Hart hadn't been lying. He was a fast healer. Two days after he woke, he was moved to the regular pulmonary ward. Two days after that, Miranda checked him out of hospital against medical advice and moved him back to the Hub and into his room. With only a few days of rest, the former Time Agent was back but on desk duty. He'd been doing well and itching to get back into the field after barely a week. Miranda's suspension had just ended, and her desk duty beginning. She was sitting in Jack's office. Torchwood's captain and second in command were resuming the discussion that had started in the boardroom two weeks ago.

"We should be having this discussion with everyone," Miranda said, flatly.

The other immortal shook his head. "Not a democracy, remember?"

"That's not what I mean, Jack. The status quo has changed."

"Changed your mind?" he asked, tilting his head at her. "You were against him staying."

"My original objection was that the team couldn't trust him. That's changed. He took a bullet for Gwen."

"He took a bullet for Fish too. What makes you think he's trustworthy now?" Jack asked, skeptically.

"That was different, Jack. He had pulled Fish to safety and was injured in the process. This time he stepped in between Gwen and danger purposely without thought to the consequences. He almost died." She furrowed her brow. "What are you getting at? You know you seem to be collecting a lot of opinions and I haven't heard yours yet."

"I want to know what you think, Will," he said, avoiding her question.

"Jack-"

"What do you think?" he asked with more force.

She took a deep breath, almost a sigh, and said in an official tone, "I think that Captain Hart's loyalty is genuine. I think that like so many others before him, he was a lost man who found a home and a purpose here at Torchwood. He is intelligent, cunning and resourceful. I think he'll make a fine addition to the team and has already proven he will lay down his life for any of us."

"That's all I wanted to know."

"So we'll be keeping him then?"

"And you say I make him sound like a stray dog?"

"I'm not blind, Jack. You and he may joke and you may roll your eyes but you loved him once and you still care about him." She got a far off look. "We both know how any Torchwood story ends. You should send him far from here."

Jack got up and turned around, his hands in his pockets. He was looking out of the window, his eyes floating from team member to team member. "I won't do your dirty work for you, Will."

"I wasn't asking you to." Miranda looked down at her hands.

"Have you talked to John yet?"

"I haven't told him his trial period-"

"That's not what I meant, Will." He turned around. He dug at the floor with the toe of his boot. "You spent a lot of time at the hospital."

"Hart's condition was critical," she said, defensive. "I needed assurances our medicines didn't do more harm than good."

"I've been worried about you, since Nora, since London," he said with a shrug. Jack looked up at her. He jutted his chin forward, a little defensive himself. "You're smiling again."

"When did this conversation stop being about work and start being about my personal life?" she demanded.

Angry she was snubbing his concern, Jack rolled his eyes in a very Ianto worthy way.

"Fine. Discussion over." He turned back towards his desk, sat down and started to sift through the paperwork. "Tell John we'll re-evaluate again in six months."

"Yes, Captain," she said tersely and left the room. She kept her head down as she walked through the main Hub, determined to not throw so much as a flick of her eyes in Hart's direction and completely failed. She hadn't made it past the kitchen when she'd looked for the distinctive red jacket. Her lips curled into a barely perceptible smile as she saw Hart bent over, tinkering with something at the worktable the former Time Agent shared with Fish. It was a familiar sight now. Since she hadn't cleared him for field duty, Hart spent most of his time working through the tech backlog. Once she caught sight of Fish eyeing her, she averted her gaze but not before giving her friend a slightly smoldering look. He'd waggled his tongue about what he'd seen in the autopsy bay. Ianto had said his piece at hospital. Now Jack. She was wondering when Gwen and Fish would say something to her and it was none of their fucking business really.

She knew she was procrastinating. Since Hart had recovered, Miranda had largely avoided him. Hart had attempted to start a few friendly conversations, but Miranda had shot him down each time. She'd done a lot of thinking while he was unconscious, but once he'd woken Miranda had been focused entirely on his recovery, not her own feelings. It had almost been a tunnel vision, but if she was truly being honest with herself, she was using it as an excuse. When Hart had been unconscious, it had been easy for Miranda to idealise the small moment they'd shared. Things were so simple up in her head but now that Hart was awake and recovered? The reality was settling down on her a bit more.

All of the usual indecisiveness crept into her brain, the same as it had been with Nora Ashline. She told herself all the usual arguments. She told herself that she would've lost him some day anyway and it was better that the thing had just never been. She told herself that it didn't matter what their relationship was because he was still a part of her life. She told herself to just be grateful he was alive. She kept telling herself that she was better off alone. She told herself so very many things. She was so very skilled in the art of lies and half truths, especially when it was to herself.

Also providing a healthy distraction was UNIT and the Palace. While Colonel Ashline had made his recommendations as Torchwood's liaison, whether or not those recommendations were followed was a different story. Miranda and Jack had wrongfully assumed that Torchwood was in the clear. Most of the time Ianto and Miranda handled the more diplomatic aspects of Torchwood but in a time like this, their captain needed to be front and center.

Diplomacy was not the forte of Jack Harkness. It was times like these were Ianto Jones was the most valuable, managing his husband without him realising he was being managed. Usually this was a task Ianto could handle on his own, but the strain and pressure was so great that Miranda had had to help, spreading the load off of Ianto. Their hard work had paid off and Jack had managed to keep his cool and not make an already tense situation worse. Torchwood would come under more scrutiny and there would be a bit more oversight but it was all temporary.

All of the fallout coupled with all of the regular insanity of Torchwood had caused some of Miranda's regular duties to fall to the wayside. Praying the rift didn't drop anything on their heads for the next few hours. She sat down at her desk and opened the drawer. She took out her tablet and opened the inventory program. She rolled her desk chair over to the medicines' cupboard and began to count.

A polite throat clear brought her head up. It was Gwen.

"Gwen? Is something wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"I was going to ask you that," Gwen replied, stepping down the stairs into the bay.

"Gwen…" she warned. Miranda didn't look up from her chore. She continued to look at the bottles and ampules of medicines, occasionally tapping at the tablet.

Gwen rolled her eyes at her friend. "That scary tone might work with the boys, Miranda, but it doesn't work with me."

She supposed she would have to hear this from all of them eventually. "You want to say something, Gwen, say it."

"Ten weeks and eight weeks," she said, quietly. There was almost a quiver to her voice.

"What?" Miranda asked, impatient. What Gwen was saying meant nothing to Miranda. She still didn't look up from the cupboard.

"I lost the first baby at ten weeks. I lost the second one at eight," Gwen said.

That got Miranda's attention. She turned, startled. She put the tablet onto the top of the cupboard and reached for her medical bag but Gwen wasn't telling her because Miranda was a doctor. Gwen took a few quick steps forward, grabbing Miranda by the shoulder. Miranda turned to argue, to insist that she scan Gwen thoroughly for any health problems but the look on Gwen's face stopped her.

"Rhys has been at me for years," she said, tears in her large doe eyes. "I thought it was a dead question. How would I raise a child with all this? But he asked the more important question. What are we trying to protect? What are we fighting for? We do it so people can live their lives." She let go of Miranda's shoulder and stood back. "I needed to get on with my life, not live it like it was already over. So Rhys and I are trying for a baby. And I found out that real life is harder than any alien bomb or blowfish in a sports car. I know I'm going to end up in a drawer downstairs. Same as Suzie. And Owen. And Tosh. I'm not afraid of dying. Now, I'm afraid of not really living before the end. Falling in love and getting married and buying flats and having kids. We all look at this place like it's an end in itself but it isn't. You and Jack and Ianto. We call you immortal but you're not, not really. There's an end for you too. Jack and Ianto got married. Henry has Fish. You deserve real life too, Miranda," She jerked her head back towards the main Hub. "He's a right bastard but he saved my life. That burns me up, it does. But it's given me another chance. Third time's a charm."