," she spat, slamming the door shut as she headed out.

~8~

Jilly rolled her eyes as someone pounded on her door and got up, heading over to peer through the peephole, sagging when she saw who it was.

"What's Category 0?" Oswald demanded as he stormed in the moment she opened the door.

"What's...the what?" she frowned.

"What's Category 0? And why does my whore know about it?"

"Ah, clever girl," she remarked, "Well, that's what you get for employing someone who sleeps with senators. She's been listening."

"Tell me, what's Category 0?" he demanded.

"Look, Oswald, did you really think it would never come to an end, your freedom? There's an emergency mandate being passed through congress defining a new Category 0, meaning people who have earned themselves a place in the ovens for moral reasons."

"They want to burn me alive?" he stared at her, horrified, he'd done all this to avoid that!

"Oswald, you were always sentenced to death. What you had was a wonderful delay. And now it's time for that adventure to come to an end."

"But...people love me."

"Television loves you. It's a different thing."

"They can't kill me. Not yet. I haven't found them."

"Haven't found who?" she frowned shaking her head.

"How long have you known about this?" he glared at her, "How long have you known?!" he stormed up to her, grabbing her arms, shaking her, "How long have you known?!"

"Oswald..." she struggled, but he shoved her onto the bed, smacking her in the face as she screamed and shoved him back.

He grabbed her purse and ran for the door.

"I'll have you arrested for this!" she yelled, getting off her bed and storming after him, "Brand new charges! They're going to reopen those ovens and you're going in!" she spat as she watched him run down the hall as she reached it, "You run, Oswald! Run as fast as you can! You've got the most famous face on the planet. Where will you hide?! Where are you going to go, Oswald? What are you going to do?!"

~8~

"I'm so organising a press conference," Jilly muttered to herself as she strode down the halls of the hotel, her suitcase behind her, "I'll say that Oswald Danes is on the run with all his old appetites. It'll be the biggest witch hunt this country's ever seen…" she stopped short when the lift doors opened and the man she'd met at the Rally stepped out, "Oh...um..." she blinked, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to warn you," the man said, "You're being watched, by Torchwood."

"Me?" she blinked, she'd been suspicious that she might be watched, but she thought it was more for Oswald than her.

"And secondly, you're being considered for a promotion."

"With Phi-Corp?" she started to smile.

"Oh, we're way above Phi-Corp," he grinned.

"Then, who are you?"

"We're family business. Interested?"

"Yes," she nodded, smirking, "Oh yes."

"Well, then, that completes the interview. And we'd better leave," he gestured to the lift.

"Where are we going?"

"A long way away," he remarked, pushing the button and the doors shut.

~8~

It had only been a week since Angelo had died, and in that week, the governments had grown near beaten down. The economies were failing even faster than anyone had thought and so many of the 'Soulless' had seen the bleak future and joined the '45 Club.' It was madness. It was terrible.

It had gotten to the point where the Governments had officially ordered the Overflow camps to stay open, under emergency laws, and all Category 1s were taken immediately for incineration, not even giving them the chance to recover.

Gwen had never been more thankful for the security of Torchwood and the partnership it had formed with UNIT. Martha had free access to it, having been a temporary member, and Rhys had kept her updated on her father's condition. There was still little that could be done to help him, his heart was just too week, but Martha had supplied them with UNIT medication that would numb his pain entirely.

The Torchwood team, through UNIT means, has been relocated once more across the ocean, back closer to home, to Scotland. UNIT, once learning the families were after Jack and behind the assassination attempts had refused to let them back to London or Cardiff but wanted them elsewhere for the time, to let them recover and come up with a plan.

Jack winced as Owen pulled the needle out of his arm, finished collecting a pint of his blood. Tosh and Owen had set up a small lab of sorts in the sitting room, microscopes and scanners everywhere, trying to determine why, if it wasn't the blood that had made Jack immortal, were the families so keen to use it? There had to be something about it.

Angel moved to sit beside Jack, reaching out to put a finger on the small prick on his arm, a soft gold wave healing the small cut.

"Thanks Ang," Jack smiled at her, before leaning back on the sofa, putting his arm around Ianto's shoulders as he sat beside him, Gray was at the window, keeping a lookout incase Angel's feelings failed her while Gwen sat at a table in the kitchen, running a search on a laptop.

"We need to do something," Gray determined, turning to face them, leaning against the side of the window, "Take the fight to them, get out of here and find out what's happening."

Jack looked at his little brother and smiled, "Look at you, wanting to go out there and explore. I remember when you were too scared to leave the house."

"Yeah, a long time ago," Gray rolled his eyes, "I grew up Jack."

Jack sighed, "We'll get out of here soon," he promised, "We just need a lead."

"Well, one bit of good news," Owen called, "I think we've got enough blood," he indicated to the small store of about 6 bags of Jack's blood, one pint a day. It had left the man a little woozy, but, being from the 51st century, he was a bit more fit, the Human Race had evolved a little more, been able to recover faster. They couldn't risk taking any more blood from him though, not for a while, but they had enough to do tests and plenty left over if they needed it.

"I've told you, his blood didn't make him immortal," Angel reminded them.

"They can't have cloned it or copied it," Jack agreed.

"Doesn't really matter though, does it Jack?" Tosh looked at him, "They took your blood and they keep trying to spill your blood."

"Someone wants you dead for a reason," Gwen added, "They want your blood. We need to know why," she sighed and rubbed her head, "The answer's got to be here somewhere. The Blessing, page 56 of 12 million."

"Gwen I have a scan running," Tosh told her gently.

"Yeah, yeah I know," Gwen rested her head in her hands, "I just…I need something to distract myself."

She was worried for Rhys and her mother, her daughter and her father. Torchwood was safe, but she always feared that there would be a moment where the government would think to check there for her father. The government itself couldn't get in those doors, but it wouldn't stop them trying. And she didn't want her family hurt in the attempts.

"They'll be alright Gwen," Angel looked over her shoulder to reassure her, "I promise," she crossed her hearts, "Mickey and Martha will be careful that no one finds out where your family is."

"Yeah," Gwen nodded.

"I think I've found something," Ianto murmured, his eyes wide as he stared at the laptop on his lap, "I ran a search, not about 'the Blessing' or anything but…about what you said with Angelo Jack," he looked at him, "I put in some words about it and this came up," he set the laptop down on the coffee table and turned the TV on, the image reflecting what was on the small screen.

"What is that?" Jack squinted, "Is that…a book?"

Ianto nodded, "It's from 1935," he explained, showing them a cover of a novella, "It's a story that the author claimed was based on a true story, about a man, in 1928, chained up in the cellar of a butcher's shop, displayed like a circus attraction. Tickets sold so that people could watch him be killed and resurrect."

"What was it called?" Tosh asked.

"'The Devil Within.'"

"Sounds like me," Jack sighed, rubbing his face, he could distinctly remember the Italian crowd calling him the Devil like Angelo had.

"At first you'd think it's just a story," Ianto continued, "But it's got five points of reference that are identical to what happened to you Jack."

"So you think the author was what, in the cellar?" Owen frowned.

"Yeah," he nodded, "What if he was there, what if he saw Jack die and come back and decided to write about it."

"Who was the author?" Gray asked.

"Victor Podesta."

"Any connection to the Families?" Gwen got up and came over.

"I'm not sure, all I could find was that the Podestas owned a grocery store about ten blocks east of the butcher shop, had connections to organized crime, and that the youngest son, John, was stabbed to death back in '27."

"Let me guess, unsolved?" Jack asked, "Mob related?"

"Yeah, open and shut according to the police back then."

"What happened to them?" Angel looked at the picture.

"Not even ten years later the family disappeared. Every single one of them. Mother, father, other son, their daughter, everyone gone. They could have changed their name, or maybe the daughter married into the Families…whatever happened, they disappeared just like the Families."

Owen let out a low whistle, "This bloody conspiracy spans the whole of the 20th century."

That was a lot of data to sort through.

"Tosh…" Jack turned to her.

Tosh just held up her hand, "On it," she smiled, getting to work on tracing the Podesta line, anything on paper, anything at all, she was going to find, "And Owen," she looked at him, "Can I have some pickles and jam?"

The team grimaces as Owen just laughed and got her the food.

"Oi!" Tosh pointed at Gwen, "I'll hear nothing from you Ms. Brownies and Oranges."

"Yeah, but pickles and jam Tosh?" Gwen shook her head.

"I dare you to try it," Tosh held one out as Owen gave her the requested food.

"No thank," Jack held up his hands in surrender.

"I'll try it," Angel smiled, getting up to take one from Tosh, the team grimacing again when she ate it, "Not bad. Not as good as fish fingers and custard though."

"Fish fingers and custard?" Gray eyed her oddly.

"Alien, complete alien," Owen muttered.

"Mmm…" Tosh hummed in thought though, "That does sound good…"

"No," Jack pointed at her, making her pout and take a bite out of her pickle, the others laughing.

~8~

Jilly Kitzinger walked through a park one bright morning, a frown on her face, her typical red lipstick and jacket on, coming to sit on a bench beside the man that had offered her a promotion with his 'family business.'

Some business.

She'd been there a week and hadn't done anything spectacular.

"Thank you for coming," the man remarked as she sat down.

"This is not the promotion I expected, sitting in a nondescript office distributing for Harry Bosco. I thought you needed me."

The man smirked and slid across the bench to her, handing her a paper, "This is for you. You've been invited to Shanghai."

"Well, that's impossible," she scoffed, "Don't you watch the news? First sign of the meltdown, China closed its borders."

"Not to us."

She eyed him a moment before taking the paper, opening it to see a plane ticket to Shanghai. But the frown on her face wasn't from the location, but tow other details, "This says Lucy Statten Meredith."

"You'll be travelling under that name," he informed her, "In fact, that is your name from now on. But the families want to meet you in person."

And then she swallowed at the second detail, "It's one way?"

"Yes, yes, it is. I'm rather jealous. They're taking you to the Blessing," he smiled and stood, straightening out his suit, "Thank you. We won't meet again."

Jilly tensed, watching him walk away, glancing at the ticket. That was never a good thing when something was one way. It usually meant the person was never coming back, and she didn't know if that meant she'd be living in Shanghai the rest of her life…or that she was being sent to her death there.

She swallowed, taking a breath and stood, walking off, only one way to find out.

~8~

"Oh you bloody…" Tosh hissed, slapping the top of her computer with a huff.

"What's wrong?" Jack looked over as he and Angel went through papers about Phi-Corp and the Podesta family, Ianto reading through a digital version of the pulp fiction while Gwen and Gray cleaned guns on the kitchen table, Owen still examining the blood on the other side of Tosh.

"I've got nothing," she sighed, "The search for the Podesta resulted in nothing, so I tried to filter his story through pattern recognition software, maybe he'd kept writing under a different name yes?"

"Sure?" Ianto frowned, seeing Tosh getting worked up.

They had all learned to be very, VERY careful about how they sounded and what they said when Tosh got frustrated, it either meant she was about to start crying or throwing things. Bloody hormones.

"I tried to identify key points of similarity in prose styles. And I found 320 matches. Everyone in that bloody genre writes the same way. And that's only the ones in the stupid database. Out of that there's around 46 with pronounced similarities scattered all across the world. 22 in the US, nine in the UK, one in Sweden. Then there's also Argentina, Germany, Japan…and now I've got to check them all out!"

Angel blinked, looking over at the front door, "I…I don't think you need to Tosh."

"Why?" Tosh looked over, but the team slowly started to stiffen, seeing the look on Angel's face.

"Angie?" Jack asked her carefully, putting a hand on her shoulder, seeing her just staring at the door with a frown.

"Gwen," Angel called, "You might want to put the guns away."

"Why?" Gwen frowned.

"Do it," Jack ordered, getting up.

Gwen rolled her eyes but handed the guns in her hand to Gray, the man moving to put them in a drawer in the kitchen.

"Angel what's wrong?" Ianto asked her.

"Oswald Danes is at the front door," was all she said.

Tosh and Gwen stiffened and Gwen realized why Angel had told her to put the guns away, if that man came within ten feet of her, she'd kill him with her own hands.

Jack's jaw tensed and he moved to the door, but Angel grabbed his hand, "Jack…" she tugged him back a moment, "Don't hurt him…" she looked at the door, "I think he wants to help."

Jack sighed but nodded, "I won't," he agreed, "Much," he had to add.

Angel bit her lip but let go of his hand and he stormed to the door, throwing it open just as Oswald lifted his hand to knock, "I realize this might be something of a surprise..." Oswald began.

"Not really," Jack glared at him, "My sister's psychic," he nodded at Angel."

"Is she?" Oswald smirked, eyeing her.

"Eyes front soldier," Jack snapped, as Gray moved to stand beside Angel, crossing his arms as he glared at the man with the others, "What do you want?"

Oswald nodded, knowing there wasn't time to waste or any chance he could take to mess this up, he needed their help. He'd spent quite a bit of money to find out where Jack Harkness was and smuggle his way into the country, "I have a name. I have the name of a man. I have the name of the man who created the miracle."

Jack stared at him a long while, "Get in," he stepped to the side, letting the man in, glancing out the door to make sure the man hadn't been followed or led anyone right to them, before he shut the door.

"You once asked me for help," Oswald reminded him as they entered the sitting room, "So you can remember that," he smirked at the team, "The rest of you, the captain invited me in."

Gwen stood up and eyed Oswald, "I want to ask one thing first," she began, "At your trial you said about that girl, 'She should have run faster.' Did you really say that?"

"Yes, I did," Oswald said, making Tosh shift uneasily, Owen glaring at him as he put a hand on the woman's shoulder.

"Right," Gwen shook her head, "Ok. Let me tell you, Oswald, I used to be a policewoman and I worked with pedophiles and murderers, and God help me, I saw men so alone and damned and wretched. But that's not you. That's nothing like you. Because for the first time in my life…I've met a monster. Is that clear?"

"I feel very special," Oswald smirked, "And well said."

"I'm gonna kill him," she warned Jack.

"I might help you," Ianto muttered, of all of them, the only one with a little girl in the family too.

"And that's why I told you to put the guns away," Angel told her.

"You always tell us to put the guns away," Gray told her.

"You don't like guns," Tosh agreed.

"She told me to keep mine," Owen shrugged.

"When was this?" Jack looked over at him, a bit startled at that.

"When Maloney tried to shoot me."

Angel shook her head, "Oswald," she looked at him, trying to keep the bile down as she looked at the man who had done such a terrible crime, "What do you know?"

"What happens to me after I say?" Oswald countered.

"Well, then we kill you," Gwen said, "There's no murder anymore. So I can make you Category 1 forever."

"We can't kill him," Angel shook her head.

"You're defending him?" Owen looked at her with a frown, that was…NOT like Angel. She was all about doing good and helping people, saving them from monsters, not saving the monsters.

"No," she looked at him, "But…we need him."

Jack sighed, moving to sit on the back of the sofa, beside her arm, "She's right, we need to know what he knows."

"Mr. Danes," Ianto began, trying to be civil, "There's no going back. You need to tell us what you know."

Oswald took a breath, "I'll say this, Phi-Corp gave me an assistant, a woman called Jillian Kitzinger. And in my bag," he held up the satchel around his shoulders, "I have Miss Kitzinger's laptop."

"God's sake, is that it?" Gwen scoffed.

"We raided her file already," Tosh remarked.

"Yes but," Oswald smiled, "As soon as I'd stolen the laptop, good little Jilly did exactly the right things. She changed the passwords, opened new accounts, deleted the old ones. But I was watching. And I know my way around online better than most. I know how to keep myself hidden. So I shadowed her, and I've been following Miss Kitzinger these past week. Here's a funny thing. Yesterday, at 12:00 midday, she disappeared. Her entire profile online vanished. Jilly Kitzinger ceased to exist."

"Just like Podesta and the families," Gray frowned.

"You said you had the name of a man," Owen called.

"Soon as I say this, I'll be at your mercy," Oswald hesitated.

"Yes," Jack agreed.

"Tell us his name," Gwen demanded.

"I'll have to trust you," Oswald sighed, "Remember that. I'm trusting you. One man's name keeps reoccurring. Kitzinger was employed to send him information. And his name…is Harry Bosco."

"Harry Bosco?" Owen frowned.

"His name, over and over again."

"Tosh, can you run a search for Harry Bosco?" Gwen asked.

"No," Jack shook his head, "She can't, because Harry Bosco isn't a man. Harry Bosco is a process. Way back during Vietnam, the first televised war, the government didn't want the US networks taking feeds directly from the Vietnamese since the information was beyond their control for the first time. They put agents in every newsroom, every major TV network, filtering the output for the public. The most famous was Harry Bosco."

"What did he do?" Angel asked, not very well versed in human history, let alone American history.

"He'd subtly alter information with mistranslations into English. You can change the whole meaning of a sentence by changing just one word."

"Like 'victims' instead of 'bodies,'" Gray guessed.

"Exactly," Jack nodded, "Lets you influence public opinion."

"All the channels Harry Bosco these days then," Gwen scoffed.

"My point still stands," Oswald cut in, "The name's still important because Kitzinger works in PR. Why would she be handling this Harry Bosco process?"

"It IS a good question," Tosh had to admit, "Why would the families hire Jilly to do all this in the first place?"

"So what's she translating?" Ianto asked.

"What's she mistranslating?" Jack realized, "'Cos the three Families changed their name, now Jilly's changing words? Maybe they're connected," he turned to Oswald, "The laptop," he held out his hand.

Oswald stared Jack down a moment before reaching into his bag and handing over the laptop, Jack giving it to Tosh.

~8~

"So what did we find?" Jack looked over Tosh's shoulder.

"That you have no concept of personal space," Tosh laughed, shoving him back a little before clicking a button, bringing up the information on the TV of the emails she'd gone into, video files.

"What are they?" Ianto asked, seeing Chinese symbols under them.

"Jilly processed this clip from a local news station in Shanghai," Tosh told them, "It's got three layers of language though, the local Wu dialect dubbed into Mandarin and then the English subtitles."

"How are we supposed to know what's wrong or right?" Gray shook his head.

"Nobody speaks Chinese?" Oswald chuckled mockingly.

"Um," Angel raised her hand, "I speak Baby and Goldfish," she reminded them, "Every language in the Universe really…"

"You're kidding me," Owen stared at her, shocked and a bit awed by that.

Jack grinned, "Brilliant!"

"Play the clip," Gray told Tosh.

~8~

Jilly walked through the posh floor of what seemed like a restaurant in Shanghai, heading right to a young man as he tapped away at his phone, the only other person there, "Morning," she greeted, "Guess you're my breakfast meeting. I'm Jilly Kitzinger."

"No, you're Lucy Statten Meredith," the man corrected, glancing at her, "Congratulations, you failed the test."

Jilly blinked, slightly offended by that, before shaking her head and taking a seat, "Ok, I keep wondering, why me?"

"You're a storyteller," the man shrugged.

She grinned, "Thank you."

"Look at you," the man put his phone away, eyeing her, "The nails, the coat, the lipstick. From the moment you walk through the door, you tell a story. You might have noticed we're kind of good at keeping quiet. So we need you. We need experts."

"So what's your story?" she smirked.

"I'm the latest chapter in an epic. Once upon a time, there were three wise Families. Then they went out into the world. One Family took politics, one Family took finance and one Family took media. But that's all in the past. The stories yet to come, they're the best."

"So does that mean there's a story about to break? With the Miracle?"

"Not for me to say."

"You want me to what? Prepare a statement? Mount a campaign?"

"That's kind of small, don't you think?"

"Then what?" she grinned, excited.

"We need you to write history."

"I can do that!" she said, eager, so SO eager to be a part of that.

"Good. Nice recovery. Your hair is a work of art. If you ever come here at night, try the mitten crab. It's a local delicacy."

"So what do you want me to do next?" she asked as he got up.

"Stay in your hotel and wait. When we're ready, you'll be taken to the Blessing. I hope you survive."

"I'm sorry?" she blinked, stiffening, "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, some people die," he said simply, "The Blessing, it kills them. Good luck. You won't see me again."

Jilly frowned as she watched him go, an uneasy feeling settling over her.

~8~

"This is pre-Miracle," Tosh told them, bringing up the footage, of an Asian man on a stretcher, being led through a hospital, "The man died two days later. But he went mad apparently, burned down a hospital, got caught in his own fire.

"That's wrong," Angel frowned, looking at the subtitles that said 'It's a Godsend my life was saved.'

"What is?" Ianto looked at her.

"He's not saying it's a Godsend…"

"What's he saying then?" Owen frowned.

"The Blessing…"

"It's a blessing my life was saved?" Gwen guessed.

"Let her finish," Jack laughed at how eager his team was to work this out.

"No, see that's what the Mandarin is saying, but original Wu dialect, it's different. He didn't say, 'It's a blessing my life was saved.' He said, 'The Blessing saved my life,'" she looked at them, "They mistranslated it on purpose. It's 'The Blessing saved my life.'"

"It's in Shanghai," Tosh blinked.

"The Blessing's in Shanghai!" Jack realized.

"How do we get to Shanghai?" Owen asked.

"Getting into Shanghai is impossible," Gray agreed, "They've closed the borders, withdrawn from the UN."

"You could take a slow boat," Oswald called.

"Shut it!" Gwen snapped at him.

"Tosh," Ianto looked at her, "Is there anything within mainland China? Any open ports?"

"You're still not getting it though," Angel cut in gently, "That right three…" she paused the footage where the subtitles mentioned how the man had 'burned down the hospital,' "It's not saying 'hospital' either, the Mandarin says 'medical facility,' but…" she frowned, "I…I don't think it's that either."

Tosh blinked at that and turned to the laptop, looking up the facility in question, "Because it's not!" she gasped, "The address…it's a blood bank."

"Blood again," Gray frowned.

"It's always about blood," Jack frowned, "Why is that?"

Angel looked down, blinking…

'...we knew this blood was important...'

'...the Blessing will take every last drop. You'll both die...'

...Jack stood before a chasm, his arms wide, blood flying out of him till he collasped to the ground, unmoving...

Jack shook his head, "Tosh, run a check on that, but reference it with Kitzinger…"

"Hold on," Tosh frowned, seeing another file, "There's a second clip in Spanish," she brought it up, watching as it played with nearly the same subtitles, nearly the same event as well.

"It's the same," Angel nodded, getting up to stand before the TV, "They replaced Blessing with Godsend, and switched the phrasing. Medical Facility too."

"There's a second blood bank in Buenos Aires," Tosh searched it, "A blood bank destroyed by a fire only 24 hours before Shanghai and…" she looked up at them, "Five days before the Miracle."

"Why'd they burn down a blood bank in Buenos Aires?" Gray frowned.

"Why burn down a blood bank at all?" Owen countered.

"We don't even know what the Blessing is," Ianto added.

"Maybe it's some sort of ritual," Jack suggested.

"It happens in both cities," Angel murmured, looking at a map Tosh brought up, "At the same time…" the team quieted, looking at her as she eyed the map, "Tosh?"

"Yeah?" Tosh asked quietly.

"Can you make it a global representation?"

"Of course," she nodded, bringing it up.

"Oh my God," Angel blinked, "Do you see that?" she turned to them, but the team looked at her, "Look," she pointed to Shanghai, "Shanghai, yes?" and then Buenos Aires with her other finger, "And Buenos Aires," and connected her fingers in the middle, "They're opposite sides of the world, exact opposites!"

"Oh my God," the team repeated.

"They're antipodes," Tosh nodded, bringing up a line right from Shanghai to Buenos Aires, "They're the antipodes of each other."

"Two massive population centers balanced on either side of the planet," Jack realized.

"As the old saying goes," Oswald threw in, "'Count your blessings,' 'cos it turns out there's two of them."

Gwen rolled her eyes at him, wishing they could just throw him out, but Oswald knew where they were, "But what does it mean?"

"Look at the Phi-Corp logo!" Owen realized, it was a 'phi' symbol, which looked like a circle with the line through it, "The letter Phi, a circle with a line through it. It's been staring us in the face all this time."

"A line through the world?" Ianto guessed.

"The Blessing," Jack nodded, "The Miracle."

"But what is it?" Gray asked.

"We need to find out," Jack determined, "We can get into Argentina, no problem."

Angel shook her head, "I think there's more to it than that…" she turned around to them, "I think…I think we need to get into both, Jack."

Gray nodded, "Maybe you should go one way."

"And you the other?" Jack frowned.

"Buenos Aires."

"Shanghai."

"So this is what we're doing?" Gwen asked, none of them noticing Angel starting to shake her head, "A mission on both sides of the world?"

"Biggest mission yet," Tosh smiled.

"Suppose it is, yeah."

"And you're taking me with you," Oswald called.

"No way," Owen shook his head.

"Think about it, you can't let me walk free. Not a man with my desires. And you can't have me arrested. Not now that I know all about your little plans. And you can't make me Category 1 without leaving yourselves open to arrest and none of you would try to kill be before that precious treasure would you?" he glanced at Angel, he'd noticed how protective they all were of the girl, how…innocent she appeared, she had the same sort of aura around her as little Susie had, innocence, "There's no choice. There's not a choice in the whole of the world."

"He's right," Gwen was loath to admit, "He knows too much."

"Jack…" Angel began.

"I think I can get us in," Jack remarked, not hearing her, "Back in the old days, Torchwood tracked down a black market trade in alien artifacts coming out of China. Skullion metal and coins, things like that. We closed it down but the route stayed open...for arms dealing."

"Jack," Angel tried, a bit louder.

"We're going to trust arms dealers?" Ianto frowned.

"Jack!" Angel shouted, making them all look at her, standing there with her arms crossed, tears in her eyes, "You can't go."

"Why?" Jack frowned.

"Please," she half begged, "Don't go…"

"Angie…" he moved over to her, putting his hands on her shoulders, "What's wrong?"

"I saw it," she whispered, the tears falling, "It's the blood Jack…"

~8~

Jack, Gwen, Ianto, and Oswald, ran through the night, having made it to the outskirts of Shanghai. UNIT had been able to get them clear access to the city, the UNIT based in Shanghai meeting them at the border with transport. They were going incognito, as much as they could, undercover with the UNIT agents to drive them, a small flat set up and ready for them to work out exactly where the blessing in that country was located.

~8~

On the other end of the world, Tosh, Owen, Angel, and Gray stepped out of the airport in Buenos Aires. They looked around, waiting as a black car pulled up to them. They glanced at Angel, who nodded, it was safe, on loan from the local government to take them wherever they needed to go.

~8~

Jilly Kitzinger paused as she wandered through the back alleys of Shanghai, stopping when she saw what looked like a red screen that was lit up from within in the distance. She paused feeling a bit shaken as she stared at it, when soldiers stepped out from the gated area and pushed it open.

She took a breath and walked towards it, spotting an older blonde woman within, waiting for her.

"You must feel terrible," the woman remarked as she reached her.

"No, I'm fine," she forced a smile.

"No, I mean you really must. That's what the Blessing does to you, the closer you get. You're scared. Am I right? Your skin's a little too tight. There's something just out of the corner of your eye you can't quite see. Hmm?"

Jilly gave a small, shaken nod, "Yes."

"You never get used to it. Come this way, Miss Kitzinger," she turned to lead her off.

"It's Miss Meredith."

"I don't really care. The men enjoy those sorts of games," she turned, leading her down another alley, "But the feeling, it started as soon as we dug deep enough. I think it's the Blessing's attempt to communicate."

"Then it's a living thing?" Jilly frowned as they reached a door.

"Oh, we have no idea. But certainly the Blessing sends some sort of impact back at the onlooker," she walked through it as the door opened for her, allowing them access to a hall with a lift at the end, "We have a theory. We say the Blessing shows you to yourself," she smirked as they entered the lift, heading down, "I've seen people look upon the Blessing and end their lives. There's a brilliant truth about that, because each and every time, that person was hiding something vile. Isn't that wonderful? It's exhilarating, the damage it does. I wonder what you'll see," she glanced at Jilly when the lift doors opened and she stepped out, Jilly following her, staring past her though at the large sight before her.

Jilly stumbled forward, down a flight of stairs and right to the edge of the scaffolding that had been constructed before the blessing.

It was like a chasm, two red-colored walls with a dark crack through the middle, a force of air sucking whatever flew before it right in, humming.

"What can you see?" the woman asked, "What does the Blessing tell you about yourself?"

"That I'm right," Jilly breathed, tears in her eyes as she stared at it, "How far down does it go?"

"All the way to the other side of the world," the woman smirked.

~8~

"Gwen," Tosh greeted over the phone as soon as she had finished setting up the equipment with Owen, Angel sitting beside Gray on the bed as he sat, hunched over, his hands pressed to his head, having complained of a headache the moment they landed.

"Tosh, you alright?" Gwen called back.

"Fine, we're all set up and ready to go. And you?"

Gwen scoffed, "Not so bad, if you ignore having Oswald Danes as a roommate."

"Listen, I just started looking for that Blessing but we're in two of the biggest cities on Earth."

"Yeah, well at least you've got the psychic with you," Gwen joked.

Tosh smiled and looked back at Angel as she fretted over Gray, rubbing his back as he groaned, moving his hands to his stomach.

"Look after that weapon," Gwen added, "Jack's blood's got to be important."

Owen came over, taking the phone, "It's safe Gwen."

"If you find anything, you call me," Gwen ordered.

"You too. Good luck."

"Bye."

Owen moved over to Gray, ending the call, and put his hand on the man's shoulder, "You ok?" he asked.

Gray looked up, a bit startled that Owen, of all people, seemed to be actually concerned about him. He looked past him at Tosh, who was smiling and nodded at him, and he nodded himself, "I will be."

Owen gave him one more look before nodding, "Right," he turned, about to go, when Angel took his hand. He stopped, sighing, and nodded to himself once more, turning back to Gray, "Gray…"

The man looked up at him.

"You're a good man, at heart," he admitted, "I just want you to know that."

Gray stared at him a long moment, before nodding, "Thanks."

It wasn't an open forgiveness, he didn't expect it from Owen, not after what he'd done to Tosh, but it was as close as he would ever get to it, and for that he was grateful.

Angel smiled and squeezed Owen's hand, "Thank you."

~8~

Jack sighed, sitting on a chair of the small flat that UNIT had managed to secure for them, hunched over, nearly shaking, his whole body feeling…off and worn and hurting, "Fine place to die, in old Shanghai," he murmured.

"You're not dying," Ianto said firmly, "Don't say that."

"I'm tired," he looked up at the man fretting over him, "This mortal life, it hurts so much."

"Come on," Gwen moved over to him, helping him up, "Time to find out where the Blessing is."

Jack nodded and reached into his jacket, pulling out a small pocket knife, but Ianto took it from him, turning his hand over and pricking a small cut onto Jack's finger, squeezing a single drop of it out.

They watched as it fell to the floor, and condensed, before sliding across it in a single line, "Well, now," Oswald muttered, standing off to the side, knowing that any of them would kill him if given the chance without that Angel girl there, "Can't say I've been to China before, so I'm not well versed in their customs. But I've got to say...I never knew about that."

"Angel was right," Gwen murmured, "It's your blood."

"No wonder it's killing you," Ianto frowned as they watched the blood head for the window, "It's showing us the way."

Gwen threw the curtains open to see a small construction zone only a few streets away, "It's the Blessing. It's somewhere over there. And I think whatever it is," she glanced back at him, "It's calling you, Jack."

"Then we better go find it," he offered them a solemn grin.

Gwen nodded and grabbed her phone, "Tosh," she called, "Angel was right, use a drop of the blood, it'll show you where to go next."

"Got it…"

"Right," Ianto moved to a laptop they'd taken, "The blood's heading north-west. 15 degrees, 38 minutes, 39 seconds north. What have you got?"

"Tosh?" Gwen asked.

"It's heading south-east," Owen answered instead, "23 degrees, 6 minutes, 4 seconds south."

Jack winced, groaning as he tried to stand, "Ah! Damn it!"

"What's wrong?" Angel called, they could all hear the concern in her voice.

"Feels like the blood inside me is trying to get out, it's churning."

"Tell me about it," Gray muttered.

"If both cities are connected," Tosh was back, "It's like a pole."

"A secondary pole," Jack agreed, "The magnetic pole goes north to south, and now this, from Buenos Aires to Shanghai."

"But what is it?" Ianto frowned.

~8~

Jilly eyed the blonde woman as she spoke in Chinese to the various workers around her, watching as they began to…grab detonators and putty and wires, fixing them to the poles and walls around the work area.

"Forgive me," the blonde woman turned to Jilly, "But according to our spies, there are forces moving in, so we're advancing the plan. Midnight, after we're gone, we're blowing this thing sky high."

"Won't that stop the Miracle?" Jilly frowned.

"On the contrary," she smirked, "It'll become never-ending. The Blessing won't be hurt, just buried so that no one can ever change it again."

~8~

"Right," Gwen got up, "I'm going to follow," she took a hand held scanner from Ianto, the man staying behind, neither of them trusting Oswald alone with an injured Jack, "If I keep going 15 degrees, 38 minutes north, I'll find it. Wait for my call," she pointed at Jack, "And Tosh, Owen, Gray, Angel…you take care, ok? We might meet in the middle."

"We'll see you soon Gwen," Angel promised, "When all this is over."

Gwen waited only a moment for the call to end before she turned to Oswald with her gun out, "And you…just you wait. If this goes right, murder's coming back and Angel won't be here to save you."

And with that, she turned and strode out of the room, following the scanner.

~8~

"Buenos Aires," the blonde woman called to a comm., "This is Shanghai. We're setting detonation at 12 midnight. Confirm 1pm your location. Over."

Jilly looked up, hearing a man respond over the speakers, "One hour post meridian confirmed. What a beautiful day. Over."

~8~

A bald man in a suit stood before a similar chasm, shouting orders in Spanish as the workers ran around, setting up the detonators as he grinned, watching them.

~8~

"Buenos Aires and Shanghai," the blonde woman explained, "Perfect antipodes, give or take 100 miles or so. There's a slight deviation, because the Earth's not a perfect sphere," she glanced over at Jilly to see her staring at the chasm again, "Are you getting all this?"

"Oh, yes," Jilly nodded, absently holding out her recorder, "Every word. If that runs right through the center of the Earth, why isn't this thing a volcano?"

"Again, no idea. Isn't that wonderful?" she smirked, "The laws of the Blessing are beyond us. That's why it took so long to work out what it can do."

"How did you even find it?"

"Well, we had to wait until the world grew up, until the information age became fast enough, so we could crunch numbers on a massive scale. Facts became visible that were never visible before, such as a tiny little statistic, hidden in the heart of Shanghai Old Town. The average life expectancy of those living within a two-mile radius of this point was exactly equal to the average life expectancy of the world. And it always had been. Say in 1998, the average life expectancy from birth on this planet was 66 years, 5 months, and 33 days. In this area in Shanghai, it was 66 years, 5 months, and 33 days exactly. Try going back 100 years to 1898. The average life expectancy was 49 years, 9 months, and 5 days. Shanghai, 49 years, 9 months, 5 days. It was as if something on this spot was calibrating a matrix, subsisting alongside humankind in harmony.

"The Chinese didn't know about it?" Jilly asked, finding that hard to believe.

"We pay them to look the other way," the woman shrugged.

"It does make you seem kind of colonial."

"Well, is that such a bad word? Besides, we changed the whole of the world and this is just phase one," she smirked and looked back at the chasm.

~8~

Gwen rolled her eyes as a Chinese woman followed after her as she stormed through the halls of the woman's shop, chickens clucking as she shouted at her for disturbing them. Times like these she was glad Angel wasn't there, she really DIDN'T want to know what the woman was saying about her, she could guess though.

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I've got to keep going 15 degrees north and your shop is in the way. So tough, really," she came to a thick metal door and banged on it, but it was locked, "I need to get out. Can I get out?" she looked at the woman as she backed up, shaking her head, speaking more Chinese, "If you open it, you get rid of me, ok? So door, gone, me bye-bye."

"No door," the woman managed to say, her accent heavy.

"No door?" Gwen frowned, "Why no door?"

"Bad place. Many ghost."

Gwen sighed, "Ok. Listen, if you open that door, I will give you all the money in the world," she dug into her bag and held out a wad of bills, "Yeah?"

The woman took the bills and stepped back, counting them, before looking at Gwen solemn. She rushed to the door, unlocking it and backing up just as quickly.

"Yeah, thanks," Gwen huffed, moving to pry the heavy door open herself, rushing through it…only to stop short at the sight before her.

It was an alley with what appeared to be a red screen with a light coming from within it at the end of it. It made her feel funny, it made her feel bad…shaken…

She quickly backed away, breathing heavily as she ran back into the shop and shut the door behind her, falling back on it and sliding down it.

"Very bad, yes?" the woman asked, still standing there.

"Very, very bad," Gwen took a breath, and pulled out her phone, "Jack…I think I found it."

~8~

Jack closed his phone, "Ianto, we're moving."

Ianto nodded, getting up and grabbed Oswald's arm, hefting him up, "Let's go."

"Anything you don't need, leave behind," Jack ordered them as he gathered his gun and Manipulator.

"We're coming back, though," Oswald frowned, seeing the men exchange solemn looks, "Isn't that right? We're coming back?"

"We don't know. Are we? Ah," Jack scoffed at him, "So much for your death fetish. When it all gets too real, huh?"

"That victim, Susie Cabina," Ianto looked at him, "How much choice did she have?"

"Who are you?" Oswald eyed them.

"Ianto Jones," Jack introduced them, "Captain Jack Harkness."

"No," Oswald shook his head, looking more at Jack than Ianto, "I spent a long time in prison, and I know the smile of a man who's done terrible things. And your friends. I've been watching them. Sometimes they like you, sometimes," he glanced at Ianto as he glared back at him, "They love you and sometimes, just once or twice, glittering away in those tiny little gaps...they fear you," he smirked, "I wonder, has dear little Angel ever been scared of you?"

Jack just shook his head, "Never."

"Oh really?"

"Really," Jack said firmly.

"Jack's from the future," Ianto told him, "Literally from the future."

Oswald eyed him, "Then you must know. Do we make it through this day?"

"The future can change," Jack told him, "Angel's taught me that just by being here, just by being there for me and my team. My team Oswald, should be dead, would be dead, if it wasn't for her. The future is being written right now and Angel can only see so far. But one thing I do know. I've seen the stars. I have seen the Universe. I have seen the Human Race become vast, magnificent, and endless. And I wish you could see it, Oswald. I wish you could see that too. 'Cos then you'd know how small you've made your life."

He gave Oswald one more firm glare before turning and striding out of the room, Ianto with him, leaving Oswald to his thoughts a moment longer before following them as well.

~8~

Angel was walking with Owen, Tosh, and Gray, her arm linked through Gray's as she led them carefully through the streets of Buenos Aires, when Tosh's phone rang, "Gwen?" Tosh answered, "What's wrong?" she was quiet a moment, before handing the phone to Angel, "She wants to talk to you."

Angel blinked, a bit surprised by that, but too the phone, "You ok Gwen?"

"Am I a bad person?" Gwen asked her.

She frowned, "Not at all," she told her, earnest, "You're the most amazing, strong, determined, minded woman I've ever met Gwen. You always try to do the right thing, uphold justice, protect people and the world. Why would you think differently Gwen?"

"I just…I felt something…"

"Tugging at your soul?" she guessed.

"Yeah."

"It's the Blessing."

"Yeah, I know," Gwen sighed, "I just…I feel like I'm killing him, my dad. If this goes right, the Miracle ends, my father dies."

Angel nodded, "Everything, all things, must die Gwen. Planets, people, eras, even the Universe itself will die one day. We don't like it. It hurts and it's terrible and the scar it leaves won't ever heal, but…" she nodded, "It's a natural part of things. To have life, you also need death. I'm sorry."

"Will it work?" Gwen whispered, "The…the trick we're going to pull. Will it work? Will everyone be ok?"

Angel smiled, "Yeah."

"You see that?"

"No," she laughed, "But I know it Gwen, you and Tosh and Owen and Ianto and Jack and Gray, you put Torchwood together…the world gets saved."

"And you put YOU with us and we get saved," Gwen let out a laugh of her own, "Every time Angel, every time we see you, it's like Jack said…you save us a little more each time."

"Just trying to help."

"And succeeding."

"Feel better then?"

"Yeah," Gwen breathed, "Loads really."

"Good."

"Thanks Angel."

"You're welcome."

There was a faint sound of footsteps and Gwen was back, "I've got to go, Jack and the others are here."

"Good luck," she told the woman as Gwen ended the call with a quick 'You too.'

~8~

The poor old Chinese woman shouted as Jack, Ianto, and Oswald came running down through the shop, disturbing the poor chickens again.

"Ok, what have we got?" Jack ran up to Gwen as she picked herself up off the floor.

"I've found it," Gwen nodded, "Through there."

Jack looked at the door, swallowing hard, knowing what it would mean, stepping through that door, "Let's go."

"One minute," Ianto called, moving to his side and kissing him, Oswald rolling his eyes at them till Gwen elbowed him in the gut, smiling at their gentle display of love.

When it had come time to determine who split up, Ianto refused to leave Jack's side, knowing what might happen to the man.

"Well then," Jack grinned when they pulled away, "Better make this worth it eh?"

"Yeah," Ianto nodded solemnly, squeezing Jack's hand.

Gwen turned and opened the door, letting them all through, into the alley.

~8~

Tosh and Owen followed Angel through the halls of a 'medical facility' in Buenos Aires, Gray grunting as he followed, holding his own, but seeming to struggle to keep it up the nearer they got to the Blessing. Tosh and Owen were even having a difficult time keeping themselves going, the entire place just felt…wrong.

They waited, hiding behind a corner, a moment before a small group of guards walked past with more explosives, listening till the lift doors pinged, before making their way around it.

"How do we get down there?" Owen asked, seeing the lift heading down.

"There's got to be stairs somewhere," Tosh looked around.

"This way," Angel called, leading them over to another door, holding it open for them as they rushed down before moving to take the lead, letting her feelings guide her.

~8~

Jack, Gwen, Ianto, and Oswald made quick work of the few guards that were in their way of getting into the facility and down to the Blessing, taking them out with some chokeholds and neck twists.

"There's going to be guards all the way in," Oswald remarked as Ianto and Jack carried the body of a guard into a back room, Gwen holding the door open for them, " You can't keep doing this, they'll find us."

"Shut up!" Gwen pointed at him, "Of all the bastards to bring…"

"You condemn me?" he scoffed, "You Category 1 men with your bare hands..."

"Keep your voice d…" Jack began.

"He's got a point," Ianto had to sigh, "We're just on the perimeter and we need to get deep inside?"

"Wait a minute," Jack spotted some markings on a crate beside him, "I was in China for the Boxer Rebellion, and I know what that lettering means," he pulled the crate down and pulled the lid off, grinning and laughing as he saw explosives on the inside, "Oswald," he glanced at the man, "I've changed my mind. I'm so glad you're here."

Ianto and Gwen looked at each other, starting to grin as Oswald closed his eyes, realizing what was about to happen.

~8~

Jilly looked over, hearing a computer beep, to see the blonde woman rush over to a security footage, "I knew it," the woman breathed, seeing Jack appear on the screen, getting into a lift with Gwen, Ianto, and Oswald.

"What's happening?" Jilly frowned.

"You're about to meet the Creator."

Jilly looked at the footage, squinting, "It's that soldier, Jack Harkness! He's with Oswald?"

They spun around as the lift rose to their level, the woman calling to the guards in Chinese as they grabbed guns and aimed it at the lift as it opened, revealing the four within, "Captain Jack Harkness. At last."

"No, no, no, no," Oswald shook his head, leaning causally against the back of the lift, "This isn't about Jack. No, ma'am. Excuse me, but it's not at all. My name is Oswald Danes. Well. Hmm. Good evening, Miss Kitzinger," he smirked at her, seeing her holding out her recorder like it was a weapon, "You've been promoted. And this is the new empire you're servicing? My, my, my, my, my, my, my."

"With all due respect, Mr. Danes," the blonde woman rolled her eyes at him, "You're a by-product of the Miracle. Not really relevant at all."

"That's what the Captain said. He tried to tell me that my life has become a very small thing. Tiny. And yet right here, right now, at the very end I would describe myself differently. I would call myself...vital," he unzipped his jacket to reveal he'd been strapped with explosives, had turned himself into a living bomb, making them all stiffen, "Madame, you're a fine woman. You should be careful now, very careful indeed. It seems like you've been planning some kind of an explosion, but I'd love to make sure you're still inside."

The woman glared at him as Jack, Ianto, and Gwen stepped out of the lift, smirking.

"Advantage Torchwood," Jack smirked.

"Well, I'm afraid we have a major disagreement here in Buenos Aires," a man's voice called over the speakers, "I'd say advantage Families. Say hello to your friends."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack frowned.

"He means us," Gray called.

Jack stiffened.

"Gray?" Gwen gasped, "Oh, my God."

"Tosh, Owen?" Ianto frowned.

"We're here too," Owen's voice spoke.

"Hello," Tosh added.

"Where's Angel?" Jack shouted, "What have you done to her!?"

"Your sister is quite fine," the man spoke again, "Why not say hello?"

"Jack?" Angel called.

"Angie," he let out a breath, "What happened?"

"It seems your plans didn't go the way you'd hoped," the man chuckled.

The blonde woman smirked, turning to her soldiers to gesture them to raise their guns again, not seeing Jack and the team exchange a small smirk at that, oh how wrong that man was.

"I'll swap your standoff for my standoff," the man continued.

Jack just shook his head, which made Jilly frown, he was far too calm even knowing his team was in danger, "The thing is, we don't need explosives, or guns or threats, 'cos I've got the most powerful thing of all," he grinned and made his way down the stairs, towards the chasm, whipping out a knife and pricking his finger, holding it up at the chasm which sucked the blood right out of the cut, right into the chasm. He smirked, licking his finger, "It wants me...mortal blood. The only one in the whole world. So I suggest you're very careful with me, ok?"

"If you fail to take the Captain's advice," Oswald agreed, "You can certainly come to oblivion with me. Jack, you're the future man. You've seen wonders beyond this world, so tell us of these Blessings and Miracles."

Gwen frowned, the strange feeling in her gut even more powerful as she looked at the chasm, "What the hell is that thing?"

"Can you feel it?" Jack asked as they slowly stepped closer.

"Yeah," Gwen swallowed, seeming to need a moment to gather herself, "Oh, yeah. God, I can...ok. God. Oh, my God."

"What is it Jack," Ianto frowned, staring at it.

"It is said that it reflects your own self back at you," the blond woman eyed them as they stepped down the stairs, closer to the chasm, "What can you see?"

"Enough guilt to last me a lifetime," Gwen said, before nodding to herself, "But that's ok. I'm a working mother and everything I've done is to protect my family and my friends," she smiled, "Like a very wise woman once told me."

"I feel…regret," Ianto murmured, "For things I didn't do, things I should have done, things I…I waited too long to do," he glanced at Jack who smirked and winked at him.

"And you, Jack?" the blonde woman asked.

"I've lived so many lives," he sighed, "And now I can see them all. Hey. Not so bad," he grinned.

"Well, you might want to question your choice of weapon, soldier," Jilly huffed as she made her way down the stairs, glaring at Oswald as she passed, "Let's see. You brought the world's biggest bastard, wired him up to a bomb, then showed him his soul. Hmm, that's good work. You know, I feel really safe right now."

They looked back at Oswald who seemed to be struggling with himself, gagging and hunching over.

"Oswald?" Angel's voice called, "Keep it together. The Blessing…it's not stronger than humanity."

"What little he has left of it," Owen muttered, before they heard Tosh elbow him, "Oi!"

"Sin," Oswald gasped, "The Blessing feels like sin," he shook his head, straightening, "I guess I'm accustomed to sin."

"I still understand," Ianto blinked at it, "What are we looking at?"

"The Blessing," Gwen eyed it, "Is it the rock or is it the edge? What?"

"It's the gap in between," Angel spoke, "That nothingness. That space. It's like the Void, the space between worlds, but…alive. The world has been turning for over billions of years. With more than you know buried within it. I've seen Silurian settlements, Huon particle reconstruction, Racnoss ships with expansions of their hibernation matrixes…I can't say for sure, but…whatever it is, "It's been here since the Earth began."

"We're so used to these things being extraterrestrial," Jack murmured, "But this might be the most terrestrial thing of them all."

~8~

"So, you found the Blessing and you worked out the morphic field," Tosh began, staring down at the bald man as he held a gun at them, none of them all that concerned. They'd faced this same situation before, stared down the barrel of a gun. Never before with a psychic who could bring up a barrier to protect them before someone even fired, so really…nothing to worry about.

The Blessing though, did make them feel uncomfortable. For Tosh it was silence, it was a life spent being too quiet, about things she wanted to do, things she wanted to say, sticking up for herself and defending herself. But not anymore. Owen was always goading her, at her side, encouraging her to speak up, calling her brilliant and other sweet things. Owen…he felt the confusion and the confliction, the arrogance he'd lived his life with. The loss that had come with it, the way he'd suffered those loses, but found that peace and comfort in Tosh.

Gray couldn't look at the Blessing without feeling crushing guilt, for what he'd nearly done to the people close to his brother. The loneliness and the suffering he'd felt at the hands of the aliens he'd been taken by. But then…a peace, a comfort in having found his place in the Universe, in having found a sister and a brother, and a calm and reassurance that came with knowing you were finally doing the right thing.

"The Blessing exists in a symbiotic relationship with the Human Race," the man stated, "It transmits a morphic field around the planet, binding us together, like magnetism, like sunlight."

"But finding it wasn't enough," Owen glared at him, "You had to experiment on it too."

"No," Angel shook her head, frowning at the chasm, "They fed it, didn't you?"

"We fed it the blood of an immortal," the woman with Jack stated, "We had one remarkable artifact. We found a second remarkable artifact. The combination was inevitable."

"So the Blessing absorbed the blood, copied it like a new template," Gwen called, "So the system changed its setting?"

"It did it to protect itself," Angel blinked, unable to really feel anything about herself reflected at her, she wasn't human, the chasm was set for humanity, but…she could feel other things as she just…stared at the chasm, "Because it hurt," she looked at the man, "You were hurting it. It turned the attack into a gift, but it's exerting itself to sustain every single person on the planet."

"This whole Miracle," Jack realized, "It's trying to be kind."

"It's very old, and very alone," Angel whispered, "It just doesn't want to hurt anymore."

"But you've seen what immortality for the Human Race means," Owen glared at the man, "The pain, why would you want that?"

"This is only stage one," the man smiled.

"But the whole world is in ruins," Ianto argued.

"The Miracle shocked the economy," the woman countered, "The economy collapsed. We tear down in order to rebuild. And now it's almost within sight...the new world."

"With no room for the poor," Gray ground out, "The weak or the ones that don't fit in."

"That's the way the world works now. We're just making it official. The Families have just been waiting. Now we can step in to control the banks. The banks control government. The government controls people. Soon we'll be able to decide who lives, how long, where and why."

"It's about time!" Jilly cheered, which made all of them, even Angel, roll her eyes.

"Oh, great," Gwen muttered, "The world according to Kitzinger, is it?"

"Listen, you can bleed your liberal heart all over the place," Jilly spat, "But are you really going to tell me the world was working before? 'Cos I have worked for the rich, and the powerful, and the obese. I have stared into the high end of Western society and let me tell you, it is like shoveling an open sewer. These Families...they want to make the world fitter, more compact, more disciplined. And I like the sound of that. That sounds like salvation."

"It's nothing of the sort," Angel frowned.

"But before you launched this brave new world," Jack cut in gently, "You had to deal with one more thing. Yeah...me."

"So as soon as the Miracle began, you sent assassins after Jack," Ianto realized.

"His blood endangers the plan," the man shrugged, "We had to be rid of it."

"Well, you failed!" Jack told them, "I got to Shanghai. I've got the only mortal blood on the planet. If it gets into the Blessing, life switches back. I can make the whole world mortal."

The woman laughed, the man laughing as well in front of them, "No," she said.

"Oh, no," the man agreed.

"Sadly not."

"He's not listening," the man chuckled.

"He doesn't seem to get it."

"No, no, no," he nodded.

"Polar dynamics."

"Everything on this axis operates in a polar-dynamic field."

"You COULD reset the Blessing, your blood COULD make the whole world mortal again, but only by introducing it to both cities at once."

"Blood in Buenos Aires..."

"Blood in Shanghai..."

"Entering the Blessing simultaneously."

"That's how we fed it."

"That's how we made the world immortal."

"And for you...I'm sorry, it's impossible."

"You did very well, almost worked it out, but we've got the blood now Jack," he looked down at the small case, the contain they'd put the packets of Jack's blood in, and grabbed it, "All that spare blood of yours, so sad it went to waste," and with that, he chucked it over the side of the scaffolding, letting it fall to the ground, the case strong enough to withstand the impact of the fall, the four people before him, just watching it go.

"So we're just going to have to kill you," the woman sighed…

But then Jack started to laugh.

"I hardly see the humor in this situation," the man before them frowned, before shrugging, "But perhaps if you need more convincing…" he lifted his gun at Angel, the team tensing but not making a move to stop him.

Angel just blinked at the gun in her face.

"You really love to underestimate people don't you?" Jack asked.

"How so?" the woman didn't seem impressed with his laughter.

"Your assassin, on Floor 33, he called Angie psychic. You know she's psychic, no idea how, but you do. And yet you didn't think she saw this coming?" he laughed loudly at that, the team starting to chuckle as well as Angel just smiled.

"We snuck up on her," the man countered, "We captured her!"

"Because we knew it would get us here faster you ponce," Owen told the man.

Angel shook her head, it was just like with the Master, with Martha. She had 'pulled a Doctor' so to speak, used the countdown. She knew that the Families would do whatever they could to get to Jack, and that meant keeping them alive as bait or leverage. They'd be brought right to the Blessing.

"Never ever underestimate a psychic," Jack laughed, "She knew…exactly what was coming."

~oOo~

"Jack!" Angel shouted, making them all look at her, standing there with her arms crossed, tears in her eyes, "You can't go."

"Why?" Jack frowned.

"Please," she half begged, "Don't go…"

"Angie…" he moved over to her, putting his hands on her shoulders, "What's wrong?"

"I saw it," she whispered, the tears falling, "It's the blood Jack…they needed immortal blood to change the world…"

"So we'll need mortal blood to change it back," he realized, "We put me at one end, and those packets at the other," he shrugged.

But Angel shook her head, "They'll know you're coming," she told him, "They'll…they'll…do anything to stop either team, to get the blood."

Jack was quiet, "Transfusion," he murmured, "It's the only way to make sure both blood supplies get there," he looked at his team, "We can't risk them lifting the packets."

The team was silent, not knowing what to do.

"It's more than that," Angel shook her head, "It'll take too much blood…it'll kill you."

"But I'm immortal," Jack countered, "If we change this back, I'd be immortal again."

"But what it if kills you before the reversal takes affect," Owen agreed.

"Then I die with honor, fighting the good fight," he shrugged.

"Jack," Ianto shook his head, not liking that.

"What if Angel goes with you," Tosh supplied, "She's been able to heal you."

"But what about the other person?" Gwen argued.

"Me," Gray stepped up, "The other person…it should be me."

"Gray," Jack shook his head.

"Jack," Gray cut in, "We're brothers, we share the same blood. I'm the only person you can safely do the transfusion to without harming them."

"You could die!" Jack shouted, not wanting to think about that. He'd lost his brother for so long, lost him even as he got him back, till Angel had stepped in.

"Then maybe I'd finally make up for everything I've done," he said quietly, "Maybe I'll have earned forgiveness."

"No…" Angel shook her head. They all looked at her, startled to think she was saying no to Gray earning forgiveness, but then they saw, the tears in her eyes, the way her face was scrunching, it had nothing to do with that, and everything to do with the fact that her brothers were offering to sacrifice themselves, "You can't…"

"Angie…"

"Please," she begged, starting to cry, the sight breaking their hearts, "I can't do it. I can't lose another brother…"

Jack frowned, "Another?"

Angel just shook her head, falling back as she sat on the sofa, her head in her hands, "My companion," she gasped, trying to speak through her tears, "He…we went undercover as brother and sister once, and…it stuck," she looked at Jack, "Rory was like my little brother and…he died…worse than that Jack…he was erased from time. The Doctor and I are the only ones who remember him and I can't…" she sobbed, "I can't lose another brother."

Gray looked at her, tears in his eyes and put his hand on Jack's shoulders when the man went to comfort her, squeezing it, silently telling him to let HIM do it.

He moved before Angel, kneeling down and taking her hands, "Angie…look at me," he called softly, waiting till she could open her eyes, before continuing, "I need to do this…for YOU."

She blinked, "What?"

He gave her a small smile, "When we first met…I was in a bad place, I was in the dark and I was hurt and angry and wanted other people to hurt too. And I hurt them, I did, in terrible ways that I will never ever forgive MYSELF for," he glanced at the team and back to her, "I see the way they look at me sometimes, like they're waiting for me to snap, to go on a rampage, to start hurting people again. Even Jack…" he added quickly as Jack began to argue, "Even he looks at me at times wary, oh he'll be the first to defend me, yeah, but…every now and again, I seem him watch me more closely. And that's fine," he nudged her, "Big brothers are supposed to do that right?"

Angel could only nod, still not sure what he was getting at.

"You, Angie," he smiled again, "YOU never looked at me like that. The moment I opened my eyes and realized what I'd done, what I'd become, the moment I saw you you NEVER looked at me like that. You always, have always, looked at me like you trust me. Like you believe in me. Like you have faith in me. Like you think I'm a good person."

"You are," she said quietly.

"Maybe," he shrugged, "But I need to prove that to myself first. You're the only one who's ever had that kind of faith and trust that I'm good deep inside and that I can be a better person than what those aliens tried to make me. If I do this," he squeezed her hand, "If I can help save the world, then maybe I'll be a little closer to believing it, to making your faith in my justified."

"You don't need to prove anything to me Gray."

"I know," he nodded, "But I need to prove it to myself."

Angel bit her lip, thinking for a long while before nodding to herself, "I'm going with you then," she decided, looking at the team, "I think…I think Jack will be ok, he'll come back," she smiled at him, "He always comes back."

Jack nodded and winked at her.

"If I go with you," Angel turned to Gray, "I can heal you and make sure you're ok too."

Gray nodded, "Ok."

Angel leaned forward and hugged him tightly, Gray smiling over her shoulder.

He pulled away and stood up, "Owen…" he looked at the man, "I think you ought to come with me too."

"Why?" Owen frowned.

"Because you're the only one who would shoot me no matter what," he said, he'd seen it before, the look in Owen's eyes, like he wanted to murder him, "The girls won't, Ianto won't leave Jack's side," Ianto nodded at that, "So it needs to be you."

Owen nodded, "Consider it done."

Gray nodded too, "So that's the plan then," he looked at Jack.

Jack sighed, "Let's get started."

~oOo~

Gray grinned and pulled out a knife, slicing his finger and holding it up to the chasm, letting the blood flow right out of it, sucked at the nothingness, making the entire room shake, making the room in Shanghai shake as well.

"What was that?" the woman screamed, "What happened?"

"That's impossible," the man stared at Gray in horror, "No way. There's nothing special about you!"

"You did all that research about Angel, didn't you?" Gray laughed, shaking his head, "You didn't look at me though, Jack's my brother," he told the man, "His blood is my blood."

"We knew this blood was important," Tosh told them, "So as soon as we arrived..."

"I transfused it into Gray," Owen finished.

"And exchanged my blood for Jack's," Gray added, "Oh it should have killed me, bleeding me nearly dry, but I've had worse, and we're all living now because of you and your Miracle Day," he glared.

"And you let us right on in," Angel looked at the chasm.

"Oswald," Gray called, "Get ready!"

~8~

"Get him out of there!" the blonde woman ordered and the room burst into chaos.

But Jack just laughed, "We've got blood on both sides of the world!"

"But they will die," the woman cut in, "Is that what you want? The Blessing will take every last drop. You'll both die, gentlemen. You'll both kill yourselves. You will die in a pit in Shanghai. Is that what you want?"

Jack laughed, "You really, really like underestimating our sister, don't you?"

"I think they do Jack," Gray laughed, "You ready?"

He nodded, "Oh yes," he turned to face the chasm, "Ianto?"

Ianto moved behind him, taking a gun Gwen offered, "Ready."

He looked back over his shoulder at the man and smiled, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Ianto nodded.

"This is it Gray."

~8~

Gray moved before the chasm, "Nothing's going to stop us," he agreed.

"I think this might!" the man shouted, turning his gun on Tosh and firing…

When a golden wall flew up before her, Angel moving in front of the woman who leapt back into Owen's arms, "I don't like people attacking my family," she told the man, who stared at her in horror, lowering his arm in shock.

"And I don't like men shooting at my wife," Owen glared, lifting his own gun and shooting the man between the eyes, sending him stumbling back, over the edge of the scaffolding, falling down into the darkness.

"Angie?" Jack called over the comms..

"Everything's fine Jack," Angel swallowed, moving over to Tosh's side and taking Owen's place, her arm around the woman's shoulder as Owen moved behind Gray, aiming his gun at the man.

"We're ready Jack," Gray told him.

~8~

Jack nodded, "Me too," he looked over at Gwen, "I'm sorry."

Gwen swallowed and gave him a brief nod, knowing what that meant, if they did this, if the ended the Miracle, her father and everyone else who would have died was going to. But that was just it, no one should have control over when someone lived or died, and right now, they were just giving nature back her course.

Jack turned back to the chasm, "Do it!" he ordered.

Ianto swallowed hard and took a breath, firing at Jack, right though the right side of his chest, the blood pouring out of him and at the chasm.

~8~

"Thank you Owen," Gray closed his eyes, holding out his arms as he readied himself.

Angel and Tosh looked away as Owen frowned, his jaw clenching, before he fired as well, through the right side of his chest, the same flow of blood soaring into the chasm as well.

~8~

As the blood flowed into the chasm, all over the world, the near dead took a deep breath, and breathed out their last, passing peacefully, all at once.

Rhys and Mrs. Cooper sat on either side of Mr. Cooper, holding his hand as he too passed.

~8~

Back in the chasm chambers, the rooms began to shake as Jack and Gray fell to the ground.

The blonde woman and Jilly tried to run, but Oswald grabbed hold of the blonde, Gwen tackling Jilly to the ground, back handing her across the face, knocking her out, before she rushed over to Jack's side, Ianto already there.

"I'm giving you this one chance!" Oswald shouted at them as they checked on Jack, now that the Miracle had been reversed, Jack would be immortal again, they could only hope Angel was right, that everything would be ok, that he'd gasp back to life and hadn't been killed before the reversal had hit.

"I'll give you estates!" the blonde begged as Oswald kept a grip on her, "I'll give you places to hunt!"

~8~

"Gray!" Owen shouted as he ran to the man's side, putting pressure on the man's wound as Gray's head lulled to look at them, still conscious despite the pain and blood loss, "Angel!" he looked at her.

Angel ran over, moving to kneel beside her brother as Owen stepped back to give her room, moving to Tosh to keep her save from the rocks falling from the ceiling as Angel focused.

"It'll be ok, Gray," she whispered, placing her hands on his chest, on either side of his wound, concentrating on her hands as the golden glow of the Vortex appeared, wafting out of them and right to his wound seeping into it.

She put as much as she could into it, gasping and falling back when the hole closed up and Gray's back arched, the man gasping a much needed breath of air with his lung healed.

"Come on," Angel scrambled to his side, helping him up his arm over her shoulder as she followed Owen and Tosh to the lift, needing to get out of there.

Tosh grabbed the detonator off the table, rushing to the lift and getting in.

~8~

"Come on Jack!" Ianto slapped Jack's face…a moment before the man gasped to life.

They looked at his chest, watching as the wound in his chest closed up, "He changed back!" Gwen cheered, "He's immortal again!"

"Better run, Torchwood!" Oswald shouted, "I'm taking this thing with me! The whole thing!"

"Come on," Jack struggled to get up, Gwen and Ianto helping him up the stairs to the lift.

"Please!" the blond woman begged, "For God's sake, help me! Help me!"

"Oh, soon I'll see her!" Oswald cheered.

"You won't see anybody! You're going to hell, Danes!"

"But that's where they go! All the bad little girls, they run straight to hell, and I'm following!"

Jilly had just started to wake, looking around, confused for a moment, before seeing the trio in the lift, and ran for it, but they'd already closed the gates, staring at her solemnly from the other side.

"No!" she screamed, "Please no! Take me with you!"

Jack just reached over and pushed a button, sending them up.

"No!"

"Susie, keep running!" Oswald laughed madly, "I'm coming to get you! Run! Faster! Faster!"

~8~

The two sets of Torchwood teams ran out from their lifts, across the facility grounds, till they were far enough away to look back. Tosh pressing her detonator as Oswald pressed his, the entire complex exploding before them, burying the blessing, sealing it off forever.

~8~

A man sat in the park, the same man who had been meeting Jilly, as though waiting for her to appear. The files and records he'd managed to find said nothing about Jilly being caught in either explosion at the Blessing sites. He knew she'd come back, they always came back.

"She won't," someone said beside him.

He looked over to see a woman with black hair in a blue dress and black cowboy boots sitting there.

"I'm sorry?"

"Jilly," Angel cut in, looking at him, "She was in Shanghai, Jack says he's sorry, but I don't quite believe him."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the man stiffened.

"You know I know who you are," Angel countered, "Those others, that blonde woman, that bald man, what's left of the Ablemarch and Frines families," she eyed him, "And you, the last heir of the Costerdanes."

"What do you want?" the man frowned.

"Don't make a second attempt," she warned him, "Your plan B…forget it."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because," she shrugged, "You will NEVER succeed," she looked over her shoulder and he followed her gaze to see the Torchwood team at the end of the path, watching him, "I'm psychic," she whispered to him, before getting up, "I know," she looked at him once more, "A lot of people have told me I'm quite like a human, and I suppose I am, and maybe that's why I was meant to help. But I warn you, just this once, don't try again…or next time…next time the Doctor will be the one to deal with you. And he won't be as kind as I was."

"How is threatening me being kind?" he scoffed.

She blinked, "I'm not threatening you," she told him, "I'm warning you. If I wanted to threaten you, I'd have let them come talk to you instead," she nodded at the team once more, "I hope you'll think about it, because they'll be watching you. And so will I."

And with that, she turned and walked down the path, back towards the team, who turned and walked off with her, leaving the man to his thoughts.

~8~

The Torchwood team was back in the hub, having just come from Gwen's father's funeral, none of them dressed in black, because that was not the sort of man Mr. Cooper was. He wouldn't have wanted them to be sad, but happy, so they'd dressed in their usual clothes, been there for Gwen and then headed back to the Hub for one last gathering.

Gwen had left Anwen with Rhys and her mother, the team telling her to be with them, but she'd shaken her head, saying she wanted to be with them for the moment, that she wanted to see it.

Which had confused Angel as to what she meant.

"There's ten funerals every hour these days...catching up with the backlog," Owen sighed, rubbing his eyes, the autopsies in the hospitals had been overrun.

"Thanks," Tosh grimaced, "That's made us all feel better."

"You think if that Blessing was so kind, it could've shown some sort of...grace," Gwen sighed, thinking of how her father had died, hadn't even been able to hang on long enough for her to get there.

"UNIT's sealed those sites up forever," Ianto added, coming in with a report.

"Let that thing stay buried," Jack nodded, plopping down on the table, sitting beside Angel.

"I think I should head to the Plass," Angel said after a moment, "I…I think the Doctor's on his way."

She could feel it, he was on his way and…she wanted to be there, to get into the TARDIS before the others could come and say hello. She knew, she was very sure, that they knew something was bothering her at the beginning, if they could tell that just from seeing her…they'd know, they'd know immediately that something was wrong with the Doctor.

And then they'd try to kill him.

And with Miracle Day over and all those bodies…she didn't want more death.

Jack and Gray would kill him, they'd hurt him and beat him and there would be shouting and…she just didn't want to deal with that at the moment. She didn't want to have to explain what had happened, or what she thought had happened. She'd been…happier, the last few weeks, with the team…she didn't want to have to bring up what had made her sad again.

And she knew she could use Gwen's sorrow over her father as an excuse for them to all stay there, but she'd have to leave soon.

She was nearly certain that the team was getting suspicious of her pregnancy as well. They'd noticed her appetite, how tired she got, the decaf tea she'd been drinking, her cravings…soon enough they'd notice more and she needed to leave before that happened.

That…that would kill her more to talk about than the Doctor's amnesia. She'd only ever told Rory and that had taken so much out of her, and Rory was gone now. She…she didn't feel right sharing that secret with anyone else at the moment, the loss of her companion was still too fresh. She knew she'd have to tell them eventually but…

She wasn't sure if the baby would make it. She didn't want to tell anyone until she knew, for sure, that the baby would make it, that it was far enough out of danger, healthy enough to survive…THEN she'd tell them. When she knew it would make it. It would hurt too much to tell them and see them get excited and then lose the baby.

She prayed she wouldn't lose it, but…she didn't want to jinx it either.

"Before you go," Gray called, walking in with a laptop, setting it down on the table before her, "There's something we wanted to show you."

"What?" she looked at him.

He just leaned in and pressed a button, turning it on…

And her mouth fell open.

"Angel!" Mickey Smith shouted as he and Martha appeared on webcam.

"How are you?" Sarah Jane smiled, Luke, Rani, and Clyde with her.

"Still with the same clothes," Donna jokingly rolled her eyes, "Don't you ever change?"

"What…" Angel shook her head, looking up at the team in confusion as they gathered around her, complete, entirely shocked at the sight before her. Her family was webcaming, all of them, smiling at her, "What…"

"One more 'what' and you'll sound just like the Doctor," Donna joked.

"What are you all doing here?" Angel finally managed to get out, tears in her eyes.

"With the Miracle Day and all," Mickey began, "We knew you were out there helping, didn't want to distract you or get in the way."

"Never," Angel told them, "Oh my God you're all here!" she started laughing.

"Of course!" Sarah Jane smiled, "Jack told us you were on Earth for a bit and we wanted to say hello!"

"Hello!" she waved at them.

"That was you with the Miracle thing wasn't it?" Donna asked, "I mean, who else had experience with Morphic fields."

Angel shook her head, "Now YOU sound like the Doctor."

"Thank you!" Donna beamed.

"We wanted to say thanks," Martha added, "I spent all that time on Earth, during the Year-That-Never-Was talking about you and the Doctor, how you do so much but no one ever says thanks."

"But not us," Mickey smiled.

"We know what you did," Sarah Jane told her.

"It's brilliant," Luke added as Rani and Clyde agreed with him.

"You're brilliant," Donna nodded, "And don't you forget it supergirl."

Angel let out a breath, tears falling now, as she smiled, a real, true, HUGE smiled, "I won't," she promised, crossing her hearts, "I promise."

And she wouldn't.

She'd spent so long, thinking that…maybe the Doctor had forgotten her because she just…wasn't good enough, maybe he'd regretted Mating to her, maybe he wanted someone…better…like River Song.

But…now, with her companion and her family there…how could she believe that? There, before her, was all the proof she needed that she wasn't a mistake, she wasn't nothing, she wasn't something to be regretted. All of them had met her, all of them had gotten to know her, and none of them would ever give up their friendship with her for anything.

And that meant the world to her.

Because if THEY didn't regret her…how could the Doctor?

No…it had to be something else. Whatever reason he'd forgotten her…it wasn't out of regret.

"I missed you," she told them quietly, "So much."

"Oh we miss you too!" Martha gushed.

"I haven't gotten a hug from my Pilot in too long!" Mickey agreed.

"You come see us sometime," Sarah Jane lightly ordered her, "For tea or a chat or…anything."

"And we need to have another Gingers United meeting," Donna reminded her.

"Yeah," Angel nodded, "I'll be around much more, cross my hearts," she crossed them again.

"Brilliant," Jack cheered, putting an arm around Angel's shoulders, grinning widely at that, the entire team was beaming, seeing her so happy and touched.

Angel had just turned to them, to thank them, when a small alarm went off.

"Spike in Artron Energy in the Plass," Tosh called, checking on it.

"That would be the Doctor," Angel nodded, getting up, "I'll see you all soon," she told the others on webcam as they waved and called goodbyes to her, "Thank you," she turned to Jack, hugging him tightly, followed by Gray and the rest of the team.

"Don't be a stranger!" Jack called as she made her way to the hug entrance.

"I won't," she laughed, giving them one more wave before the doors closed in front of her.

Jack's smile fell completely as he turned back to the webcam to see the others quiet as well, "Did you see it?"

They all nodded, "Something's wrong," Donna said what they were all thinking.

They'd all noticed something wrong with her the moment they saw her. But they all knew…they just had to be patient until she told them.

~8~

Angel walked though the Plass, unable to help smiling when she caught sight of the TARDIS off to the side and walked up to it. She paused at the doors, rubbing the corner of the box, "Miss me girl?"

She smiled, feeling the wood grow warm beneath her hand, and took a breath, pushing the doors open without a key, stepping into the room…

"Angel!" the Doctor cheered, rushing over, "Perfect!" he pulled her back to the console, "Just in time! I was about to take Amy to the Van Gogh exhibit at the art museum and I know you like museums so I wanted to pick you back up and…"

"Angel!" Amy called, seeing the Time Lady as she entered the console room, having been in the kitchen when the box thumped, knowing what that meant, a landing, and wanted to see what was happening, "Oh thank God!" she hugged the Time Lady tightly, "Never, ever leave me alone with him again."

"Why?" Angel laughed a bit.

"He doesn't stop talking," Amy told her, serious.

Angel nodded at that, "Earache?"

"Like you can't believe," Amy linked her arm with Angel's, "And he barely managed to get us to the last few stops in one go or one piece!"

"Oi!" the Doctor pointed at her, "That is…not my fault."

Angel shook her head, "Would you like some help now?" she offered.

"Please," he nodded, rushing around the controls.

Angel moved away from Amy to go help, Amy watching the girl closely as she and the Doctor piloted the box…she hadn't said it but…

The earache…it was because ALL the Doctor talked about while Angel was with that Jack man was her.

~8~

"Really?!" Gwen shouted as she, Jack, and Gray sat behind a car on the streets, "They couldn't even give us a day!?"

"Sontarans like to attack when they think they can win," Jack remarked, cocking his gun.

It hadn't even been a day since the end of the Miracle and a small fleet of Sontarans had decided to attack, which left Torchwood to deal with the aliens who thought that, with all the suddenly dead, that the Earth would be easier to conquer.

What was with everyone underestimating Earth's defenses?"

"We need more cover," Gray looked around, "There!" he pointed to a wall a few feet away, but one not covered by a car or anything, out in the open. He bit his lip, looking in the opposite direction, "Jack," he turned to the man, "Go!" he shoved him and Gwen towards the wall before getting up and running in the opposite direction, distracting the Sontarans into firing at him, trying to give them time.

"Gray!" Jack shouted, not moving, especially when one blast struck Gray in the chest as he'd turned to fire back at the aliens, "No!"

He and Gwen leapt up, running out from around the car and firing wildly at the Sontarans, striking the five remaining soldiers down. When the last one had fallen, they ran back to Gray's side.

"Gray!" Jack grabbed his brother's face, trying to wake him as Gwen took his wrist, feeling for a pulse.

"I'm sorry Jack," she shook her head, swallowing hard, "He's gone…he's dead…"

"No," Jack panted, "No…" it couldn't be, not Gray, not after he'd just gotten him back. Not after surviving Miracle Day, "He can't be. He…"

They jerked back, startled, when Gray…

Gasped awake.

"What?" Gwen stared at him.

"What?!" Jack shook his head, hardly daring to believe it.

"What happened?" Gray looked at them, before feeling his chest, recalling how he'd been shot but…there was no wound, "Jack?"

Jack could only blink, "That's impossible."

A/N: I hope you liked the little twists involved and the little changes. Jilly being caught in the Blessing explosion, Martha helping Gwen's father, the web-chat at the end, and Gray! I know a lot of you probably hoped it would be Ianto to become immortal, but I couldn't see Ianto leaving Jack's side when he faced death and they didn't know immortality would be the result of the transfusion. I can say here, it IS the result of the transfusion (in this story) and not anything Angel did in healing Gray :) I also felt like we saw more in Children of Earth that one of Jack's biggest fears is to lose his family, this way, he'll be able to make up time with his brother and Gray, who has finally learned to live and love life gets to have all those years of torment made up for in living to see the wonders of the Universe :) As for it being Doctor-lite, I've sort of portrayed Angel to be more of a human-Time Lord, so I could see her being a part of this more than the Doctor :)

I know you all probably wanted Angel to tell them about the amnesia and the baby, but I think, after all that happened, she doesn't want the focus to fall on her. She's just helped save the world and her brothers and the last thing she wants is to be reminded of/have to talk about what happened and then have to deal with the mess of them trying to kill the Doctor and him not knowing why and all that lol :) And for the baby, I could see her being terrified of telling them and them getting excited and if she lost it to see the pity in their eyes. She wouldn't want to get their hopes up about that :( I can promise you though that someone else will find out about the pregnancy before the end of Series 5 and that Torchwood will learn about it in the future as well, whether during it or after the baby is born (or dies) we'll have to wait and see }:)

But next we get Vincent! And we'll have more explanation as to where Amy and the Doctor were too :)

And...woo! We also made it to the sneak peek! Awesome :)

~8~

"Alright, Doctor. I'm Sean. Where are you strongest?"

"Arms."

"No, he means, what position?" Craig cut in, "On the field?"

"Not sure. The front? The side? Below?"

"Are you any good though?" Sean frowned.

The Doctor spun the ball on his fingertips, "Let's find out!" he kicked the ball and headed out onto the field.

Angel laughed as the team headed out after him, leaving her and Sophie at the side lines, "So…" Sophie began, "Are you and the Doctor…you know?"

Angel looked at her, "Are you and Craig?" they both shared a knowing look before laughing.

~8~

Lol, so now we know where Angel will be during that episode ;) But I can say there'll be a lot more to her being there :)

Some notes on reviews...

I think Sarah Jane is included yup :) Probably like a favored aunt :)

We'll definitely see the Doctor's reaction to Miracle Day in the next chapter :) Lol, I think Jack's offer was more of a joking invite, not really serious, like when someone says 'I love you!' when you give them coffee, they don't really love you in that way but just let you know you're appreciated :) I agree, it was more human than alien, that's sort of why I also wanted just Angel there, she always struck me as more 'human' than Time Lord in a way :) I read the latest chapter and I think that's an interesting twist :) I also like the cover very much, with your permission, would it be ok if I add it to my tumblr (with a click-through link to your story)? And complete credit to you of course :) I have no idea how I write chapters that long lol, they just sort of happen :) It took me the weekend, about 20 hours total to do this chapter and half of the last one, but that's probably because I didn't have a decent transcript and was going from my own and listening to the episode as I went :) I think there'll be a lot of Doctor/Angel moments to come in quite a few chapters yup :) And Marilyn will be interesting, especially the Doctor's reaction to her ;)

There's about 20 chapters left of this story after this one :)

Aww thanks! I'm glad the update was able to cheer you up a little :)

I could see it going one of those ways too, he absence would 'make the hearts grow fonder' and the Doctor would notice more or she'd find a place to be happy. I think we saw it here with the web-chat, she really needs her family with her when the Doctor isn't there for her to remind her she's amazing. It's like...it took the Doctor all that time to build her up to this regeneration, and with HIM forgetting her and all those moments it set her back, but her family's there for her at least :) It made sense to me too no worries :)

Yup, I heard. I'm slightly annoyed they picked such a main actor from a DW spin-off to be the next Doctor. I would have steered clear of anyone who had a memorable role in the SJA or TW because of their connection to DW, but I hope that after a few episodes I'll see him as 12 and not the guy who shot his daughters or Caecilius :)

Mhmm, Peter Capaldi is 12. I could see him as darker, but not quite that dark, I think DW will always be a 'family' show in terms of things like language and violence :) Oh that'll be interesting to see River flirt with 12...I just...can't quite see it :/ Hmmm... As for whether the Doctor will find out, I think it depends on whether the baby survives. If Angel loses it before it's noticable, then he might not, but then again he might because I could see her having a definite reaction to it. We'll have to wait and see :)

Yup, it's Frobisher lol :) That's going to be rather awkward for Angel isn't it? I almost feel like I shouldn't have done the crossovers now since she'd see him as Frobisher and not the Doctor. Hmmm...

I've thought about a crossover of the 11s :) It seems like they're the ones with all the babies lol :) But I could totally see them discussing motherhood while their Doctors run around behind them causing chaos and trying to stop other aliens :)