Into the Darkness

by ComeBackSoonX

'She couldn't see anything. Her ears were ringing. They felt like when you're on a plane, and the altitude is so great that you feel as though your eardrums might burst from inside your head and out of your skull.' Florence didn't know exactly what was happening to her, and until she found out she would just blame that cocky stranger in a WWII overcoat. Eventual Doctor/OC

34. The One in the Countryside

Chapter 34 The One in the Countryside

This is a chapter I've been looking forward to for months, probably even two years. It's one of the first chapters that I had planned in my mind when I started this story… It's dark, and I'll give you a hint: It's not a DW episode…

Thank you for all the reviews and follows/faves. We're into the last 8 chapters of this story, and I can't wait to share it with you all.

Enjoy.

I own nothing recognisable x

---

Florence sighed as Amy and Rory bid the two of them goodnight, feeling a weight finally lift from her shoulders at the conclusion to another near death experience. She closed her eyes and rolled her neck, feeling an intense need to visit a spa for a deep tissue massage, and jumped when she felt familiar hands cradle her head.

"Come on." He whispered, and she opened her eyes as he moved her head from left to right, up and down. "Say 'aah'." She laughed slightly before complying.

"Aah.."

"Yeah, you're fine." He smoothed back her hair. "Any headaches?" She shook her head.

"Not anymore, which I'm not mad about." He went to pull his hands away but she grabbed onto one of them, keeping it on her cheek. "It did make me wonder, though. All this time, Doctor, all that time on the run… why didn't I jump?" She asked, and he sighed slightly, as if he had been thinking the same thing over and over again.

"I can't be sure, maybe it was because the TARDIS was out of action, maybe it was because 1969 is a temporal tipping point, and whatever causes your jumping truly didn't know what to do with you." He pulled back fully to lean against the console and cross his arms. "That's my theory anyway…" He smiled slightly. "Flossie, do you know how many times we've been to 1969?"

"Well this is my first but I can imagine the answer is 'a couple."

"More than a couple." He told her. "We have been to 1969 together on at least nine separate occasions. And that's just you with the last three incarnations of myself, I can't imagine how many times you visit with my future incarnations… The Moon Landing has always been a favourite of mine, so you can probably imagine how many versions of us are running around out there in this timezone." He nodded to himself. "I think, whatever it is that is causing your jumps… There are some laws to it. There's some, sentience, or something." Florence nodded, it was the closest she had ever got to some sort of explanation to what was going on with her.

"And you still… don't know what it is?" The Doctor stepped closer to her, cupping her cheek once more and tilting her head slightly to look into his eyes.

"Everytime I think we're closer to finding out, we just get further and further away." He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against hers. "Something is connecting you to the Vortex, and to me. Is it so wrong that I'm just grateful that it keeps bringing you back to me?"

Florence swallowed, remembering her words to him back when his younger self was in the cryo-chamber, there it was. The basic fact was that she was connected to him in some way, and he had looked after her, he had let her push him away and pull him in close. How long had it been for him?

"But… do you ever, do you ever wish I didn't travel with you like this?" When he opened his mouth to reply she cut him off. "I just mean… you barely trust River, you made that very clear, because of the whole time travel thing… and I just thought, do you sometimes wish you had just picked me up off the street and whisked me away like Amy or Rose?" She tried not to notice the way he stiffened slightly when she mentioned his previous companions, instead allowing him to pull her into his arms.

"Never, never ever." She felt him place a featherlight kiss on the top of her head. "I only wish it didn't cause you pain." She laughed slightly at him, pulling back to look up at him, resting her chin against his chest.

"Well see, that's just rude." He frowned slightly at her. "If you really liked me, you'd offer to take all my pain, no questions asked and carry the burden yourself." She teased, and he smiled, letting out a breathy chuckle.

"Ah yes, I'm terribly sorry, my dear. I'll fix that as soon as possible."

"Thank you very much." She placed her head back to his chest, sighing in contentment. "How soon is soon?"

"What?" She felt his chest move slightly as he laughed. "Soon soon. Why?"

"Because it hurts again." She burrowed into his chest. "Doctor, it feels weird this time, why does it hurt?" She could feel her pulse pounding behind her eyelids, her hands shaking as she pressed the heels against her closed eyelids. "I thought the TARDIS helped, why does it hurt?" She cried out slightly, and the Doctor rubbed her back, holding her tightly against his chest, rocking her.

"Shh, shh. Flossie. I'm so sorry." He pressed another, firmer, kiss against her head. "I don't know, I don't know."

She opened her eyes, and she was in the darkness once more.

She felt different. She was in a pain she hadn't felt since her first episode, she could almost feel the capillaries in her eyes expanding and contracting with every breath she took. She gasped in pain, feeling shockwaves rippling through her body, that was new. The murmurings were a lot more jumbled this time around, she was unable to even make out a single word, and they were louder than ever, almost screaming in her ears. Florence really hoped this wasn't some kind of side effect of the three months she spent on the run, but was comforted by the fact that the Doctor hadn't mentioned any lasting effects from what he knew of her jumping in the past/her future.

She blinked.

And she was back.

Not somewhere that she recognised at all, with no TARDIS in sight, but without a doubt she recognised the greatcoat that was hung on the coat rack in front of her, and spun on her heel to look for its owner.

She pointed an accusatory finger at a very familiar face that stared at her in shock from behind a messy desk.

"Jack Fucking Harkness! What a surprise!"

"Florence Fucking Jensson!" The American greeted back with a laugh and ceased fiddling with whatever he had in front of him, clapping his hands together in glee. "What do I owe this pleasure?"

"I could ask you that, usually it's your fault." Jack gave her a mock upset look.

"Ouch, Flo, that really hurts."

"It's Florencccewhat the fuck is that?" She was cut off from her scolding when she noticed just what he had been examining so intently on his desk when she had arrived: a hand. A dismembered hand floating in a bluish liquid that was bubbling away. It twitched. "What the fuck, Jack?"

They were suddenly interrupted by the entrance of four people, three of them wielding guns and pointing them straight at Florence in warning. She let out a scream of surprise and immediately threw her hands in the air, while Jack sprung forward from behind the desk.

"Please don't shoot me!"

"Put your hands up!"

"Jack, are you okay?"

"Hang on, do I know you?"

"Please don't kill me!"

"Hey, hey! It's okay!"

"The sensors went off, Jack, who is this?"

They all spoke over each other, Florence keeping her hands aloft and pleading her innocence, the guns wavering ever so slightly when they noticed that Jack was in fact still alive.

"Jack, what is going on?" One of the women who had entered with a gun asked, she had a thick Welsh accent.

"Everybody, it's okay." Jack told them. "This is Florence, she's a friend."

Florence waved one of her hands that were still high in the air. "Hellooo." She sang, before coughing slightly. "Can we maybe put the guns away?" Slowly, they all relaxed, enough for the guns to be put back into their holsters anyway.

"Flo, meet the team." He gestured to the group of confused people one by one. "Owen, Toshiko, Ianto, Gwen… meet Miss Florence Jensson." Florence smiled uncomfortably.

"Nice to meet you, sorry for the scare."

"Uhh. I hate to be an unfriendly knob, but how did she get in, Jack? And what is she doin' here?" The man Jack had identified as Owen asked, his tone suggesting that he didn't in fact mind being unfriendly.

"Florence just… pops in." Jack smirked at Florence's unamused face. "She's come to visit me."

"I'm a friend of his, from… a long time ago." Jack laughed.

"A long time ago, and sometimes in a galaxy far, far away." He agreed, and Florence rolled her eyes.

"Spoilers."

"Oh christ, now he's got a mate." Owen muttered. "Right well, we'll just be getting back to work then?" Jack nodded, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Good idea." The group stood in a second of uncomfortable silence, clearly the rest of the team wanted answers, and Jack was unwilling to give them. Owen scoffed slightly before leading the way out of the office, the others following behind with slight hesitation, Gwen looking back multiple times for reassurance. "So…"

"So." Jack made his way back to sit behind his desk, giving Florence a friendly smile. "Jack." She reminded him, and he rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, Flo. Please, take a seat." He gestured to the chair in front of his desk, while she gave him a look.

"I meant, explain the damn hand, Jack!"

"Oh! Right, yeah, that's the Doctor's hand. I found it, Christmas Day, and every once in a while I try and use it to track him down…"

"Sorry, can you repeat that?"

"Every once in a while-"

"The first bit, you twat."

"It's the Doctor's hand."

"One more time."

"It's a hand, and it belonged to the Doctor."

"Right."

"You okay?" Florence flopped down into the chair he had motioned to moments before.

"Stunning." She told him sarcastically. "Just found out the mental alien I travel with against my will can also regrow limbs." Jack laughed.

"Well, when you say it like that!" He leant forward and rested his hands against his chin. "So, watcha doing here, Flo?" Florence shook her head, her confusion outweighing her need to correct the man, clearly it didn't work anyway.

"I don't know, I never do. So does the tracking work? Have you seen him at all?" Jack shook his head.

"The only part of the Doctor I've seen in over 100 years is this hand." Florence sat up suddenly.

"Sorry, 100 years?" Jack winked at her,

"Looking good, dontcha think?"

"How?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you like him?"

Jack shook his head.

"Nah, that would be boring." He leaned forward, whispering to her in secrecy. "I can't die." Florence laughed slightly.

"You can't die?" Jack shook his head once more. "Since when?"

"Not telling... You'll find out soon enough." Florence rolled her eyes at that.

"God, I'm sick to death of hearing that." She smiled at him. "So, can't die… what's that like?"

Jack made a 'so-so' face.

"It has its perks." He told her, before leaning back in his chair and gesturing around them. "Now… aren't you gonna ask what this fabulous place is?" Florence sighed, rolling her eyes good naturedly,

"Fine! If you insist… Will you give me the tour, Captain Jack?" Jack stood to attention, raising his hand to his forehead in salute.

"Yes, ma'am! This way, ma'am!" Florence laughed as he walked around the table, offering his arm to her, to which she stood and took happily. He stopped before they got to the door. "Oh, by the way. No mention of the not dying thing, the team doesn't know about it… Just covering all bases."

Florence gave him a thumbs up. "Got it. Lead the way."

Jack flung the door open, and the team immediately turned their heads back to the various activities they were occupying themselves with, trying to act like they hadn't been staring at the door waiting for the two of them to emerge.

"So, Florence Jensson, welcome to Torchwood." She looked around at the high-tech space she found herself in, various computers all displaying codes, data, and analysis of random objects she had never seen before, at least not on Earth. There were subway tiles along one of the walls, the word TORCHWOOD spelled out in black tiles, leading down to a tiled white hospital looking area, and a grungy sofa in the corner, empty pizza boxes sitting atop the table. The area they were standing in was on a platform, leading down to what looked like an abandoned sewer, and in the centre was an immensely long, and very familiar water tower.

"Hang on!" She pointed at the water tower. "I know that tower!" Jack laughed, nodding.

"We're Torchwood Three, based in Cardiff."

"Cardiff?" Florence laughed slightly. "Oh my God! So that time I chased you…?" Jack nodded,

"I was headed toward the tourist office." He leant over in a secretive whisper. "It's our super covert secret entrance." Florence continued to look around in wonder, it was huge, like a maze, with different platforms and staircases leading to who knows where.

"It's amazing." She looked up at Jack, who looked almost too cocky. "I mean, it's no TARDIS but its nice… cosy." Jack laughed, while Owen stuck up his hand.

"Sorry, hello, eavesdropping. TARDIS?" Florence smiled at him.

"Oh, it's the ship I travel in, me and the Doctor. One of Jack's… friends." She wasn't sure how to define Jack's relationship with the Doctor, yes he had travelled with the man a number of times, but by the time the Doctor was travelling with Rose in a different body, he was nowhere to be found, plus having the Time Lord's hand in a jar didn't suggest that they had tea together often.

"You know Jack's doctor?" Gwen asked, and Florence shot Jack a look.

"'Jack's Doctor'?" Jack wrapped an arm around Florence's shoulder.

"My Doctor is Florence's Doctor." He confirmed.

"So, when you say 'ship'... I'm gonna go out on a limb here… spaceship?" Owen wasn't done with his questioning, and Florence laughed.

"Spaceship, time travel machine, the whole lot."

"Wait so Jack's doctor is an alien doctor?" Gwen asked in surprise, and Florence laughed.

"God, yes." She ignored their shocked looks and turned to look up at Jack. "So, Torchwood knows about aliens?" Jack raised an eyebrow at her,

"Knows about aliens, protects the Earth from aliens, the whole lot." He mocked, and Florence slapped him in the stomach. "Picture this, it's 1879, and Torchwood Institute was founded by Her Majesty Queen Victoria after a particularly nasty run in with an alien… or two." Florence's mouth dropped open.

"Shut up."

"No really."

"Stop it. Stop it right now." She shook her head, she couldn't wait until the day the Doctor found out about Torchwood.

"Anyone want to fill us in?" Owen asked sarcastically, as Florence opened her mouth to respond, Jack cut across her.

"Anyway, she founded Torchwood to help protect the British Empire against alien threat, but now, we go one step further. We scavenge the stuff they leave behind, arming us for the future, because we gotta be ready." Florence smiled at his speech.

"Wow, you love it here." Jack nodded. "Why Cardiff?" He then laughed.

"You know why…" Florence took a moment then nodded, thinking back to their past adventure in Cardiff.

"The Rift?" Jack clicked his tongue at her.

"Got it in one."

"Is that how I got here?" Florence asked, and tried to ignore the looks of confusion from the other occupants of the room.

"I can't say for certain but it's never happened before." Jack admitted, and Owen put his hand up once more.

"Hello, me again. Explain?" Florence spoke before Jack could cut her off again.

"Sorry, we're being really rude! Um… I'm a time traveller." She told them plainly. "I jump from time to time with no control. That's how Jack met me, and how I met the Doctor." She gave them all an awkward look. "Any questions?"

"Yeah, one: what the fuck?" Florence nodded at Owen.

"That's fair."

"I've met you before." Tosh suddenly spoke up, and Jack frowned at her.

"What? When?" He asked, and Tosh tilted her head in contemplation.

"But judging by your reaction and the fact you said time travel… I'm supposing you haven't met me yet." She stated rather than asked, and Florence smiled at her, she was good.

"I definitely would have remembered you." Tosh blushed. "Any other questions?"

"Are you human?" She asked, looking at her as if she was a puzzle to solve.

"Uh, yeah. Full human." Florence told them.

"So, how do you do it?" Tosh wondered, and Florence shrugged.

"No clue. I just… do." She frowned. "Sorry, that's not helpful, I know."

"And you just appear… out of nowhere?" Tosh summarised, and Florence nodded. "Bypassing all our security?"

"I guess so… tight security you got around her?"

"The tightest." Tosh told her, and Florence looked a bit proud of herself.

"Well, guess sometimes it comes in handy." She looked at Jack again. "Better than chasing you all the way across the Plass." Gwen laughed at that, shocking the rest of them.

"Sorry… It's just, I did that too, before I started." Florence smiled, she felt like she was making some progress with Jack's slightly intense, distrustful team.

"So…" She looked around the room once more. "What kind of stuff goes on around here? Is it alien hunting everyday? Weapons practice? Chasing down the bad guys?" Gwen scoffed.

"I wish, half the time it's paperwork and rift activity. It's like I never left the police force." Jack tutted at the woman.

"Oh I'm sorry you're not always fighting for your lives! What a terrible boss!"

"We have had a bit of interesting rift activity recently, though." Tosh mentioned, and Florence perked up.

"Go on. I love an investigation." She noticed Jack roll his eyes and elbowed him in the ribs. "Oi!"

"I should have known you wouldn't just come for a relaxing visit, Flo. always gotta jump in head first." Florence shrugged.

"What can I say, I'm a sucker." She nodded to Tosh. "Go on, Tosh. What kind of interesting rift activity we talkin'?" Tosh turned back to her desk, pulling up various files and missing persons reports.

"Well, there's been a higher increase of rift activity here in Cardiff, plus Jack found police reports of a number of missing people over in the Brecon Beacons." Owen groaned. "Owen doesn't want to, but I suggested we go ahead and take a look. I'm wondering where there could be some connection, whether the Rift is expanding or something..." Jack clapped his hands together.

"What do you say, Flo? Up for a road trip?"

---

Owen grumbled as he was relegated to the back seat, muttering to himself about having automatic shotgun as second in command, Florence smirked to herself as she noticed a very quiet Ianto making no complaints from his place in the far back of the sleek black car. They had been on the road for a few minutes when the moaning started, and an hour later the other occupants of the car were clearly finding it tiresome, judging from the exasperated sighs coming from Gwen as she sat next to him.

"Owen, is there any chance you could shut up?" She asked him, snarkily, and received a cold look in response.

"No, actually, there isn't."

"Now, now, kiddos. Cut the fighting or I'll turn around and take us home!" Jack told them with a cheeky grin, Owen folded his arms and looked out the window, before turning back to the car to complain once more.

"And another thing: I hate the countryside." He told them plainly. "It's dirty, it's unhygienic, and what is that smell?"

"That would be grass." Florence looked in the mirror to see Gwen rolling her eyes as she spoke.

"It's disgusting."

Florence laughed. "Oh come on, it's not that bad!" She looked out at the sprawling fields around them. "When you live in a rank London flat you welcome the sight of something other than foxes and the smell of piss."

"Oh come on, Flo. Your place is nice." Florence raised her eyebrow at Jack as he spoke.

"I've never invited you to my flat, Jack." He simply smirked and continued to look out at the road.

"No, you have not."

"So, you're from London then?" Tosh asked Florence, clearly hoping to get away from the topic of Owen's misery, and Florence was happy to oblige.

"Mmhmm." She nodded. "I was studying for my Masters before I started travelling with the Doctor."

"How long ago was that? That you met this 'Doctor'?" Gwen asked, and Florence had a feeling they were asking her questions they desperately wanted to ask Jack, given his reluctance to talk to them about it earlier.

"Oh, not long…" She thought for a moment, all the adventures mixed with little sleep meant that she could barely remember when she last had a home cooked meal let alone when she last saw Sarah and Sally. She suddenly turned to the Torchwood team. "Hang on, what year is this?"

"2007." Gwen replied, and Florence's mouth dropped open.

"Really?" She turned to Jack in excitement. "This is my year!" She turned back to Gwen once again, who was looking startled and slightly confused by the woman's excitement about 2007. "What month?"

"Uh, October…" Florence let out a light laugh, turning to Jack and slapping him lightly on the arm.

"God! I only met you in April!" He smiled softly at her enthusiasm. "Wow… time flies."

"Hang on, April?" Gwen asked, and Florence nodded.

"Yep. Jack used to stalk me at work." Gwen raised an eyebrow at that.

"Sorry?"

Florence smiled at Jack. "One mango cooler-"

"That was just the once." Jack defended, and Florence laughed.

"Then black coffee every time after that." She turned to him. "Every other day at 2:35 exactly." Jack rolled his eyes lightly.

"Now who's the stalker…"

Owen grunted from the back seat.

"Uh, sorry to interrupt, but are you telling me the official meetings you were having with UNIT in London for weeks were actually just you hanging out with Marty McFly?!"

"Hey!" Florence protested, but before she could say anymore, Jack pointed to a burger van that was parked up on the side of the road.

"Alright kids! How about a snack?" Florence threw her head back.

"Music to my ears, Jack Harkness. I'm starved!" Jack swung the car off the road and parked it next to the van, giving the two men in aprons a cheeky little wave.

Placing their orders with Ianto, Tosh, Gwen, Jack and Florence occupied themselves with spreading out the map on the hood of the car, while Owen paced around in boredom. Jack circled an area on the map they were currently standing in, Florence looked around the great expanse of fields, the emptiness was unnerving.

"Seventeen disappearances within the last five months." Jack recapped. "Police are clueless."

Owen laughed. "Now, there's a surprise!" He said, sarcastically, before turning to Gwen in a faux apology. "No offence, PC Cooper." Gwen rolled her eyes, though the small smile on her face suggesting that, unlike in the car, there was a certain amount of good heartedness to it.

"The last known whereabouts of each one is somewhere around here." Jack continued, directing their attention back to the area he had pointed out.

"All within a twenty mile radius." Tosh noticed, and Gwen looked up.

"Anything else linking them?"

"None of the bodies have ever been found." Jack told them. "These people just fell off the radar. No patterns in age, sex, race." He shook his head slightly in disbelief. "One minute they're here, the next… pfft. Gone."

Gwen frowned, "So… we're hoping the Rift doesn't spread out this far, then?" She asked, and Jack shrugged slightly.

"We don't know that much about it to be certain." Jack pointed out. "And it's increasing in activity all the time."

"Maybe the Rift doesn't extend this far…" Florence suggested. "Maybe, whatever came through it… made it this far?" Jack's mouth tightened slightly.

"That's what we need to find out."

"Oh come on!" Owen finally exploded, arms folded tightly under his armpits. "Aliens aren't gonna bother hanging 'round out here!" He motioned to the fields, flinging his arms out in frustration. "Probably some sort of weird suicide club with people choosing the same spot to end it all!" Florence raised an eyebrow, he was a cheery one. "God knows, if I had to spend too long up here, I'd wanna top myself."

"Here you go." Ianto arrived with the perfect distraction, a handful of shitty burgers wrapped in white paper. He handed them out, Florence relishing in the warmth of the burgers in the bitterly cold breeze of the hills. "Careful, they're hot… Sure you don't want anything, Tosh?" Tosh shook her head politely.

"Really sure, a friend of mine caught hepatitis off a burger from one of these places." Florence paused in unwrapping her burger, luckily avoiding the disappointed of the others, who had either already taken a bite or had just put it in their mouths.

"Right then… on second thoughts." Florence rewrapped her burger, deciding to keep hold of it as a hand warmer rather than any possibility of it being her lunch.

"We'll start with the most recent victim, Ellie Johnson." Jack began, having thrown his uneaten burger onto the hood of the car. "We last have record of her making a phone call… she dropped out of signal mid-call. The coverage map has her placed somewhere about… here." He narrowed the search to a smaller circle drawn with his finger on the map, the others looming over it to get a closer look. Florence noticed it was a small range, a remote stretch of land with one road and only one small cluster of houses anywhere nearby. "Looks as good a place as any to set up camp."

Jack smirked at the others, and Florence could almost hear Owen's ears burning with the steam that must have omitted from them.

"Sorry, did you say 'camp'?"

---

Florence was, admittedly, not a lot of help when it came to helping set up camp. When Jack had initially tasked her with pitching one of the two tents that they had bought with them, she had given him a blank look and stared at the hammer in her hand as if it were a newborn baby. Tosh had taken it from her with a small smile, and instead asked her to help Gwen unload the car and lay out the equipment to make it easier to grab. That, she could do.

"What's the matter with a hotel?" Owen moaned as he and Jack grabbed another one of the tents to carry over to the free spot.

"People are going missing 'round here." Jack reminded him. "Do you really wanna stay in a place run by strangers?"

"Oh," Owen gave him a deadpan look, "'cause sleeping outside is gonna be a lot safer!" Florence had to give it to him there.

"He's got a point." She chimed in, folding her arms and looking around the valley they had set up camp in. "It does feel a little… eerie."

"No other race in the universe goes camping!" Jack told them both, dumping the bag and throwing his arm around her shoulder, giving her a little shake. "Celebrate your own uniqueness!" She and Owen shared a grimace at his enthusiasm. Florence shook her head at the tents.

"Last time I stayed in a camp it was 1930s New York… at least these tents are a bit more roomy." Owen looked at her with a confused, and not particularly impressed, expression.

"Flo! Get over here!" Jack called to her, and she gave Owen a little shrug, and he looked down at the bag in front of him.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" He cried as she walked away.

"Need a hand getting it up, Owen?" She heard Tosh ask politely, but couldn't hear Owen's, presumably rude and or snarky, response.

"What?" She asked Jack as he waited for her by the car.

"I just wanted to set some ground rules." He began, and she already hated what was bound to come out of his mouth. "I know you're a big girl, but I don't want you to get hurt." He handed her a gun-shaped object. "Here." Florence looked at him.

"Isn't it arguably more dangerous to give someone with no weapons experience a gun?" He smiled sweetly at her.

"That's why it's a stun gun." He patronised her, and she gave him a mocking smile.

"Funny. What else?" She just knew he'd have more for her.

"Well, stay with one of us at all times, don't wander off, blah blah blah."

"Oh, so the usual Doctor danger rules?" She asked, and he tilted his head.

"The ones you frequently ignore?" She smiled at him. "Yes."

"Goodo."

"Some pieces are missing!" Owen shouted at them from across the camp, and Ianto's unimpressed voice called back to him.

"Nope, I checked."

Half an hour later, the mood in camp had lifted for five out of six of them, and unsurprisingly it was Owen who was still moaning and muttering to himself about camping, while Florence was occupying herself with getting to know the other members of the team.

"So what's the best place you've visited?" Ianto asked her as they carried the food supplies towards Gwen. Florence liked Ianto, he seemed very sweet, but incredibly closed off. Not in the same way Owen was closed off, with brutish aggression and jokes, but with calmness and quietness.

"Oooh. I don't know, really!" Florence told him. "I think maybe visiting Van Gogh. That was incredible." Gwen looked over at them in shock.

"Van Gogh?" She asked, incredulous. "You've met Van Gogh?" Florence smiled.

"Yeah! Amy was really sad so the Doctor took us to visit the Orsay, but there was a whole thing with a big invisible monster and Van Gogh… it was… a lot. But fun!" She told them, looking at their shocked faces. "It's always a bit mad with the Doctor!" She laughed awkwardly when they continued to stare at her in silence. "I mean, there were fucking gas mask zombies when I met Jack!" She felt like her mouth was running ten times quicker than her brain. "In 1941!"

"Sorry, 1941?" Gwen asked, and Jack coughed loudly, and Florence waved them off slightly.

"Oh, yeah, it's a super long story… I mean, I've also been up the Empire State while it was being built! But… that's a long story too…" She felt like she was slowly losing them, her nonsensical ramblings about different times probably made her look insane rather than well travelled.

"Right…" Gwen smiled awkwardly at her.

"I mean… we have the time?" Ianto told her kindly, and Florence smiled at him.

"I don't wanna talk about myself! I wanna hear more about aliens in Cardiff!" She grabbed the portable stove from the box next to Gwen and set it on the table. "What's the coolest one you've seen?"

Gwen shrugged slightly. "I mean, I'm still very new… Only joined a month ago." Florence raised her eyebrows at that.

"Really? How'd you get into this, then? Did the police recommend you or something?"

"No, no!" Gwen laughed slightly, shaking her head. "God no, I saw something I shouldn't have seen, and then just relentlessly followed these lot until they gave me a job."

Florence laughed at that. "Now that is resilience. I like it." She fiddled with one of the metal plates she held in her hands. "You enjoying it?"

Gwen nodded.

"Absolutely." Florence gave her a knowing look.

"Terrifying, isn't it?"

"Absolutely."

"I remember the first time I saw an alien… well, a non-human looking alien." Florence smiled thinking of Brannigan. "I couldn't speak for ten minutes, just let the Doctor do all the talking. Every time I looked him in the eye I felt like I was just staring." Gwen smiled sadly,

"Well, I haven't really met any friendly aliens…"

"Really?" Florence frowned at that. "That's a shame. I mean, I've seen some awful things, don't get me wrong… but they're not all bad."

Gwen smirked slightly. "What, like your Doctor?"

"Exactly like my Doctor." Florence laughed, thinking of that silly, face changing alien she travelled with.

"So… are you and he?" Gwen asked, and Florence shook her head.

"No! No." She denied, ignoring the small voice in her head that sounded distinctly Scottish calling her a liar in slightly more colourful words. "No."

"Is that a no?" Gwen asked, mockingly, before looking behind them at the suave Captain who was observing them from a distance. "What about you and Jack? Have you ever…?" Florence let out a loud laugh.

"No!" She shook her head rapidly. "God no, I've spent half the time I've known that man either cursing him or watching him flirt with everything else in the room."

"So not even a cheeky snog?" Gwen asked, and Florence clicked her tongue.

"Not in a million years."

"Are you two quite done?" Owen moaned from where Florence realised he was standing, only two feet from them. "I didn't realise this was a girly sleepover…"

Gwen laughed at him. "Oh come on, Owen! It's just a bit of fun! Go on, who was the last person you snogged?"

"Yeah, Owen." Florence folded her arms. "Join the girly sleepover, we're doing face masks later!"

Owen rolled his eyes, throwing down the canvas of the tent. "You even sound like eight year olds!" He gave them a mocking look. "Who the hell says 'snog'?" Florence stuck her tongue out at him.

"Mine was Rhys!" Gwen told them. "My boyfriend." She explained to Florence, who gave her an 'ooh la la' look.

"Yeah, well, there's a surprise." Owen grumbled, and Gwen rolled her eyes at his behaviour, turning instead to Tosh.

"Tosh, your go." The young Asian woman didn't look keen.

"It's easy for you!"

"Oh come on!" Gwen urged. "Spill the beans!"

Tosh thought about it for a moment, before simply saying. "Owen."

Everyone seemed surprised, but none more so than the man in question.

"What?"

"Really?" Gwen asked, in a tone that Florence thought was just verging on disbelief.

"Tosh, love, in your dreams." Owen told her, and Florence frowned at his dismissiveness, harsh.

"Three a.m. Christmas Eve. In front of the Millennium Centre, waiting for a cab." She explained. "I had mistletoe."

Owen winced slightly at that, and Florence had to stop herself from doing the same. While she could admit that her last kiss was, in fact, the Doctor (involuntarily or not), before that she had been no stranger to drunken fumbles on nights out, or casual dating.

"Christmas? You've not had a snog since?" Owen asked, looking a bit sorry for the woman.

"Nope." Tosh didn't seem to mind, and Florence had to admire her nonchalance about it.

"Well." Owen decided, as they all took a seat on various chairs, or even boxes, that had been set up in a circle. "Lucky me, eh?"

"So, who was yours?" Tosh asked, clearly trying to erase the awkwardness of the group.

Owen took a moment, picking up a fork and flipping it in his hands as he debated answering the question, and Florence wasn't a fan of the mischievous glint in his eye as he finally spoke. "Gwen, actually."

Even Jack looked up at that, from his seat in the passenger's side of the car, and Florence felt the awkwardness rise once more, clearly they were all remembering the little fact Gwen had just told Florence, namely about a certain boyfriend of hers.

"When was this?" Tosh asked, and despite her dismissal earlier, even Florence could see a hint of jealousy in her eyes.

"It was complicated." Gwen didn't go into anymore details, and from the look of fury in her eyes, and the smirk on Owen's face, Florence didn't doubt that they would be having a conversation about this soon.

"Didn't take you long to get your feet under the table…" Tosh said quietly, and if Florence could have jumped voluntarily she would have fled by now.

"Sorry?" Gwen asked, but Tosh shook her head.

"So, was it just a kiss, or…?"

"Tosh…" Gwen began. "Leave it."

Jack left his perch in the car and came to sit at Florence's side, drawing the attention back to the game at hand.

"Jack?" Owen prompted, and the Captain gave them a cheeky grin.

"Are we including non-human lifeforms?"

"Oh you haven't?" Gwen asked, laughing.

"You're a sick man, Harkness!" Owen scolded. "That is disgusting!" Jack held his hands up in surrender as he chuckled, before slapping a friendly hand to Florence's back.

"Well that counts Flo out too, then!" Florence's mouth dropped open.

"How do you know about that?!" Jack gave her a wink while Owen shook his head,

"Both of you need help."

"In my defence, my one looks human!" Florence weakly defended, before joining in with the laughter.

There was a moment of silence after their laughter died out, before Ianto piped up.

"It's my turn, is it?" He asked, looking particularly downcast, staring at his hands. "It was Lisa." He told them all, and Florence felt the awkwardness rise to incomprehensible levels. She didn't know who Lisa was, but she knew sympathy and fear in people's eyes when she saw it.

"Ianto…"" Gwen muttered. "I'm sorry…"

"Sorry she's dead? Or sorry you mentioned it?" Florence took what she thought earlier back, now is the time she wished she could jump on command.

"I just didn't think." Gwen looked as if she wanted the ground to swallow her whole.

"You forgot." Ianto smiled sadly, and Florence felt her heart break for him, though the tears of embarrassment filling Gwen's eyes made it pang for her too.

"We should get some firewood." Owen suddenly spoke, standing quickly to ease the tension.

"I'll give you a hand." Gwen offered, standing to join him.

The other four sat in stony silence.

---

Ianto stood not long after Owen and Gwen left, muttering something about finishing off Owen's shoddy excuse for a tent, while Tosh went to double check the rift readings on the computer in the car, leaving Jack and Florence on their own still sitting on their boxes.

"Well…" Florence began, looking around the suddenly very quiet camp.

"Welcome to Torchwood Three." Jack muttered to himself, and Florence grimaced.

"Yeah, thanks." They shared a look. "What the fuck was that about?" She finally asked, and Jack pulled a face.

"It's, uh… a long story. Involving Ianto and his cyberman girlfriend…" Florence frowned at the word.

"Cyberman? What's that?" Jack looked surprised at her ignorance, before his face softened.

"The worst thing that can happen to a human." He told her simply, and she grabbed his hand and squeezed it briefly.

"And I suppose I'll find that out later?" He nodded sadly. "Right." She shook her head as if trying to shake off the darkness in the air, slapping her thighs and standing up. "So what now? Are we waiting for the aliens to find us or are we gonna do a little investigating?" Jack laughed from his seat, making no move to get up.

"Yes, Flo. We simply wait for whatever dangerous thing could have fallen out of the Rift to find us." He told her sarcastically, before nodding to Tosh who was still in the car. "Tosh is measuring Rift activities for any irregularities, and when Owen and Gwen get back we'll go and stake out the area where Ellie Johnson last took her phone call. Is that okay with you?" Florence sighed, hands on her hips.

"Well, I guess you might know what you're doing after all these years, Captain Harkness." Jack gave her a little wink.

"For now, relax Flo, enjoy the calm before the storm."

He spoke too soon, as a familiar female figure wearing a distinct mint coloured jacket came sprinting towards them from the woods, with no Owen.

Florence supposed this was the storm.

---

"Well, it's not Ellie Johnson, that's for sure." Florence had her back to the clearing, focusing instead on the yellow tape that Ianto was tying from one tree to another, cordoning off the area. The thing she was trying to ignore was the subject of Owen, Tosh, and Jack's intense analysis, namely a rotting corpse, stripped almost to the bone and left under a white sheet in the middle of the woods, maggots already beginning to eat away at it. "This is a male, late 40s, 50s." The ability to know something like that based on the very little that remained of the body would always impress Florence. "Wasn't killed here. No blood spatter or signs of a struggle. Must have been brought here after he died." Owen concluded his findings, and Gwen looked over from where she was leaning against the tree next to Florence.

"Why do that? It's not like they tried to bury him here…"

"Maybe you disturbed them and they ran away." Tosh suggested, but Florence looked around the eerily quiet clearing.

"Or maybe… someone wanted you to find it." She spoke, garnering looks from the others. "What better way to scare us away than by showing us what they're capable of."

"Like a warning." Ianto seemed to agree with her.

"Cause of death?" Jack asked, bringing them back to the matter at hand.

"Impossible to say. The body's been stripped of all flesh and bodily organs, so all that's left is a carcass"

Jack turned to look at Florence. "Flo, recognise anything."

Florence shook her head with a frown, before her thoughts turned back to the last corpse she had seen. The desiccated corpse of Lady Thaw seemed to pale in comparison to the rotting flesh of the corpse in front of her, she turned her eyes away once more from the still uncovered red figure.

"No… nothing."

"Could the Weevils have come out this far?" Tosh asked, and Florence frowned, weevils? She filed that away for later.

"No." Jack shot down. "Weevils don't finish off their victims like this."

Suddenly, they were interrupted by the sound of an engine sputtering to life in the distance.

"Hang on…" Florence began, hoping that what she was thinking was not the case.

"Is that ours?" Gwen asked, and Jack stood from his crouched position with a groan.

"Yeah!" They all ran, from the clearing, and through the copse of trees that led towards their camp, just in time to see the sleek black Torchwood company car taking a joyride around the valley, crashing into the boxes and running over their tents before fleeing into the distance, leaving the team huffing and puffing in its wake.

Jack yelled in frustration, kicking a clump of mud that had been left dug up in the car's wake. The rest of them stood for a moment, before Florence sighed, putting her hands on her hips.

"Well… fuck."

"Scavenge what we can." Jack ordered. "Then we'll find the car." The team moved almost immediately, though Florence could hear mutters coming from Tosh's direction getting louder and louder.

"The keys… what is wrong with you?"

"Owen bloody Harper." Gwen murmured.

"Alright!" Owen yelled suddenly. "I said I'm sorry!"

"Basic security protocols, Owen!" Tosh admonished, and Owen threw her a filthy look.

"Oh, get off your high horse, Tosh. I was carrying that stupid gear!"

"What, the whole time?" Tosh asked him.

"And then I was trying to put that bloody tent up!" Owen protested. "And then… yes… I sort of forgot that I'd left them in there." He finally admitted. "But I'm sorry, I'm human! I ballsed up!"

"Looks like that body wasn't a warning…" Jack sighed from his position that was definitely not aiding in salvaging their camp. "More of a decoy."

"That would mean we've been watched since we arrived." Gwen pointed out, and Florence felt a shiver run down her spine

"Tosh, can you get a tracking signal?" Jack asked, but Ianto piped up from across the camp.

"Already done." He told them, waving his phone around. "I took the liberty… It's currently 3.4 miles west from here."

"Gunning at 90, no doubt!" Owen moaned. "Steal a piece of equipment like that, you drive straight on til morning."

"Actually, no. It's been stationary for the past four minutes." Florence looked over Ianto's shoulder curiously. "I'd go so far as to say it was parked."

She laughed. "Oh shit, so much for your valuable equipment!"

Gwen grabbed a map from a pile of salvaged material.

"Hang on, there's a small village in that area." She told them. "Other than that, nothing for thirty miles."

"Call me suspicious, but this has all the hallmarks of a trap." Tosh pointed out, and Florence grimaced, looking up at Jack.

"It's most definitely a trap." He had a glint in his eyes, one that was familiar to Florence. "No… no…"

Jack smiled. "Anyone fancy a walk?"

---

"Why would anyone want to live out here?" For once, Florence could only agree with Owen as they looked out at the row of no more than six houses that stuck out like a sore thumb in the midst of a vacant valley.

"God knows." She muttered. As enjoyable as she found the occasional visit to the country, an escape from big city life, that was all it could be to her, a visit. The idea of being locked up in the valleys that stretched over the countryside, with little to do but wander, or farm, or knit, was horrifying to her as a permanent move.

"Has the SUV moved?" Jack asked, and Ianto glanced down at his phone, before checking his watch.

"Not for an hour now." He told them, which unfortunately meant that their journey continued down into the cluster of houses.

---

They seemed abandoned. Florence kept a tight hold of the word 'seemed', she refused to let herself be lulled into a false sense of security. There was a running tap, and the sound of birds cawing in the distance, apart from that, only silence.

"Tosh, Ianto. Follow the signal, find the SUV." Jack ordered. "Owen, Gwen. Let's see if there's any room at the inn. Florence-" Florence raised an eyebrow at his decision, interrupting before he could speak.

"I'll go with Tosh and Ianto." She told him, and he shook his head.

"You're sticking with me."

"Jack, it's three and three not two and four, don't be stupid." He raised his eyebrows at her disobedience. "Come on." Jack hesitated, and Florence reached up and gave him a quick, reassuring kiss on the cheek, anything to make him feel better. "I'll be fine." She pulled back and held her hand in the air, wiggling her index finger in a circle. "Team A, with me. Ianto, where to?" Ianto looked behind her shoulder, presumably at Jack for confirmation, before nodding and looking down at his phone, pointing to the right.

"This way."

---

The newly formed trio turned the corner, away from the others, pressing their backs against the wall in order to keep somewhat inconspicuous.

"So…" Florence murmured. "How much further?" Ianto shook his head,

"Hard to tell…" He poked his head around a corner of one of the houses. "Could be ten feet away, could be buried in a ditch still another mile from here. This damn signal."

"So let's just hope that they came from this village and parked it here after a little ridealong?" Florence muttered, and Tosh sighed.

"Hang on a second…" Ianto held the phone aloft, and pointed it further west, guiding them away from the buildings. "No, it's definitely not here… this way."

They left the cluster of houses, heading towards an empty field, past another copse, and in the direction of a building not too far from them. Ianto pointed out the abandoned building, windows boarded up, and the ones that weren't broken or damaged.

"It's just a mile up here." He told them, and Tosh took it from his hands.

"Least we've still got this." She told them, positively. "Rest of my stuff was in the vehicle." Florence looked up at the building, a wave of fear washing over her. She looked over at her companions, still looking relatively calm amidst all the foreboding silence of the area, and felt out of place. They did this for a living, they had trained to do this, and had the experience to match. And Florence? She was a Masters student who jumped from time to time with no control, she had no weapons training, no tech knowledge, and no prior knowledge that could help with this mystery. Being stranded in the welsh countryside, it was the furthest from home she had ever felt.

Ianto tired the door, shaking it a few times to try and get it to open, to no avail. Tosh was searching underneath a box for something, anything, to help them find out more about these creatures, or even what had happened to the villagers. There was a yelp in the distance that startled all three of them from their thoughts, and though it was a distinctly animal yelp, Florence couldn't help but jump at the sound.

"What was that?" Tosh asked, and Florence looked in the direction it had come from.

"Sounded like an animal."

"Probably a fox… or something." Ianto suggested, and Florence couldn't help but chime in.

"But what caught it?" She looked up at the foreboding building once more. "Shall we check round the back?" She asked, and the other two nodded, Tosh going one way while Ianto motioned Florence to follow him, which she did. The two of them snuck around the side of the building, keeping close to the grey stone walls. Another animal yelped in the distance, causing them both to jump slightly, and Florence fought the urge to grab Ianto's hand in comfort, this Torchwood team didn't seem the type.

They reached the back, popping out from around the corner to an on edge Tosh pointing a gun at them as they emerged, causing them to raise their hands quickly in surrender before she lowered her weapon in relief. She chuckled weakly and the group continued their search. The garden was filled with dead game, left hanging from the trees, despite the boarded up house.

"Why would someone live here, boarded up?" She wondered, speaking quietly to Ianto.

"I don't know… makes you think that they left in a hurry." Ianto suggested, before turning to look out over the small wall, stepping up to wander through the field in front.

He was a few feet away when Florence realised that she hadn't heard a peep from Tosh.

He was a few feet away when Florence realised there was something terribly wrong.

He was a few feet away when Florence heard something come up behind her before her whole world went dark.

---

Captain Jack Harkness had the weight of the world on his shoulders, in fact, the weight of the Universe. When he had seen Gwen fall, blood pouring out of the wound at her side, he had sprung into action without hesitation, carrying her up the stairs and laying her on the table, leaving her in Owen's capable hands as he flew through the small house for any more armed humans, or any sign that what was out there had followed them in. His brain never turned off, he was thinking of ten different escape routes, eight different weapons he could spot around the room, and he was thinking of how on earth he was going to get them out of this alive. He took a deep breath as he shut the front door, leaning his forehead against it, feeling his breath coming out in sharp pants, his worry finally catching up with him. He worried for his team, but more importantly, he worried for the most important person in his life: Florence Jensson.

The woman herself would have been shocked by his admittance, having only known him for a number of months, but Jack had had over one hundred years of knowing her, of caring about her, of protecting her. When he had employed PC Gwen Cooper a few months earlier, her sharp tongue and determination had reminded him of the short, bossy brunette who had chased him across the Roald Dahl Plass in 2005, and the kind hearted time traveller he had met in 1941. As he watched Gwen lie in a pool of her own blood, he couldn't help but worry about the three team members he had sent off head first into danger. He supposed this was how the Doctor must have felt on their first few trips, the uncertainty of bringing a Florence along with them who knew so little of the world they were fighting in every day, a Florence who was still so innocent.

He had faith in her, she had survived worse, she would survive worse. He refused to treat her like a porcelain doll, the woman had stared down Daleks and Cybermen, well… maybe not yet, but she would.

"What's taking Tosh and Ianto so long?" He asked Owen, who looked up from his attending of Gwen.

"Jack, give them a chance. The SUV might be locked up or under guard."

"Or they could be dead!" Jack fixed him with a dark look. "Well, everyone else is!" Jack shoved him onto one of the kitchen chairs.

"Sit down! Tell us what happened here." Anything to distract him from the image of Florence covered in blood just as Gwen currently was.

"It's not human!" The kid told them. "Look, my mum won't know what's happened. They're only expecting me back for the weekend!"

"Look, we'll get you home, okay?" Jack tried to promise the young man, though even as he spoke, he knew he couldn't guarantee his safety over that of his team.

Maybe that made him the bad guy, he wasn't a hero, he knew this. His priority was his team and stopping any threat of alien invasion, he could only try and help the kid who shot Gwen.

"What are you gonna do?" The kid asked. "You can't fight them, they're too strong. The only thing we can do is barricade the door!"

"No!" Jack told them. "We'll make a base at the pub!"

"What about Tosh and Ianto?" Owen asked. "What about Florence? Should we go after them?" Jack shook his head, his very instincts fighting it out inside of him.

"Not til we know what we're dealing with!"

"But what if it's too late?" Owen seemed to have changed his mind, the panic settling in.

"They're not children. They know what to do."

"And Florence? Does she?" Jack paused, before fixing a stern gaze onto Owen.

"Let's go." He told his second in command, he didn't want to consider Florence getting caught up in something she couldn't handle, there was no such thing. He hoped.

You see, Captain Jack had the weight of the Universe on his shoulders, and her name was Florence Jensson.

---

Florence came around in a dark, cold room. The back of her head throbbed slightly, and it took her a moment to sit upright once more, looking around curiously. The room was lit only by the little light that shone through cracks right at the top of the old walls and a chute that was covered in a dark substance Florence didn't particularly want to think about. Surrounding her were a number of chains and farming equipment, as well as two familiar bodies. Ianto and Tosh had been unceremoniously dumped beside her, both their coats and belongings taken from them just as her own had. She stood, still slightly shaky on her feet, and looked around the room for any more clues as to where they were, or who had captured them. Their surroundings looked purely human, as far as she could tell, with ropes and palettes of wood shoved into corners and stored with them and various other items, including a number of camping chairs and boxes. There was only one door.

She crouched by Tosh's body, she was still breathing slowly, and Florence sighed in relief, prodding her gently.

"Tosh?" The woman didn't even flinch at her movements, and Florence stroked her hair before leaving her and moving to where Ianto lay. His breathing was a lot steadier, and she slapped his cheeks lightly.

"Ianto? Ianto?" The man's eyes opened suddenly, and he sat up with a gasp, Florence had to move quickly to avoid being headbutted. "Ianto, it's me! It's Florence." He opened his mouth, presumably to yell out, and Florence covered it quickly. "Shush… sh." She pointed towards the only door in the room. "They might be listening." Ianto nodded, moving to get to his feet, allowing Florence to steady him momentarily before shaking her off. He patted himself down before sighing when he realised they had taken his weapons, Florence's stun gun too.

He looked around the room, rifling through the various items scattered across the dirt floor, before emerging with a metal hook. The two sat on the box near Tosh, facing the door and waiting for her to wake up.

"Do you ever get scared?" Florence whispered. "In this job." Ianto looked at her curiously.

"Sometimes." He admitted. "I haven't done fieldwork in years, and never with Torchwood Three… I forgot about the danger. You?"

"I don't think I'm ever not terrified out of my mind." She admitted in confidence, sharing a small smile with him. "All the things I've seen, all the things I've done… never been kidnapped though. Imprisoned, yes. But kidnapped?" She laughed. "First time for everything, I guess."

Ianto laughed slightly before shutting his eyes and tilting his head up to the ceiling. "Fuck!" He whispered.

There was a small groan and the two of them jumped slightly at the noise, looking down at Tosh as she sat up, wincing as she touched the tender spot Florence knew from experience was on the back of her head.

"You know, I never liked camping." Ianto whispered, startling his teammate. She stood, immediately reaching for her weapons. "Don't bother. They took the guns." It turns out, it wasn't just a gun she was looking for, as Tosh pulled out a small torch and lit the room up with the artificial light.

"Charming place they've got." Tosh noted, and Florence nodded.

"Yeah, real cosy…"

"Judging by the sound reverberations and the air quality…" Ianto noted. "Pretty deep underground. Chances of rescue?"

"We won't need rescuing." Florence loved the confidence in Tosh's voice. "I haven't met a cell yet I couldn't get out of." Scratch that, Florence loved Tosh.

"What were they?" Ianto asked, and Florence found herself unable to answer his question.

"I dunno…" She told them. "Did you see anything?" Tosh shook her head.

"No. It happened too quickly… Are you worried?" Ianto's hands shook slightly as he gripped the metal hook tighter.

"A little… That body we saw, in the forest…"

Tosh moved towards the chute, and Florence glanced over as she wiped her hand on her dark trousers.

"Don't think about it." She told him. "See if you can get that light to work, huh?" Ianto automatically followed orders, standing to grab the light socket hanging from the ceiling. Florence and Tosh shared a look, she had seen the blood on her hand.

"You're used to this, aren't you?" Ianto asked. "That facial expression you all share." He looked over at Florence. "Even you, you don't even realise it." Florence frowned. "When things get a bit… out of control. Like you enjoy it."

"You want me to apologise for that?" Tosh argued back, and Florence sat on her seat, looking at her still hands, one clutching the other like a lifeline. She was horribly reminded of a conversation she had had with the Doctor, ironically enough on the Torchwood Estate so many years ago. This time however, she was being lumped into the very category she had put the Doctor in, one of enjoying the danger rather than worrying about the implication. She didn't feel like she enjoyed it, not one second. She had told Ianto that she was terrified, did he not believe her? Or did he mistake her outward stoicism and occasional joke for something other than an act?

"Don't you ever wonder how long you can survive before you go mad, or get killed, or lose a loved one?" Ianto's voice steadily increased in volume, Tosh was merely trying to ignore him in favour of searching their cell.

"It's worth the risk!" She shot back. "To protect people!"

"And who protects us?!" Ianto shouted back, before releasing a shuddering breath.

"We protect each other." Florence whispered, and the two of them looked at her. "You're both wrong… It's not worth the risk, Tosh. But that's not why we do it, Ianto. It's not some hit or some thrill… It weighs on us, it's so heavy. I carry it with me every day." She looked up at the two of them. "I have the Doctor to help me with that, I have Jack, I have Martha, and Amy, and Rory, and Rose. You guys have each other, focus on that. Protect each other."

There was a moment of silence as the two considered her words, before Tosh broke it.

"God, I'm hungry."

"You should have had that cheeseburger." Ianto told her, the animosity leaving him, and garnering a smile from Tosh.

"Not that hungry!" She pointed her torch towards one of the corners of the room, double taking at what she found. "What's that?"

"What's what?" Florence asked, standing and joining her. She crouched and picked up what Tosh had lit with her torch, her chest tightened when she realised what it was.

A black trainer.

That wasn't all that bothered her, what also bothered her was what was next to that trainer, namely a pile of mismatched dusty shoes shoved into the corner. She could barely count how many there could be.

"Oh my god."

They lined the cupboards in front of them.

"There's dozens of them." Tosh pointed out, Florence was struck with the feeling that they weren't the first to be trapped in the basement. "How many people have been down here?" It was like Tosh had read her mind.

"And what happened to them?" Ianto muttered, looking at the other pile, this time of tshirts, trousers, jumpers, that was bundled up nearby.

"Is that a fridge?" Tosh asked suddenly, pointing at the white door in front of them. She threw the door open, the warm yellow light illuminating her face as she stared at the contents within, the door just blocking Florence's sight. Before she had a chance to glance over her shoulder, Tosh had closed it quickly.

"What is it?" Florence asked. "Tosh?"

She turned away from the fridge, breaths coming out in short sharp pants.

"Tosh?" Ianto had noticed her state. "What's in there? Tell me!"

Ianto made a move towards the fridge, but Tosh stopped him with firm hands to his arms.

"Ianto, don't!" Florence looked between the two of them and the fridge door, her hands clenching and unclenching in an effort to not grab at it.

"I want to know!" Before Ianto had a chance, Florence had turned and opened the door.

Before turning back just as quickly, the door swung shut as she did so, and she began dry heaving in the corner where they had found the shoes.

"They… the…" She couldn't breathe. The smell, she would remember that smell for the rest of her life. What she had seen in that fridge, she wouldn't forget… She knew what they had done with their prisoners.

They were food.

The fridge was filled with human flesh.

"That's why there was nothing left on the body…" Tosh spoke, and Florence felt her hand rubbing firmly against her back as she spat up the very little that was in her stomach. "They need to eat… we're food."

---

"We need to find a way out of here." Florence wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, desperately craving water. She pointed over to the opposite side of the room. "There's the door, over there. It's bolted."

Tosh nodded, moving towards the door and running her hands over the frame. "Got to be three steel bolts." She told them. "Top, middle, and bottom."

"How are you at calculating target stress points?" Ianto asked. "Find the weakest point, bit of brute force…?"

Tosh shook her head. "Nice thought, but it's reinforced." Ianto seemed to choose to ignore her in favour of finding purchase on a beam above him and using his foot to strike out against the door, kicking it three times to no avail.

Or so she thought. While the door had remained firmly in one piece, a latch opened suddenly, and Ianto backed away quickly, the three of them trying to cover themselves out of sight of the door as it creaked open, and an orange light, not dissimilar to that of the fridge, illuminating the room.

The barrel of a shotgun entered before any figure did, and Ianto took the opportunity to grab at the weapon, forcing the owner to let out a grunt of pain as he grappled with them, before he was thrown to the floor.

"Look at me, you idiot!" A welsh woman's voice came from the figure, and Florence was shocked to see it was in fact a human who had aimed the weapon at them, or at least, she looked human. "I'm not gonna hurt you!"

'You've got a gun!" Tosh reminded the woman, brandishing the sharp meat hook that Ianto had picked up what felt like hours ago.

"I promise." The woman told them, meekly. "I promise." Florence put her hand on Tosh's arm, urging her to lower it slightly.

"Giver her some space." The woman smiled.

"Thank you." She looked at the three of them, curiously. "Were you injured when they took you? Can I see? I'm a nurse." She went to grab Ianto's face, but he pulled back sharply. "Okay. Okay, okay. Does anyone else know you're here? Have you managed to call for help?" Florence frowned at that, a wave of nausea running over her once more.

"We don't need any help." Tosh told her firmly. "There's three more of us in the village."

Florence winced when she said that, never show your hand so soon.

"I can't help you." The woman told them, shaking her head. "I'm sorry."

"What d'you mean?" Ianto asked.

There was a pause, before the woman spoke. "I've been sent to collect you. I've got to take you to them."

Florence shook her head.

"No, no, no…"

"Tell us what's going on." Tosh pleaded with the woman. "We can help."

"No one's safe." She let out a shaky breath. "Every ten years… it takes us again."

"What takes you?" Florence asked, they needed to know more about what they were up against. "What is it?"

"The Harvest."

There was silence once more, before Ianto made another move to grab the woman, who raised her shotgun once more.

"No!" She waved the gun at all three of them. "Please, you have to come with me."

Tosh lowered the hook, and sealed their fates.

---

They were led upstairs by the barrel of the gun, the dark cell giving way to an equally ominous building. It seemed to be a cross between a barn and a living area, with wooden beams on one end and a very basic, but human, living space complete with a kettle on the stove, with a white plastic sheet hanging from one of the archway to create some kind of doorway to what looked like a butcher's back room, judging by the blood splattered on the sheet.

"In there, please." The woman told them, and Florence felt helpless, looking down the barrel of the gun.

"Please, help us and we can help you." She tried to plead with her, but the woman shook her head.

"I'm sorry." She pushed Tosh back slightly with the gun. "Get back!" The three of them did as she told them, looking around the room curiously, Tosh sniffed slightly,

"Oh God, that stench…" They turned their backs to the living room, poking their heads through the tattered plastic, and Florence let out a shuddering breath as she saw what was in the room. Hanging from meat hooks were large human shaped bags tightly wrapped in plastic, jars full of various vital organs, and bloody tools left on the work stations. "Tell us what these creatures are." Tosh demanded of the woman, they were all way out of their depths. "Do they look like us?"

"How else are we going to look?" A voice came from the living room they had just vacated, and they turned to see a man enter. A regular man, wearing what looked like regular countryside style clothing, but with a terrifying glint in his eyes.

The laughter that accompanied his words from the woman who had so frighteningly led them to their deaths horrified Florence, and she shook her head rapidly.

"What is this?" She was ignored, in favour of the man grabbing the woman and kissing her deeply. Ianto took the moment of distraction to rush the couple, but the man barely flinched as he pulled back and punched Ianto in the stomach, knocking the wind straight out of him, as he fell the man grabbed a set of silver handcuffs, tightening them around Ianto's wrists as the woman pointed the shotgun at them once more.

"There are three more out there." The woman told her lover, using Tosh's earlier confidence against her.

"Not a problem. How are they?" The man asked.

"They're in a good state." She told him, and he moved behind Tosh, knocking her knee out and pushing her to the floor, before doing the same to Florence, instead tying their hands together with rope. "I think they're the best we've ever had."

"Yeah?" The man asked, proudly, as he tightened the rope around Florence's wrists, making her gasp in pain as the rough material rubbed against her skin. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, we caught the boy… finally." He left Tosh and Florence, reaching behind the table on the other side of the room and grabbing something, namely another victim. As he ripped off the bag on his head, Florence could see that it was a young boy, who was moaning in pain as he was dragged forward. "Come on, come on."

"I won't tell anyone!" He cried out and the man and woman mocked him as he cried.

"Who is he?" Tosh asked, and the man looked her in the eye, the terrifying glint back.

"He's meat." He told them, and Florence's heart sunk to his stomach. "I'm afraid we're all just meat." The man and woman walked past the three of them, victorious. Ianto leaned towards the two women.

"Get ready to run." He told them softly.

They looked through the hole in the plastic to see the man grabbing a baseball bat.

"What are you gonna do? Put us on meat hooks?" Tosh asked, almost mockingly. Florence couldn't speak, her mouth felt welded closed in fear.

"No, not yet." They were told, as he stepped forward and ran the bat along Tosh's jaw, while he hand skipped the exposed collarbone from Florence's tattered shirt. "You see, meat has to be tenderised first." He licked his lips, and Florence wanted to cry. She averted her eyes and caught Ianto's, who nodded almost imperceptibly as the man moved his attention on to him. There was a moment where Ianto was being assessed, when the man looked up and Ianto was simply smiling, before he headbutted him hard in the face, their kidnapper falling back in pain.

"Go!" Ianto cried, and Tosh and Florence sprung into action, running as fast as their legs could carry them. "Get the others!"

There was a thud and a deep grunt of pain, but for all Florence wanted to turn and hold Ianto and tell him everything would be okay and they would come back for him, there was no time.

So they kept running.

---

Halfway through the forest Florence and Tosh split up, whether it was a mixture of both knowing they would have a better chance of escaping if they were apart, or whether it was because it was so dark and they couldn't shout out to each other without raising suspicion.

She had thrown herself down a small ditch near a tree, knowing she was unable to properly outrun the man chasing them with her hands tied behind her back, she pressed herself hard against the muddy ground, trying to steady her rapid breathing.

Twigs snapped nearby, and the light of a torch could be seen inching closer and closer to her hiding spot.

"I know you're here." Florence took a long, deep breath, all she could hope for was that Tosh had made it further.

He stepped closer, Florence could see the glint of a machete from the side, and heard the kissing noises the man was making to entice her out. There was a snick as the machete brushed against his clothing, the sound of him turning away and his footsteps fading gave Florence a second to let out the breath she had been holding. Suddenly he laughed, and Florence rolled onto her stomach in order to get to her knees, finding the chance to run slipping through her fingers if she left it any longer.

She stood, hearing nothing nearby and started to run, making it only a few feet before she was shoved from the side, the momentum mixed with her imbalance due to her tied wrists easily knocking her to the floor with a scream. She kicked her legs out to try and shuffle herself backwards, looking up into the manic eyes of the man standing above her.

"No-one's coming for you." Florence didn't care what he had to say. She wasn't going to stop fighting.

She threw her leg upwards, landing a well placed kick to his groin that made him double over in pain, and giving her a moment to scramble to her feet and continue running. The woods were a maze, every tree looked exactly the same, and Florence couldn't figure out how the hell she was going to make it out of there alive. She ducked behind a tree, taking a second to find her bearings, looking around it to see nothing following her. She breathed again, it was all she seemed capable of at that time, breathing in and out and in and out. She had no idea what it was going to take to escape these monsters, there was no spaceship to flee in, no moral debate that would end in them leaving this planet, and certainly no Doctor. Hell, there wasn't even Jack. Florence was on her own.

She looked over her shoulder again, holding back a scream when she saw the machete and torch in the hands of her captor. She ran again, struggling against the foliage and mud that caked her shoes, desperately trying to ignore the sounds of near laughter that followed her.

Entering a clearing, the worst thing imaginable happened. She lost her footing, the twigs and leaves underneath her feet giving way as she tumbled to the ground. Trying to stand again was too difficult, she screamed when she couldn't find purchase, the mud rubbing into her cheeks and the leaves irritating her eyes as she tried to roll over again. She could hear him approaching as she flailed like a fish on land, screaming in frustration before letting out a groan when a booted foot stepped onto her back, pinning her to the ground.

"No more games." He whispered, digging his foot into her back again before rolling her over, giving her one chance to take a breath before his hand wrapped itself around her neck. She could feel his thick fingers crushing her windpipe, every breath she tried to force into her airway was more and more difficult to do, she bucked her hips to try and throw him off balance with no avail. "Hush now." She could feel her eyes flutter as the blood rushed to her head, it felt like she was underwater and she could hear him shushing her vaguely, along with a high pitched ringing noise. Her brain felt like it was going to explode, like a balloon being pumped more and more and more until the plastic was ready to burst.

Suddenly there was a flash of light coming from a torch and a male voice shouting at her strangler, before the pressure on her neck was released, and Florence came back to hacking up and spitting on the floor as she took in the precious air that had been denied to her. Soft hands grabbed her shoulders, and despite recognising the difference she still flinched away from them, screaming in terror.

"It's us, Florence… You're safe!" The soft Welsh lilt of Gwen soothing her, pushing her hair back from her face.

"Tosh? Where's Tosh?" Her voice was husky with disuse, but her eyes still searched wildly for the other woman, before relaxing as another set of hands reached out to her. She looked up at the newly released Toshiko, who clutched her close to her chest in comfort.

"I'm fine. They found me! Oh God, Florence!" She looked over at the man who had been knocked to the floor and had a gun pointing at him by Owen.

"They've murdered all the villagers!" She screamed out, her voice aching. "They're cannibalising the bodies!" She finally spoke the words she had been avoiding even thinking earlier. The true horrors of the evening hitting her, the bodies she had seen hanging from the ceiling of the house they had been captured in, and the body parts they had found in the fridge.

"They still have Ianto!" Tosh added, and Florence cried out in worry about what had been happening to Ianto while they ran.

"Put the gun down." Florence couldn't even look over to where the captor had spoken.

"You're in no position to negotiate, mate." Owen snarled at him.

"It's alright, it's alright." Gwen comforted Florence, who was still crying and struggling for breath. "You're safe." She turned to the man who stood with them, Florence noticing he was a police officer. "You can arrest him now." There was a pause and the man made no move to do so. "I said you can arrest him!"

The man on the ground huffed out a laugh, seemingly unbothered by the gun in his face. "You going to arrest me, Huw?"

"That would be a laugh, wouldn't it?" The police officer, Huw, chuckled. "My own uncle." He pulled out his own gun, pointing it at Owen, who in turn kept his own on the man on the ground. Gwen stood, leaving Florence still lying in Tosh's arms, and pointed her own gun at Huw.

"Put the gun down!" She yelled. "Don't you hurt him!"

"Shoot the bastard!" The man on the floor shouted. "Split his skull!"

"Put the fucking gun down!" Gwen yelled once again.

"Shoot!"

"I will shoot you!" Gwen's fury seemed no match for the horrifying calmness of the countryside villagers. "Put it down!" There was a split second hesitation, and Florence could feel her heart shatter when she saw Gwen hand over her gun with reluctance, having it pointed back in her face by Huw.

The man on the ground stood with confidence, putting his face close to Owen's as he spoke.

"Why don't you give me the gun? Mate." Owen handed his own over.

This night seemed never ending.

---

Florence was back in a place she hoped to never see again, thrown into the room she and Tosh had escaped from, just about managing to keep her footing as she was. It was just as they had left it, though with the added pressure of four new people sitting at the kitchen table having drinks.

"Who are these people?" Tosh asked, and the woman who had led them from the cellar laughed.

"This is our village." She told them, and Gwen shook her head.

"The villagers are dead!" They all looked amused, stealing glances across the table at each other.

"They're all involved." Florence whispered. "They've all been doing it."

"This is our Harvest." The leader told them, and the word Florence had previously thought to be a creature, or an alien invasion, suddenly felt even more sinister coming proud from the lips of a regular human.

"Only in the bloody countryside!" Owen rolled his eyes as he spoke, despite the gun being pressed to his cheek. "You sick fuckers." The rest of them laughed as the Torchwood team were shoved through the tattered plastic sheet and into the butchery. They threw Gwen towards the young man, who was thankful still alive, and she cried out, clutching her side in pain. Owen, Tosh and Florence were pushed to their knees, two guns still moving to and from each of their heads.

"Where's Ianto?" Tosh cried. "What have you done with him?"

The leader ducked behind the table and dragged up Ianto with him, ripping the bag off of his head. His eyes were fluttering, he had clearly been beaten up, and gagged with a rag. He was slapped a few times.

"Wake up, man." Ianto's eyes widened as he regained consciousness fully. "Time to be bled!" The leader of the cannibals reached over and grabbed another machete. "Like veal, it takes a long time… but it definitely makes the meat taste better." Before he could say another word, or touch Ianto further, there was a rattling sound, the jars on the tables made clinking sounds as they knocked into each other, and Ianto was tossed to the side in favour of investigating the rumbling, the knife having been a hairsbreadth from his throat.

The rumbling seemed to get closer and closer, heading towards the barn door in front of Huw and the leader. There was a split second of panic in their eyes before the wall in front of them came crashing down, the brute force of a farm vehicle splintering wood and debris all over them. Owen pushed Tosh and Florence in front of him to shield them from the spray, but Florence craned her neck over his shoulder in order to see if it was really him. The consecutive pumps of a shotgun followed by screams of pain from the cannibals in the room filled her with hope, she let out a sob of relief when she saw Jack's face, fury etched onto it as he took them all out with blows to the knees.

When they were all down, he looked to his team to check that everyone was safe and alive, but one look at Ianto's beaten body, at what Florence could presume was her black and blue throat, he grabbed the leader by his jacket collar and wedged his pistol under his throat.

"No, Jack!" Gwen yelled at him. "Don't do it!"

"These people don't deserve warnings!" Jack snarled, but Gwen wouldn't let up.

"Let me question him." She begged. "I have to understand. I want to know why! Otherwise this… this is too much!"

"They're injured!" Tosh pointed out. "They need to go to the hospital."

"Owen, you control the bleeding and then phone the police." Gwen ordered, and Florence felt Owen's arms leave hers to do as he was told, she suddenly felt very cold. She didn't care where these people ended up, truly. She couldn't understand why Gwen would need to know so desperately, they were monsters. She never once stopped to understand why the Daleks did what they did, there was no mystery for them to solve, they were simply monsters. "Jack, please, give me an hour with him." Gwen continued to beg, and Florence just wanted to go home, she sought the comfort of the TARDIS. "Don't tell me you don't want to know too." Jack threw the man away from him, giving in to Gwen's demands, turning his back and heading over to the rest of his team.

"Jack." Florence whispered, reaching out for the man, sheltering herself in the only comfort she could find, the thick wool of his greatcoat encasing her in warmth. His hands grabbed tightly onto her, while her own scrambled for purchase against his back. "Jack…" He shushed her gently but firmly, she sniffed, the mixture of mud and tears that caked her face drying and making her skin feel tight.

"It's okay, I've got you."

"They were… they were…" She couldn't get her words out, they felt stuck in her throat, lodged so deeply that she felt as though she would never speak again. The rest came out in harsh sobs.

"I've got you."

"Where is he?" She cried out, letting him rock her back and forth. "Where is he? I need him." The words were gone again, replaced by sobs that racked her tired and broken body.

The worst part about Captain Jack's comfort was that as much as she relished in it, it wasn't enough. She didn't want it, she didn't want him. She needed the Doctor.

And the only burning she felt was the burning hands that still wrapped around her throat when she closed her eyes.

---

WOW, almost 30 pages for this episode, and nearly 15K words... I just couldn't stop! I didn't wanna split this into two either, but I still have a little bit to go to be honest, so expect a nice interlude before the next episode begins! And we're back with the Doctor next time!

So, she ended up back with Jack! I love love love Torchwood, it's one of my favourite shows and I couldn't not have Florence experiencing some more Cardiff adventures! Does this mean she'll meet Sarah Jane again… well well well

This was a rough episode for dear Florence, I really toyed with the idea of giving her another fun one or really throwing her another struggle… as you can see the latter won.

Also, a little hint about Florence's jumping in this!

See you for chapter 35!x