Jack looked around the Hub at his team. He was tired in the face of their enthusiasm. Bitter thoughts at the back of his mind left him wondering how long these ones would last. His eyes settled on Cara Lewis. She was his newest recruit, barely out of pigtails and still adjusting to wearing contact lens instead of glasses. He'd poached her away from a promising career in research at the Cardiff University. Now he wondered if she'd even live long enough to get her thesis published. His thoughts as he tried to recall what exactly it was about were fuzzy on the specifics. The bubbly blonde Cardiff native was always busy and never phased by life as a Torchwood agent at the ripe old age of twenty two. He just hoped she'd see twenty three. Maybe then he'd care about the details.

Gaze moving across the room he smiled as his eyes fell on the team's medic. Working away in his recently refurbished medical bay, was a softly spoken Scott he'd been sent by Torchwood Two. Meric stood a little over six foot four and his soft burr was unexpected in a man who looked like he'd be just as at home working on the docks. He was, as he'd heard it said, built like a brick shit house. At thirty six he was an oddity, having worked for Torchwood since graduating from the Edinburgh College of Medicine. He was good for the odd snarky comment but he wasn't up to the standards once set by Doctor Owen Harper. And unlike Owen, he'd never shagged any of his team mates, and always completed his paperwork. A sad smile crossed his lips at the idea that Ianto would have liked the gentle red giant, even if only for that.

Never far away, and trying, unsuccessfully, to flirt with Meric was Ana Williams, daughter of Anwen Williams and granddaughter of Gwen Cooper. She was an image cast identical to her gran, who had not been well pleased her granddaughter had sought out Jack and Torchwood. Ana had shown the familiar determination of a Cooper to join his team. Making Jack curious about exactly what sort of stories his former team member used to tell the children around her. A capable field agent, Ana was however (unlike Gwen) more likely to listen to instructions and chose to air her disagreements with him in private. Which was a pleasant change when it came to dealing with one of the Cooper/Williams women. Rhys had stopped speaking to him for the first year after hiring Ana, but they'd made their peace at the end.

Then there was his second in command. A man who was third generation military, formerly a member of the New Zealand armed forces. Possibly SAS but the chap was annoyingly reticent on that front. Sean Green. Like Meric he was also an imposing six foot four of solid muscle. He may have even been the one who coined the phrase built like a brick shit house. It was the sort of colourful expression the man was fond of throwing into the mix in his oddly colonial accent. But he could shoot the eyelashes off a rat in the rain and actually cook a decent curry. His significant other was a botanist named David who popped in with freshly made scones and homemade jam for the team with enough frequency to have his own entry codes. Both men were counting down to forty and seeing them together at times reminded him of what he had lost in Thames House so many years ago. They were together in a way he'd only begun being open to in his relationship with Ianto.

For someone with all of time to look forward to he knew there was no joy to be found in dwelling in memories and the lost opportunities of what could have been. So instead he looked down at his team, one of the longest held teams he'd had in more years than he cared to recall. They blurred after a while and it was only the apocalyptic nature of their job that served to mark time for him any more. Today was quite and Jack didn't feel like being sociable as he called out to everyone and sent them home. Or in the case of the two girls, Christmas shopping. Retreating into his office and a glass of scotch he sipped slowly as they all called out their farewells leaving him alone. Always alone.

Looking expectantly towards the doorway of his office he found no shade of Ianto waiting for him to indicate if they were staying in, or heading back to the flat. No cup of coffee and post it note with a promise of a blow job or naked hide and seek if he finished the paperwork. No softly whispered words spoken in Welsh as they fell asleep together. Nothing but an empty Hub filled with bitter memories of every one he'd ever lost. Along with the unspoken promise of everyone he was still going to loose. Head falling forward onto the ever present paperwork he didn't even acknowledge the sound of the glass exploding as it shattered against his office wall. Throwing it at ghosts he left the heavy tumbler where the pieces fell as what now passed for sleep claimed him.

–/-/-/-/–/-/-/-/–/-/-/-

Opening his eyes Jack ignored the coffee placed in front of him. He stretched out his neck, trying to recall why he felt sleeping at his desk was ever a good idea when clearly his neck and back were telling him otherwise. He might be immortal and require very little sleep but it helped if it was in an actual bed. Looking up at the green eyes of his medic he barely acknowledged the man's greeting.

'Drew the short straw did you?'
'Nope, I just didn'a think you wanted wee Ana bouncing in here instead.'
Jack flashed a smile as he rose to his feet. 'You may have a point, she's very much like her gran that one.'
'Oh I know and I only met the woman a few times.'
'There are few things quite as scary, or formidable, as a Welsh Granny.'
Meric harrumphed. 'Perhaps, except a Scottish one.'
This time Jack laughed as he moved out of his office and onto the platform above the main Hub floor. 'That I shall have to concede to you, since I've not had much experience with such women.'
'Oh aye, you think the wee lassies gran was game.' Meric muttered to himself as he followed Jack.

Looking up from a piece of alien tech she was tinkering with, possibly in an effort to look busy, Ana frowned. 'You're not drinking the coffee I made you.'
'Oh, that was for drinking? My fountain pen had run out of ink, I thought you were sending fresh supplies.' He grinned as her eyes darkened and he picked up the distinct sound of Welsh muttering. 'I know what you're saying young lady.' Having finally given in he was fast learning all the words they didn't teach students of the Welsh language. Unless that was part of the advanced course he'd yet to complete. 'Casting aspersions on the validity of my parents marriage wont change the fact you can't make coffee.'
'It makes me feel better.'

'Yes well, so does eating an entire box of chocolates but it never quite takes the edge off for the rest of us. But why don't I go and get us something from the coffee hut out in the Plass while you express your dire outrage at me and how unfair I'm being while I'm out.' He patted her on the cheek and moved towards the invisible lift, glad that in rebuilding the Hub, Gwen had managed to maintain that as part of the overall refurbishments. After saving the country the government were remarkably apologetic about trying to blow up him and the Hub in the overall cluster fuck that was the 456 incident. It was so many lifetimes ago and it often amazed him how much he gave for this planet and yet he'd do it all over again. After all, the twenty first century was when everything changed.

Returning with coffee the lift descended into the Hub revealing Meric tapping away at Cora's workstation while Ana held a gun on someone. As he reached the floor and the lift clicked into place, he turned to see what the cause of the excitement was. Promptly dropping the coffees as the most perfect Welsh vowels filled the space between them.

'Hello Sir. Did you miss me?'