galadriel1010 | Feb. 2nd, 2009

Feb. 2nd, 2009

( The biography of an OC from my teenage years )

Author's Note: Just a silly little drabble inspired by my brother saying the exact same thing about me

Jack and Ianto wandered down the street in Cardiff, eating chips and ragging each other mercilessly. Suddenly, both of them had their attention distracted by a roaring exhaust note and a midnight blue Lamborghini passed them from behind. They stared after it and refused to consider the idea of a Lambo as a car for Torchwood, then reminded themselves that Jack had a Jag, Jasmine had a Noble, maybe Ianto could get a Lambo…

Ianto looked at Jack to say something but his gaze was drawn inexorably downwards. “When you say omnisexual…”

Jack had the decency to look embarrassed

Author's Note: And the obligatory They Keep Killing Susie fic. More explanation at the bottom

“I thought I knew her.” Ianto commented sadly from the doorway, “I thought…”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Jack steepled his fingers and rested his chin on them, gazing across the room at his young lover, “Why does it feel like I’ve lost another?”

“Because you’ve found out that someone you trusted wasn’t just obsessed with her work, she was terrified by it.” Ianto crossed the room and ran his fingers through the immortal’s hair gently, bending to press a kiss to his forehead gently, “Are you okay?”

The captain sighed and looked down at the folder on the desk, “I… I need to talk about it, but not just now. How about you?”

Ianto smiled, “I’m fine, I’m just going to make a coffee, you want one?”

“Thanks Yan, I’m nearly done here. Just telling Jazz what’s happened, protocol and all that. She wants to take us off duty for a couple of days.”

The Welshman paused in the doorway, “I think it might help you to get away from here for a bit, yes.”

Jack smiled, “It’ll be nice to spend some time together. Shame about the circumstances but…”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Five minutes later, quarter of an hour since they’d left the morgue, Ianto handed Jack a coffee and settled on the edge of the desk, watching in amusement as the immortal played with the CCTV feeds to give them some privacy. He’d got quite good at in the couple of weeks since they’d got together, so much so that the others had no idea there was anything going on. Until now that is, “Tosh saw us down in the morgue.” He commented over the top of his mug

“Ah.” Jack had been just about to delete the footage from the system but left it where it was, “I thought she was giving me a funny look earlier. Probably thinks I’m going to screw you over.”

“I certainly hope that’s your intention sir.” Ianto smirked at him and took another sip of coffee

Jack merely laughed and beckoned the younger man into his lap, smiling as they settled into each other’s embrace as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “I would never screw you over, you know that, don’t you?”

Ianto bent his head to kiss him gently and smiled down at him, the expression clearer in his eyes than on his lips, “I know Jack, I wouldn’t be here if I thought you would.”

“Good.” Jack kissed his shoulder and left his lips pressed against it, “That’s good.”

They remained there in silence for a while, finishing their coffees, until Ianto placed both mugs on Jack’s cluttered desk and stood up, pulling Jack up as well and wrapping his arms around his waist, kissing him properly now that their faces were level. “Now, are we going to stand here all night?”

The captain chuckled and pulled away, dropping down the hole easily and grinning when Ianto slid down behind him and let him catch him. He carried the young man over to the small bed and dropped him onto it unceremoniously, jumping on him with a laugh. Ianto yelled his disapproval and tried to escape, but Jack was stronger and more experienced than he was and, if he was honest, he wasn’t trying that hard. He managed to get Jack’s braces off, then unbutton his shirt before the captain had managed to get his trousers off; he would never, ever be able to work out how he did that, but it come in extremely useful. Jack finally got frustrated with the number of clothes involved and undressed them both fully, dropping the clothes out of the way on the floor and kneeling up to look down at his young lover again. Ianto’s eyes were bright and full of laughter, a miracle after today, his lips her swollen from kissing and his face was flushed. Jack’s eyes travelled lower and he grinned, leaning forwards to kiss him again, “God Yan, you’re beautiful tonight.”

“Just tonight?”

“Well, no.” Jack lay down beside him and pulled him close, “Always.”

The next morning they were woken by the sound of the Hub door opening, complete with the usual blaring alarms, and Jack groaned, covering his eyes with his hand and smirking as Ianto reached for his stopwatch.

“Shit.”

He sat up and looked across at his young lover, who was staring at the watch in his hands sadly, “What’s up?”

“My watch is broken.” Ianto passed it across to him and he ran his thumb along the cracked glass, “it must have been when…” He coloured, “yeah, that.”

Jack grinned at the memory and an idea that flashed through his mind and pulled him close, “I bet you’d be right anyway.” He wrapped the blanket tighter around them both and they looked up at the hatch as it opened, “We’re decent Jay, good morning.”

The teenage figure dropped into the bunker with them and she leant against the ladder, resting one foot on the bottom rung and hanging off the rung above her head with the opposite hand, “Morning guys, how are you doing?”

“We’re good, how about you?”

“Oh I’m fine, just thought I should tell you that we’re here.” She grinned at him and pulled herself up on the ladder again

Jack blinked for a moment, then nuzzled his head into Ianto’s shoulder, “Does she think we hadn’t noticed?”

Ianto laughed and hugged him tightly, “Don’t ask me, you’re the one who went out with her.”

“God, don’t remind me, I refuse to believe that she was that young at the time.” He pulled a face, “How is she my boss?”

Ianto laughed and pushed Jack so that he fell out of bed, “Come on, we’ve got time off work. The sooner we get out of here the sooner we can start enjoying each other.”

They packed a few items hurriedly and showered together, taking longer than they’d intended because, just for a change, they couldn’t keep their hands to themselves. When they finally emerged from the bunker, Jasmine was sitting at her usual desk working through a pile of reports from the USA. Jack grabbed his keys and tossed them to Ianto, “You get the car started, I want a word with our illustrious leader before we go.”

“Okay, don’t be long.” The young man took a slight detour to hug Jazz from behind before he disappeared out the cog door with the bag over his shoulder.

Jazz turned around in her chair and looked up at Jack, smiling a greeting, “Heya you.”

“Hey yourself.” He descended the stairs and hugged her, smiling as she returned the embrace and rested her chin on his shoulder, “Thanks for doing this.”

“Anytime Jack, you know that. I can work wherever I want to, any time you need some space I’ll happily come and cover, I’ve got a UNIT squad coming over to help out, but they’re not going to be in the Hub.” She added to his dark look, “They’re part of the security team that work at the tower with me.”

“Okay, I’ll trust your judgement on them.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” She studied him carefully with hre hands resting on his shoulders and reached up to brush an errant strand of hair from his forehead, “Are you alright?”

He sighed and hugged her tight again, then released her fully and nodded, “Not yet, I will be though. Are you going to hang about after we get back?”

“Yeah, I’ve given Gwen a week off to recover, giving me an excuse to cover for her.” She smiled up and him, “Got anything planned?”

“Of course. Look after Myfanwy and Janet whilst we’re gone, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“Jack…” She chuckled, “Same rules, look after each other.”

“Oh we will.” With a lascivious smirk he kissed her soundly on the lips and left her looking stunned and complaining about his cheating.

Ianto leaned his head against the window and looked out at the flashing scenery as they headed North; Jack had told him to pack enough stuff for a couple of days away and had seemed… content. He was excited, that was true, but it wasn’t kiddy excitement or the adrenaline buzz of a run, it was just a gentle hum, warm and somehow contagious. The young man smiled and closed his eyes, trusting Jack completely and letting the world flow past him happily.

He heard Jack chuckle and two fingers brushed tenderly across his cheek, “You haven’t even asked me where we’re going.”

The older man’s rich accent rolled through his mind and he smiled again involuntarily, “You normally like it to be a surprise.” He’d turned now so that he was facing Jack more and his back was against the door

The immortal looked startled but delighted and reached out with one hand to squeeze Ianto’s where it lay on his lap, “I thought we’d go to York. It’s a gorgeous city, and I thought we could do our Christmas shopping whilst we’re there, or at least I will. I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to do it again now. I’ve always loved York, ever since I went there with Torchwood 4. It’s the place I go when I need to get away from aliens, from the rift, from not fitting in. When I was freelancing, I could get away more. York was my refuge. I’ve only been there for a couple of days at Christmas each year since… Since the New Year massacre. Didn’t make it at all last year.”

“Thank you for letting me come then.”

Jack smiled at him warmly, “I want you there, have you ever been before?” Ianto shook his head mutely, “Oh it’s gorgeous. All twisting cobbles and little shops and the sound of the bells ringing round the city. It’s not Cardiff but it’s… It’s so old, it’s the only place where I don’t feel like old, because the city’s so old.”

“What about London?”

Jack shook his head, “I used to like London, but it’s all glass and steel and concrete now, even the old parts don’t feel old. York does.” He chuckled, “Hey, if we’re lucky there may even be morris dancing.”

“What a lovely idea.” Ianto pulled a face

They got a room in one of the big, modern hotels just across the river from the main city but only dropped in there briefly to leave their things before they were out in the weak November sunshine again, walking hand in hand down to the bridge and into the city. Ianto looked around him in happy delight, he could see why Jack loved the place so much, although it was more than a bit mental, “Now I remember why I don’t go shopping.”

Jack laughed and tugged him across the road in a break in the traffic, gesturing vaguely, “It gets better. More people maybe, but it feels better once you get into the Shambles and closer to the Cathedral. Hey, we could go to betty’s for tea tomorrow!”

“I’d like that.” Ianto shifted his grip on Jack’s hand so that their fingers laced together and he swung their hands slightly, “I don’t think I’ve been this happy in a very long time. Not since I bunked off school in the lower sixth to go to the beach. It feels the same actually, like we’re doing something we shouldn’t be doing.”

Jack laughed and looked around to get his bearings, “That would be because the woman who gave us permission to come is seventeen years old. This way.”

He pointed out landmarks as they went (mostly pubs, Ianto noticed) and they stopped for a while to watch a street musician playing a version of Sweet Child of Mine on the electric violin. Before very long they were wandering through the Christmas market, eating German sausage and oak baked pizza fresh from the stalls and picking out scarves and bags, pictures, jewellery and trinkets for their friends and loved ones for Christmas.

As darkness fell they made their way back to the hotel, grabbing more food from the market to eat on their way there, laden down with bags of shopping. They’d split up for an hour so that they could get gifts for each other, and both were feeling extremely satisfied with their choices, and with the company now that they were reunited. Jack was ribbing Ianto mercilessly, “I can’t understand how you got lost in there, I really can’t. It was just round the corner…”

“Yes Jack.” Ianto smiled indulgently and transferred his bags to his other arm so that he could take Jack’s hand again, “So what do you want to do this evening?”

Jack had looked startled again when Ianto took his hand, but smiled happily and laced their fingers together, “Well, there’s some great pubs around and then…” His smiled became a smirk, “That bed looks extremely comfortable.”

The plans for the pub were eventually set aside for another day

Ianto woke up and refused to open his eyes, cuddling closer to Jack and holding on as tight as he could. Jack’s fingers were brushing through his hair gently and he realised that the older man had been awake for some time, although he had definitely slept. The Welshman sat up and stretched, smirking as the look in Jack’s eyes turned from adoring to wanting in an instant. He settled back on his heels for a moment, then stretched out next to his lover again and took his hand. Jack rolled over and rested his head on Ianto’s chest, throwing an arm loosely across his waist and hugging him close, “I don’t know what I’d do without you. I think, I think I’d go mad if I were alone with all the shit that’s happened this year.”

“You want to talk about it?” ‘It’ being Susie

Jack nodded and sighed, “I think I need to.” He closed his eyes and tilted his head so that his forehead was pressed against Ianto’s shoulder for a moment, then looked up again to meet his eyes. “I don’t want to believe that she’s right. I don’t want to believe that this is all there is. All my life, I’ve believed in something afterwards. It was what held me and my mother together after… After we lost my Dad and my brother.” Ianto held him tighter at that revelation and Jack felt the first tear slide down his cheek before Ianto’s thumb wiped it away. “We believed that they’d gone on ahead and were waiting for us, somewhere better. We lived surrounded by war, lots of people believed in the afterlife, something to reassure us that it would get better, if we treated each other like humans, if we believed. So we did, we clung on to hope. And then I became immortal, and it became even more important, because I’ll lose you all, but I could believe that as along as I did my best, did my very best to protect everyone on Earth, He would protect you when I couldn’t any more. And now I’m not sure, I’ve lost the one thing I was clinging to.”

Ianto kissed the top of his head and smiled down at him, “There are no certainties in life Jack, we know that better than most, but there are even fewer certainties in death. Maybe, maybe Suzie didn’t see because the glove was binding her to the Earth, maybe she wasn’t allowed to remember, maybe she was trying to scare you.”

“Thank you.” He looked surprised when Ianto slipped out of his grip and started getting dressed, “Now what are you up to?”

Ianto looked at him with a smirk, “Well, I thought that if we’re quick, we’ll make it in time for the service at the Cathedral, if you want to?”

“Ianto, what did I do to deserve you?”

“You saved us Jack, you saved all of us. Sometimes, someone’s got to give something back.” Ianto smiled as he realised that, although he considered himself an atheist, he did have faith in a higher power. As long as you counted Jack a higher power that is.

Author's Note: I did have a really good sermon for at the Cathedral, but I got all of that out of my system by ranting at someone on Facebook. Just something I had to work through that turned into a story. Probably explains a lot about my version of Jack, and me I guess. Hope you liked it (Can you tell that I like York?)

For timing things, I've put They Keep Killing Susie on a Friday, then Jack and Ianto drove to York and arrived at about 1 in the afternoon on Saturday, meaning that they left at about half 8.

Author's Note: Welcome to a CSI/Torchwood crossover, where madness will happen in Vegas, Cardiff and London. I'm just not sure what yet...

I do not own Torchwood or CSI. I do, however, own Jasmine, who rocks a fantastic 137 on the Mary Sue litmus test, for which I apologise and I hope she's not too bad

There will be gay men. I just don't know how many (How come as a bi woman I tend to write about gay men, not lesbians or hetero couples?)

For Candybree, Rainbow Stripes and hotflower901, who were so lovely all the way through Late Night Loss

Gilbert Grisson looked through the report on his desk, the photos from the crime scene and the autopsy painting a gruesome and disturbing picture of an attack without any apparent perpetrator. The DNA wasn’t human, or any animal that they could identify, and the wounds, the bite marks… It was like a tiger, or some other vicious carnivore.

His computer ‘pinged’ and he looked up at the screen where a message was flashing at him. No, it was on Microsoft Word, and someone was sending a message in italics.

Dr Grissom?
Dr Grissom?
Dr Grissom?

He stared at it for a few minutes as the message repeated itself a couple of times until the cursor moved again, drifting down to the control panel and changing to an open hand, which waved at him enthusiastically. It was a completely random pattern, but with a definite rotary motion; he grabbed the mouse and found that he could control the cursor as another message appeared below the first.

Finally! I thought you might have gone to sleep there. Or into a trance. Is your screen magic?

He flexed his fingers over the keyboard and, finally, typed:

How are you doing that?

The hand highlighted what he’d just written and de-italicised it, then set italics back on so that the other person could write:

I r the 1337 haxor. I is in ur PC, writin in ur wrd
Sorry… I hacked your computer. And your CCTV system, so I can sees yoooo.

He shook his head and glared up at the CCTV camera in the corner of his room, feeling slightly scared now, not reassured when the message came:

Don’t worry, if I wanted to hurt you you’d know about it.

But how are you doing it?

My ace hacking skills, it’s part of the job

And what job would that be?

I have the case breaker for you

You didn’t answer my question

No. I didn’t

Do you want to know who killed her?

He looked down at the photo of a teenage girl, ripped to shreds and partly eaten by a vicious, animalistic killer. If this strange person, who could hack into government computer systems and CCTV networks, could help him, he would trust him.

Yes

So do I.

I’m requesting your permission to join your team for the duration of the investigation. You need someone on your team with the collection of security clearances, field experience and a PhD in forensic science that only I possess.

Trust me, if I could send someone else, I would.

And if I decline your request?

I’ll request your co-operation whilst my team investigate, which I really don’t want to do because two of them are planning a wedding at the moment.

If you decline that then I might tell you our findings once our investigation closes.

He looked back at the photo, considered the clearances the guy must have and made a decision

Do you want a lab preparing?

Yes please. I’ve got the equipment I’ll need though. It’s probably more… specialised than yours. More obscure.

Can some of your people meet me at the crime scene to go over the case so far?

I’ll send them out. What time?

I’ll be there in an hour.

OK. I’ll send CSI’s Sanders and Stokes.

And don’t hack my computer again, it’s not polite

;)

Grissom glared at the screen, waiting for a further reply but not expecting one. Someone cleared their throat from the doorway and he looked up into the dark, confused, chocolate-brown eyes of Greg Sanders, “Can I help you Greg?”

The bottle-blond looked down at the file in his hand but didn’t move from the doorway, “I wish someone could. This DNA doesn’t match any known species from Earth. And…” The CSI level 1 and DNA expert shuffled in annoyance and slight embarrassment, “And someone keeps hacking my computer. I’ve got Archie in it trying to track it, but he says it’s probably the Bad Wolf Virus.”

“The what?”

Greg shrugged and shook his head, “It was Archie, I thought it best not to ask.” The young man glanced over his shoulder as Nick stood very close behind him in the doorway, looking over his shoulder, “But basically, this creature is an undiscovered species, which is so impossible that you just wouldn’t believe it.”

“And the wounds don’t look like they’re from any known species either.” Nick supplied over his shoulder, “We’ve hit a total dead end Griss.”

“We have, but someone hasn’t.” He pointed at them, “Go back to the scene. I got a message from someone who believes he can help us, he’ll meet you there.”

“Who? Why didn’t you ask us first?” Nick demanded angrily

Grissom shrugged, “I don’t know, but he didn’t give me a say in the matter. You’d better get going, you don’t want him to be there first.”

The two men glanced at each other and moved away, knowing there was nothing they could say about the matter and heading for the locker room to grab their stuff.

Greg shut the door and checked they were alone, “If you keep standing so close behind me like that…”

“People will think you have to stop standing in doorways.” Nick finished for him, brushing his shoulder and just touching his neck reassuringly, squeezing it in a friendly manner when Catherine pushed the door open, “It’ll be fine, let’s get going.”

“What, where are you two off to?” The woman asked as she pulled things from her locker

“Griss thinks he’s got a lead on the Ellen Carrillo case. He’s meeting us at the scene, the lead that is.” Nick pulled his gun out and clipped it on, seeing Greg do the same

“What, your lead’s a guy?”

“As far as we know. Could be anyone really. Griss got a message through his computer, probably the same person hacked my computer and…” Greg blushed

“What?”

“Well I was playing solitaire whilst I waited for the DNA results and he seemed to object to some of the moves I made.”

“OK, so we’ve got someone who knows about unsolvable crimes and plays solitaire on other people’s computers. Suddenly I feel reassured.” Nick griped, “Ah well, let’s see what he has to say for himself.”

Greg leaned against the wall by the crime scene tape which still kept the public out of the alleyway and looked up. You could never see the stars in Vegas, but it didn’t stop him trying. Out in the desert though, you couldn’t see anything but stars. He sighed and glanced across to where Nick stood, gazing across the street; the older man met his gaze and smiled tightly, they’d been here five minutes already and no one had shown up, but they still had ten minutes before their informant was due.

The officer on duty for the night was leaning outside the crime scene tape, eyes glazed over except when anyone came near; it was a quiet part of town, so there weren’t many people around, but the few who came by tended to move on after a cursory, curious glance. It was far too dark to see anything. A girl approached, however, and peered into the darkness, flashing a warm smile at Greg and Nick and nodding a greeting to the officer; she made to duck under the tape but he stopped her, “Where do you think you’re going missy?”

She grinned, “I’m with the crime lab.” He checked her ID and let her through with an apology, “Not to worry, I’m new.”

“Not from around here either.” Nick noted out loud, not that it was hard to tell from her definitely English accent, “I didn’t know anyone was joining the lab. We’re just waiting for an informant.”

“I know, I’m her.” Jazz grinned at him, eyeing his muscular frame appreciatively, “I’m also joining the crime lab, did he not mention that?”

“No, he didn’t.” He shared a glance with Greg over her head and she turned round to give the Californian an equally appraising once-over

“I hate it when information isn’t shared. My name’s Jasmine Donovan, Jazz or Jay to my friends, Zee only to my boyfriend. Commander to my employees.” She extended a hand, first to Greg, who shook it with a smile, and then to Nick, who reciprocated considerably less enthusiastically, “You’re Sanders and Stokes?”

Greg took in her slim but clearly athletic form, blonde hair tied back, eyes dancing with mischief even in the dark, clothes functional but showing off her curves, and clapped Nick on the shoulder, “I’m Greg Sanders, and this is Nicholas Stokes.” When the older man remained silent he rolled his eyes, “He does talk, eventually.”

“So I’ve noticed.” She rolled her eyes in reply, “Not that I’m complaining, most of my friends the problem is getting them to shut up. Again, not complaining, but they don’t half talk crap.”

Nick smiled reluctantly, “OK, scene to show you round, case to acquaint you with.” He gestured to the end of the alley, “The vic was found down there, badly mauled, like by an animal but clearly by something with human build. DNA doesn’t match a species, let alone anyone in CODIS. No one saw or heard anything, and there’s no CCTV coverage, even if it had been light enough to see.”

“Why did she come down here?” Jazz asked, bending to study a blood stain on the wall, “What would draw a girl like that into an alley like this.”

“There was signs of a struggle, and of the body bein’ dragged.” Nick pointed out

“That might explain it. Still…” She put one hand on her hip and flashed her torch around, scanning the piles of rubbish and the crates dispassionately, “When you got to the scene, what did it smell like?”

“Like shit. Worse than it does now. The sewers were open for repairs.”

She nodded sagely, “I thought they might have been. That’ll be where it came from. Where’s the sewer entrance?”

He nodded towards the street and she headed towards it, “That’ll be where what came from?”

“The thing that killed her, they’re copraphagic. It’s called a weevil.” She studied the sewer cover and her torch highlighted slight marks on the edge of the cover, “And it’s trapped outside somewhere. But what the hell is it doing in Vegas?”

Jasmine placed her hands on top of a couple of photos and moved them around to try and make them make more sense, hoping that a new arrangement would show something. Greg and Nick watched her in silence as she muttered to herself and flicked back and forth from her computer, accessing files and sending messages pinging backwards and forwards across the world, “There was evidence of sexual activity, any DNA?”

The Californian blinked as he realised that her amused, glittering blue gaze was levelled at him and probably had been for some time. He shook his head, “No, they must have used protection. Some foreign DNA, but nothing that she couldn’t have picked up just form being in that alley.”

She laughed mirthlessly and touched the only photo of Ellen Carillo they had that was taken before her violent death. She was young and beautiful, so alive as she laughed in bright Miami sunshine whilst on holiday. “Practice safe sex, then get ripped to shreds by a Weevil. Just goes to show, live for today in case you don’t have tomorrow.”

“You keep saying that, ‘weevil’, but what is it? What killed her?” Nick asked, his gut churning as his mind filled with her words.

Jazz pulled yet another computer screen towards herself, her eyes dancing between the various readouts from the other monitors whilst she keyed in a few commands, “Weevils are aliens, a species that’s really common in Cardiff. We don’t know where they come from, apart from an approximate galactic co-ordinate we managed to pull once, all we really know is that they come through the Rift now and again, and have been breeding in Cardiff since the Rift first became active back in 1869. There are hundreds of them over there, Cardiff’s best kept secret, thanks entirely to Torchwood of course.”

“Who are Torchwood?” Greg asked

“We’re alien hunters, a UK only operation.” She chuckled, “Well mostly, but I have some specialised skills so I spread myself around a bit more, lot more… We’re based around the UK in London, Cardiff, Glasgow and… Yeah, and somewhere else, we’ll find it eventually.”

“What do you mean?”

She didn’t look up, but a slow grin spread across her face, “Torchwood 4 went missing during the 1960s, haven’t been seen since what appears to have been a spectacular drug high during a music festival in Yorkshire at which there was quite a lot of weirdness going on. They were the mobile branch, zipping around the UK to anywhere they were needed, but when they were still looking for them UNIT was founded, so we left them to it really.”

“You don’t sound very worried.”

“Before my time.” She waved a hand in the air, “Long before my time, and they’re professionals. Nothing I can do about it really.”

“So,” Nick folded his arms, his incredulity evident in his tone and posture, “You’re like the Men in Black?”

She glared at him, “Almost, except we have a clue and give a damn.”

“You mean,” Greg sent a meaning-loaded glance in Nick’s direction, telling him to calm down, “the Men in Black are real?”

Jazz now leaned back against a desk and hopped up onto it, sitting and swinging her legs as she watched the scans running with a scowl, “Sadly, that is the case. Run by the government, so completely useless.”

“And you’re better are you?”

“Nicky.” Greg muttered in a warning tone, shifting closer to him under the pretence of studying a scan that was running behind the Texan.

Jasmine didn’t appear to have noticed, “Hell yeah, like I said, we have a clue and will employ anyone who has the right credentials. Male, female, gay straight, alien or human. And we don’t have a no dating in the office rule, which makes life considerably more entertaining for those of us who work there. My boyfriend works for me in London, my best friends are having a civil ceremony in two months, Jack is Ianto’s boss.”

“Ianto’s a man’s name…” Greg almost asked

“That is correct. So is Jack.”

“They’re gay…”

“You’re sharp, aren’t you? Yes, or no. Jack wouldn’t limit himself to simple labels like that, Ianto… Oh God I don’t pretend to know what’s running through that boy’s mind sometimes.” She laughed, “I don’t think he does. But seriously, sometimes the stationary cupboard gets more action than the desks… I mean, they spend more time in the…” She glared at them, “You know what I mean.”

“Yes.” Nick’s jaw and fists had clenched, and he glanced over his shoulder nervously to check that the door was closed, “How did you know?”

“Know what?” She raised her eyebrows, “Oh, that. I don’t know anything for certain really, just a guess. But I’ve had my suspicions since I saw you in the alley together.”

“There’s a no dating in the office rule here, if anyone knew, we’d be split up and put on different shifts. We see little enough of each other as it is.” Greg explained quietly

She nodded in understanding, “Hence why we’re better, I’ll keep my lip buttoned. Plus, we really do have a clue. Over here you have two agencies, the mib, who are truly hopeless and we like to bitch about, and Liberty Towers, who are better in every way. They answer only to the head of the military.” She pulled a face, “And then only when they feel like it.”

“How many agencies are there?” Greg asked in wonder

“Dozens. UNIT are worldwide, you’ve got two official ones here, we’ve got one… Plus most countries have unofficial ones and a lot have official ones. You should see the Christmas party, it’s wild.”

“So, how often do aliens come to Earth, you’re talking like it’s almost an everyday thing for you.” Nick asked, thinking back to the day the Earth had almost been destroyed by Daleks. Terror attack it was not.

She met his eyes steadily and seriously, “Yes I am.”

“For how long?”

Jazz sighed, “First alien contact was in prehistoric times, quite a lot of it but not by today’s standards. Both Queen Elizabeths have met them, Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria founded Torchwood after meeting the same alien, lovely guy, called the Doctor. Absolute hero, saved the world on so many occasions.” She chuckled, “Actually, every monarch since Vicky has met an alien, although very few of them knew he was one.”

“The same one?”

“Yeah.”

“How could they not know?” Greg asked, glancing at the autopsy photos and thinking of every sci-fi movie he’d ever seen.

“Not all aliens look alien, and he’s actually human, but born on another planet so technically an alien.” She swung a screen around to show them and minimised a couple of scans so that they could see her desktop background. “That’s him, second from the right, his fiancé’s on his right, my boyfriend’s on his left, also an alien, and I’m sure you can recognise me.” She chuckled, “Two aliens, a Welshman and a girl of negotiable nationality and about as mentally screwed up as they get.” Her grin was thrilling, “Do I fill you with confidence?”

“No.” Nick stated, “Are they dangerous?”

“Yes.” She raised an annoyed eyebrow, “We’re all professional, trained killers, of course we’re dangerous.”

“Are any aliens safe?” Greg asked, glancing back at the photos

She glared at him and folded her arms, “Are all humans dangerous?” He looked down to his feet; “You can’t tar them all with the same brush. Jack has spent most of his life fighting to protect this planet, he would do anything to protect Ianto, and actually they’re rather adorable. I went out with him for a year or so, and he was the most charming, wonderful man I’d ever had the fortune to meet. But get him in to work, he’s all professional and shoots first, asks questions later. Yes he’s dangerous, he trained in a warfare situation. But so am I, probably more dangerous because I’m a slight, blonde teenager with a black belt in most martial arts and three knives and a gun concealed around my person.”

Nick folded his arms, “So how dangerous are you?”

“Very if you annoy me, or threaten the things I love. Do you realise how protective you are of him?”

“Stop it.” He growled

“And there you go again. Now,” she whirled the screen around and pulled a file up on the projector, “Weevils! That’s a Weevil.”

“That’s ugly.” Greg commented, slightly nervous

“Yeah. And vicious. All teeth and claws and killing instinct. And possibly a high level of psychic connection, and a strong community, and we haven’t really got a clue if I’m honest. The chief researcher into Weevil behaviour, by which I mean the guy who spent hours watching the only permanently captive one in an attempt to escape the irate archivist and his paperwork, died in… in the terrorist attacks in Cardiff. And he really wasn’t good at paperwork, we only have what he told us and what he wrote down whilst hung over.” There was a sad smile in her eyes as she thought about him

“You knew him?”

“Yeah, he was one of Jack’s team. I spent a lot of time with them in Cardiff.” She sighed, “They lost two that day, out of a team of five.”

“That’s gotta hurt.”

“Yeah, it did.” Her hair bounced as she shook her head, “But anyway, yeah, he never really wrote any of his findings down as such, not legibly. But you know what we’re looking for.”

”And how do we find it?”

She sighed and leaned on her knuckles against the work surface, “Wait for another death, there’s nothing else we can do. We need to find out if it’s stayed in the same area, if it’s gone to ground. If there’s more than one.” She uncurled her hands and tapped her fingers rhythmically, “So many variables to worry about.”

“What’s it doing here?”

“No idea.” She admitted with a wry smile, “There’s this rift in time and space that runs through the middle of Cardiff, and the Weevils come through it, they’re sort of picked up and dropped. The problem is that the operative word is Cardiff. Speaking of which…” She was a sudden whirlwind of activity, shifting active screens around flicking from one screen to another, swivelling monitors and keyboards for better access, “Rift storm across the pond, so I can’t get their help, let’s just see.” For a moment there was an image of a brick and chrome room filled with computers and tables, “Nope, Hub’s empty, damn. But…” She flicked to another monitor and shook her head, “No, no rift activity in Vegas since the rift was fully open, when you got a squad of small purple hedgehogs… Amongst other things. A bit of residual energy in places, but not the rift places and not enough to bring a Weevil through. Not enough to bring a small purple hedgehog through in fact. Unless it’s been there all along…”

“What’s a rift storm?”

“A burst of rift activity, several positive spikes happening in a short space of time. Really stretches their resources if it’s a big one. They’ve only been happening really since the Daleks…”

“Pardon?” They both turned to follow her progress as she bounced around the room to another computer.

“It’s complicated, and I don’t really understand it. Just accept that it does it.”

“Does what?”

“Positive spikes pick things up from somewhere else and leave them here, negative ones pick them up form here and leave them somewhere else.”

“Like tides.” Greg commented

“Possibly.”

“You fill us with confidence.” Nick growled

“Hey, we do our jobs, even if we don’t know how we’re doing it. We’ve stopped cybermen, small purple hedgehogs, the daleks…”

“You stopped the Daleks?”

She seemed to deflate slightly and gained a soft smile, “My friends did, I was stuck on Earth. I always seem to be the one left behind.”

“I’m sure you played your part.”

She smiled at Greg sadly, “I hope so, but I’ve got a damned good team.”

The door opened and a head poked around it, with Catherine waving a folder at them, “Doc Robbins has another body for you, Hodges says there’s something up your street about it, you must be the new girl?”

She nodded and smiled, “Jasmine Donovan, nice to meet you.”

“Willows, Catherine Willows. What’s your speciality?”

“We’re got a European link, you may have noticed I’m not a local.” She smiled and shook the woman’s extended hand, “We’ve had cases like this over the pond, surprised it’s got over here if I’m honest.”

“Cases?” Catherine looked confused, “I thought it was an animal

“Yeah, but it’s… I can’t say much, my boss would eat me alive.”

“Tough boss?” Catherine raised an eyebrow

“Nightmare, my ex.”

“And hence the no dating in the workplace rule.” She waved, “You’d better get over there.”

Jazz picked up some files and flicked on scans and turned off the screens, locking them against intrusion, then realised that the two men were staring at her, “You lied, you said you were the leader.” Greg stated

“I am, but I only have security clearances for you two, Archie and Hodges, they’ve been in on it for years. Look.” She held her hand up, “I can’t explain now, not here, we have to go. And this room is the only safe one because I’ve got a CCTV broadcast catcher. I’ve got another in my house, we’ll all meet up there this evening and I’ll explain it fully, I’m sorry but it has to be completely secure.”

“Commander.” Nick acknowledged her words grimly

“It’s Jay, you two have earned it.” She smiled and headed out of the door

Jazz tapped her comms as she strode into the building, looking around her and grinning over her shoulder at the two CSIs, “Archie, how are we set?”

She stopped and span round to blow a kiss at the security camera, then laughed, “OK, so do you want me to use the signal catcher or can you deal with it?”

A flick and her hair bounced over her shoulder lightly; with the crops and crop top she was wearing all she needed was a pout and gum to be a complete valley girl, albeit a valley girl with a gun. “My best friend used to be a boy scout, he makes sure that I always carry protection.” She laughed loudly again and waved at the camera before setting off again with Nick and Greg trailing behind her in mild confusion, “Oh you have no idea how naughty I can be, and you’ve never met Jack. Yeah, I like my men dirty.” She glanced at a sign and turned left, “You set then? OK, we’ll be there shortly.”

Doc Robbins and David Hodges met them outside autopsy fully clad in biohazard suits. Hodges saluted Jasmine smartly and positively glowed when she returned it, “Commander, I’ve alerted Doctor Robbins to the potential biohazard.”

“We should evacuate the building.” The doctor insisted, “Hey, you can’t go in there! Not without the proper protection and clearance.”

She shrugged with a chuckle and pushed the door open, “Clearances don’t come much clearer than mine. Besides, the biohazard is merely a convenient lie, easier than flashing security clearances around and generally getting up people’s noses. Well done David.”

He smirked but quailed in Doc Robbins’s glare, “You were covering something up?” He demanded angrily as he saw Grissom approaching, “What right do you have? It’s our job to find the truth, not hide it.”

The lab rat cast a despairing glance in Jasmine’s direction and ploughed on, “This is my other job, the one I don’t get a say in or paid for.”

The commander shook her head, “The warm fuzzies of helping to save the world should be payment enough, and it serves you right for pissing off the head of such a powerful organisation. I’m sorry Doctor Robbins, Doctor Grissom, you can’t even see this body. Not until I’ve cleared it at least.”

“We usually say victim.” Doc Robbins bristled, “That man could have wife, children.”

“Husband even, parents, friends.” She closed the door and leaned on it, “Doctor, I’ve seen more dead bodies than you have, I’ve buried both my parents and my sister, lovers, friends and enemies. The only way I can deal with it is by believing that that body is merely that, a body.”

“Who are you?”

Gil, who had watched a large part of the exchange raised a claming hand, “Doctor, Commander Donovan raises a lot of questions that legally she cannot answer. Her credentials are excellent and she comes highly recommended. We owe her a great debt of gratitude I understand, but for the moment we’re just going to have to trust her.”

She inclined her head gratefully, “Thank you Doctor Grissom, but you’ve been checking up on me?”

“Naturally.”

She laughed, “Jolly good. Now I’m afraid I have to perform an autopsy, a closed one. David, do you want to assist?”

“Me?” He looked astonished

“You are David, aren’t you? Greg, Nick, you want to watch?”

“How come they can but we can’t?” Grissom asked

“They have the right sort of security clearances, and high enough. I’m sorry, I can’t discuss it.” She turned to Hodges to signal the end of discussion, “David, this will smell, just so you know.”

She pushed the door open and slid through it, leaving the others to go around to the observation bay, leave or follow her. Hodges walked in with a smirk, which disappeared as soon as the rancid, acidic smell hit him, “Shit.”

“Correct.” The commander was already studying the corpse with a penlight as she pulled the signal catcher from her bag again and placed it on the table, “Just let me get this set up.” She played with the setting for a moment or two and straightened up, passing an earpiece to David before slipping out to give two more to Greg and Nick. When she returned she activated it and checked that they were all working properly, then seemed to address thin air, “And finally, Archie, do you read me?”

The techie’s voice came over the comms system, “Loud and clear boss.”

“Good, are we secure?”

“Completely, I’ve diverted the feed to your home office like you said.”

“Nice one. H’okay.” She breathed out and gestured to the body on the slab, “Weevil victim, and this is the normal smell for one. Weevils are copraphagic, they live in the sewers and eat… well I guess you can imagine. I’d rather be out there where you two are.” She grinned at the wall that concealed Greg and Nick, alone in the monitoring room

Nick’s voice reached her over the comms, “You do realise that this is all highly illegal?”

She shrugged, “It’ll never go to court, we’re not that complicated, so illegality doesn’t really matter.”

“But what do you tell their parents, lovers?”

“What do you think we tell them? That an alien that doesn’t belong here ripped his throat out because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time?” She shook her head, “We lie because we can’t tell the truth, so it’ll be covered up by Liberty Towers. I’m here on their turf, I’ll play it their way.”

“I used to go out with the head of Liberty Towers.” Hodges commented

“I’m aware of this, she’s my great granddaughter. Never underestimate a Curbishley David, it’s not a wise career move.”

“Your great granddaughter?” Greg asked in shock, “You can’t have grandchildren, you’re not even old enough to have children.”

She laughed as she studied the neck wounds closely, “I’m considerably older than I look, I’ll explain it all at my place later. We’re having a briefing there with Colonel Mayflower of Liberty Towers, keep him up to date, and conference calling with Cardiff, which will be fun.”

“Fun?”

“Well the last time I did a conference call with Captain Harkness he was naked and I don’t think Ianto had many more clothes on, judging by the way he refused to stand in front of the camera. Silly boy, not like I’ve not seen it all before. Anyway… This guy was definitely killed by a Weevil. I would say, judging by the size of the injuries, that it’s probably the same one, but no way of knowing until I check the DNA, which I’ll have to do at home.” She quickly set up a projected keyboard on a desk and rattled away at the non-existent keys, “You getting that through there Archie?”

“Yup, you want it in the same place?”

“Yeah, there’s a report started on my main computer at home, just bung it in there.” There was silence for a moment before Archie’s voice returned, informing her that they were set. She sighed, “OK, let’s get started.”

Jasmine parked the car outside a smart, detached three-storey house about ten minutes from the crime lab and the five of them got out, trailing up the stairs to the front door. Archie and Hodges led the way down the hall, gossiping lightly about a case whilst Jasmine ducked into the kitchen with a bright laugh. Nick and Greg followed Archie and Hodges into the living room and looked around in interest and slight surprise at the way the two lab rats flopped down automatically into two armchairs across from each other. The CSIs settled onto the sofa and Nick hesitated barely a moment before pulling Greg in to rest close against his side. His lab rat turned CSI boyfriend looked surprised but pleased and snuggled against him, resting a hand on his chest lightly, “We out now then?”

“Mmhm.” He hummed against the bleached blond hair with a smile, “You won’t say anything at work, will you guys?”

Archie shook his head, “Anything that gets said in here stays in here, it’s called a safe house for a reason.”

Hodges waved a hand around with a smile much warmer and friendlier than he’d ever shown in the crime lab, “Welcome to UNIT safe house 376. UNIT have another six in the city, Liberty Towers have six, that right Jay?”

“Other way around.” Her voice drifted through from the kitchen, closely followed by her person carrying bowls of chocolate mousse, “UNIT have six Vegas safe houses, LT have seven. I work for both, kinda, it’s complicated. I’m using this one because it’s closest to the crime lab and it was already set up as an operations hub rather than a safe house.”

“We use it quite a lot for cover-ups.” Archie explained, “And for somewhere close to crash when we’ve pulled a double or triple shift. It’s classified as operational. There are four classes, like volcanoes: Retired houses are out of use either temporarily or permanently, sleeper houses are ready for use but not actually in active use, active houses are being used as accommodation for agents or as safe houses or witnesses and the like, and operational houses are being used by agents instead of a permanent base in the city.”

“There’s so much we don’t know.” Greg commented, “How did you two get into all this?”

Hodges smiled, “I left my ex-girlfriend. That was the point when I found out that the fact her hours were so strange, even compared to mine, was because she was secretly running a top secret alien hunting organisation and could pull one on me and get me installed as a groundwork agent.” He chuckled, “If I’d known when I was going out with her, who knows where we’d be now? I wouldn’t be here I suspect.”

“Regret it?” Jazz asked

“Not really. You said she was your granddaughter?”

“Great granddaughter.” She corrected him, “Yeah, my youngest daughter’s granddaughter. I’m older than I look.”

“No kidding.” Nick gaped at her, “How old were you?”

“No idea, but early thirties I suspect. I’m immortal, completely immortal, if I die I bounce back, so when I ended up in the 1920s and lived through… Well it wasn’t much of a challenge. The hard part was having seven children, only two of whom survived the Second World War.”

“That’s terrible.”

She nodded sadly, “But it’s a long time ago now, they’d all be dead by now anyway. Doesn’t stop it hurting, but it makes it more bearable. I’ve lived a long time, lost a lot of people I love. I’ll lose a lot more in the years to come.” She shrugged, “It doesn’t get easier exactly, but you learn to cope. Anyway, how about you Archie, how did you get into it?”

“Hacking.” He answered with a shrug, “I looked at some files I shouldn’t have. Half an hour later there’s these goons on my doorstep telling me that I can find out more about what I saw and help them or forget everything. I’ve never once looked back.”

Jazz laughed at that, “I hear you. Torchwood’s been in operation for over 140 years, and in all that time only one person has retired or left voluntarily. And she was pregnant at the time. It’s… Phew, it’s not a life you could ever turn your back on.”

“You sound like you really love it.” Nick commented

“Yeah, even after so long. But my introduction was better than most I suppose. I was wounded by an alien attack, would have died without medical attention, and I was rescued by an angel, the most gorgeous guy the universe has ever seen.” Her smile grew positively dreamy, “We were together for nearly two years, until we died and got brought back from the dead separately. Neither knew that the other had returned, so we went on alone. That was the moment we became immortal too.”

“Did you find him again?”

“Eventually, but it wasn’t the same.” She levered herself up as the doorbell rang and returned with a short, wiry man in full military dress, “Colonel Mayflower, this is David Hodges, Archie Johnson, Greg Sanders and Nick Stokes. Gentlemen, Colonel Mayflower of Liberty Towers. Glad you could join us Colonel.”

He saluted her and shook her hand, “Commander, it’s an honour to meet you at last, thank you so much for coming to help us.”

“It’s a pleasure, I’m sure you know how much I love to get out and meet people. Even if it does involve Weevils.” She shrugged and gestured down the hall, “Shall we decant to the dining room? I’ve got us set up for the conference in there, and I hope Captain Harkness will be waiting.”

The Colonel groaned whilst the others looked somewhere between interested and curious, which was a clear indication that he was the only one apart from Jazz who had had any dealing with the garrulous and flirtatious captain. “Will he be dressed?”

“Oh, you’ve met him.” She grinned broadly.

Captain Jack Harkness smiled and accepted the cup of coffee gratefully, brushing his fingers gently across the back of his fiancé’s hand as he did so. He arched an eyebrow in happy surprise when Ianto pushed his leg down from where it had been crossed over his knee and curled into his now level lap, wrapping strong arms loosely around his shoulders and tucking his head in against the crook of his neck, “We’re off duty, are we?”

“Yep. I don’t think ‘Commander Donovan’ will complain, do you?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Jack turned his head and kissed Ianto’s temple gently, putting his arms around the younger man and pulling him closer, lacing his fingers together and resting them on Ianto’s hip, “She’ll have sent us, and Gwen, the screen captures by the time we wake up.”

“Hmm, I look forwards to photos of us canoodling being pasted around the Hub for all to see yet again… “ He chuckled, “Which will inevitably happen, especially if I fall asleep here. And I find that I actually do look forwards to it.”

“If you’re tired you can head down and get some sleep, I can handle Jazzy.” Jack stroked his hip, not wanting the younger man to move, but knowing that he really should

“Why would I want to move? I’m warm, comfy and happy; and going nowhere without you.”

“Torchwood 3 are officially off duty I take it?” The screen activated and they were greeted by the sight of a grinning Jasmine holding a remote and adjusting her camera, “Tell me when you’ve got the best view.”

“I can see you babe.” Jack laughed, “That’s good enough for me.”

“Yes, Captain, but there’s another five people in the room with me, and we can all see both of you.”

Ianto stiffened for a minute but relaxed and snuggled further into Jack’s warm embrace, “Yeah, well you can all be jealous then, can’t you?”

“Well at least he’s dressed this time.” The Colonel’s mutter could be heard quite clearly, as could Jack’s answering bellow of laughter as the whole of the team in Vegas came into view.

“Don’t give him ideas.” Ianto muttered into Jack’s chest with a smile, playing gently with his hair, “Commander, good to see you again.”

“Likewise Ianto. How did the rift storm containment go?”

He smiled and nodded, looking more towards the camera so that he could also see the feed from Vegas properly, “Smooth as you like, nothing dangerous. Fairly boring really, but it’s kept us up for a while.”

“God, I’m sorry.” She clearly was, “I won’t keep you long if you’ve had a long one, let’s get on with it then.”

“Not to worry Jay, but you owe us one, OK?” He chuckled, “So what have you got over there?”

She smiled and nodded, “You got it sweetie. What we’ve got is a weevil, first indications were correct.”

Jack whistled and sat up slightly, pulling Ianto up to rest more comfortably against him and giving the younger man chance to slip his arms down further, “That’s… not what you expect to find in Vegas. How long’s it been there?”

“No way of knowing really.” She pointed out, “But it’s killed two people in the last couple of days and none before, so I’m assuming not long.”

Nick glanced at her, “How do you know?”

“We’d have known about it sooner if it had been here longer, trust me.” She turned back to the camera, “Problem is, there’s no way for it to have got here that recently.”

"No rift activity in Vegas then?” Jack asked thoughtfully.

“Nothing since the big kerplooey.”

“I’m sorry, kerplooey?” Ianto chuckled

“Yeah, you know, when you opened the rift and the whole world sort of collopsed.”

“You know Zee, sometimes I haven’t a clue what you’re smoking, but whatever it is I want some.”

“John!” She bolted upwards and grinned in clear delight, “Heya baby, what are you doing in Cardiff?”

“Came across to help out with the storm, and I was getting lonely without you in London.”

“Aww, I miss you too.” She blew him a kiss, “I’ll call you later, yeah?”

“I look forwards to it. Come on.” He prodded Ianto and Jack in turn and gestured vaguely at them, “Bed you two, I’ll deal with this. Ianto’s shattered and won’t go anywhere without you Jack.”

“I’m OK.” The Welshman insisted, “And I’m sure Jay will let me off if I nod off.”

“I might, then again I might get your superior officer to discipline you for your… something. I’m sure neither of you will complain. Can we concentrate on aliens for once?”

“I’m concentrating on an alien.” Ianto’s chuckle was muffled but easy to hear, “But anyway, what’s a Weevil doing in Vegas?”

“Apart from killing people you mean?” Jazz leaned back, “I’ve sent you the files, it would appear that we have a Weevil trapped above the surface. We’ve had two murders in the same area of town, the first one shortly after the sewers were opened for maintenance work. When I looked there were signs that something clawed had tried to get through the grate.”

“Might it have found its way back down there?” Jack asked

“Possibly, but we’ve no way of knowing really.” She sighed, “We’ve just got to wait for more evidence.”

“More murders?” Greg asked and groaned when she nodded heavily, “I hate it when that happens.”

“Me too.” She shrugged, “I’ll have a poke around down there when I come off shift tomorrow, but I doubt I’ll find anything.”

“We’ll be ready to come over if you need us.” Jack offered, “And we’ll have a look to see if any of our Weevils has gone missing.”

“Thanks Jack, and I’ll pull some strings for you. Mind you, I suspect I’m probably the only string that needs pulling anyway.”

“Thanks doll, keep us posted?”

“Always, thank you Jack.”

“Anytime, but preferably not this late at night again.”

She laughed and terminated the connection, turning to the team gathered around her again, “So anyone got any questions?”

“Yeah, what the hell is going on, I’m missing something here?”

“And what’s wrong with Captain Harkness, he didn’t flirt with any of us, not once!”

Jazz laughed brightly, “The second one’s easy, he’s totally loved up and adorably cute about Ianto. And very tired, I don’t think they’ve slept in about 36, maybe 48 hours or even more.” She puffed out her cheeks, “And as for the first one… Weevils are native to we’re not sure where, but relatively native to Cardiff by now. We get them all the time over there, that’s why it’s Jack’s team standing by to respond, not one of yours Colonel. You don’t have the same experience that they do. As for what it’s doing in Vegas; that remains a mystery. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing much we can do until we locate it and I can contain it and return it to Cardiff, where it should hopefully become less violent.”

“So what do you want us to do?” Archie asked

“Monitor, the usual. Keep your eyes peeled for all the usual suspects, plus reports of youths in Halloween masks, things like that. They get a lot of them in Cardiff, despite the number of times Weevils have been seen, people are always prepared to believe it’s teenagers.”

“I’ll pass the report down the chain, you’ve got my number right?” The Colonel stood up and offered her his hand, “Anything you need, we’ll provide. It’s truly an honour to have you back in the country Commander.”

“Like I said, it’s a pleasure to be back, pass on my love to Lou.” She grinned, “Sorry, General Colton.”

“I will do so. Gentlemen.” He saluted casually and left them to it.

Archie and Hodges stood too, “Want a lift Arch?”

“Thanks mate, see you two tomorrow.” They waved and also disappeared, leaving the two CSIs alone with Jasmine.

She looked them over fondly and smiled, “If you two want to crash here you’re welcome to. It’s a safe house, there’s plenty of room and clean clothes and stuff, and you look bushed.”

Nick considered it, he could either go back alone to his empty flat and bed and know that Greg was doing the same, or stay here and have a perfectly valid excuse for doing so. And yes, there were enough rooms for them both, but why make work when they could just share? “I think I’ll take you up on the offer Jay.”

“Me too.” Greg agreed, “I wouldn’t like to try driving like this. Besides, my car’s at the crime lab.”

“And when you go in you can say that you crashed at mine.” She grinned, “I’ll make you a room up.”

As she breezed out of the room their eyes met and they smiled, “Takes some of the fun out of sneaking in together when she’s trying to persuade us into it.”

Greg chuckled and leaned across hesitantly, smiling when the Texan met him halfway, “Still looking forwards to it. I quite like alien hunting so far.”

“It certainly has its perks.” Nick kissed him again and pulled back, lacing their fingers together evidently deep in thought, “So does living in the UK apparently.”

“Ah, you were thinking the same as me. They looked happy.”

Jasmine cleared her throat from the doorway and smiled at them, her arms wrapped around a cushion, “They are happy, really happy. It’s adorable.”

“Are you always this mushy?” Nick asked, highly amused

She shrugged, “I don’t know, I’m a woman so I mood swing all over the place, but probably.” The cushion was hugged tighter and she grimaced, “And yeah, I’m particularly bad at the moment. Give me half an hour and I’ll be right as rain.”

“You flash on and off like that?” She nodded sadly at Nick’s question but said nothing, “My youngest sister was like that, my eldest sister was a constant moody cow, but that didn’t change when she was off, so we didn’t really notice.”

She laughed at that and beckoned them through to the living room, “Want a drink?”

“One maybe.” Nick smiled across at her, “Then we should turn in.”

She passed them their drinks and settled into an armchair, dropping the cushion on the floor as she did so, “Welcome to the family then guys. Here’s to friendship, aliens and saving the world.”

Greg’s eyes flickered before he opened them fully, the usual early morning worries of ‘where am I and how did I get here’ flying away like ephemera when his gaze lighted on the still peacefully sleeping face of Nicholas Stokes. His breath caught in delight and he smiled against the Texan’s chest as the fog in his mind cleared to reveal his surroundings fully, but nothing mattered really apart from the strong arms holding him close, the fingers tangled with his own and the steady heartbeat that seemed to pulse through both of them. They’d just collapsed into bed together the night before, too tired to do anything more. They’d always been too tired to do anything more, or too scared; Greg thought that it might spoil what they had by now. Whenever they went away to conferences or there was a party at someone’s house or one of them broke down and had to get a lift home, any excuse they could find really, they took the opportunity to crawl into bed together and just hold each other. It wasn’t much really, not what anyone else would call a proper relationship, but it was what they shared and that was enough.

“Greggo, tickles.” Nick groaned and squeezed Greg’s hand where it lay on his chest, stopping the fingers that had been idly tracing patterns on his skin.

“Sorry.” Greg muttered with a smile, scooting up to kiss him gently. The older man groaned against his lips and wrapped his arms around Greg’s neck, pulling him down and deepening the kiss to a level of fiery passion. Eventually they broke apart and the Californian smiled down at him, leaning closer briefly for another gentle kiss before pulling back further and straddling his hips with his hand flat on his chest, “That a better way to wake up?”

“Much better.” Nick chuckled, now fully awake and tugged Greg back against him, nipping lightly at his collarbone before flipping him over and tickling him mercilessly.

Tears were rolling down the young man’s cheeks by the time someone knocked at the door and Jasmine’s voice called out, “Are you two decent in there?”

Nick stopped for long enough to reply, “Yup, door’s open.” But didn’t move from his position over his young lover

Jazz poked her head around the door and laughed at the sight of Greg’s flushed, tearstained and still laughing face, “You two having fun there?”

Greg squirmed and laughed, “Help Jay, save me from this monster.”

She appeared to consider it for a moment but grinned evilly, “You hold him down Nick, I’ll tickle his feet. Erm… I’m just about to do breakfast, for want of a better word. You two OK with pancakes?”

“Sounds good to me.” Greg gasped, taking advantage of Nick’s distraction to squirm out from underneath him and hide in the wardrobe. “Now keep him away!”

Nick’s breath caught as Greg shut the wardrobe door on himself, closing it completely and ‘protecting’ him from the older man’s good-natured attack. The closed door, Greg shut in there… He closed his eyes as memories swept over him and clenched his fists tight, starting when a warm hand touched his arm gently, “Nick, are you OK?”

Greg poked his head out of the wardrobe at the question and hurried over, pulling Nick down onto the bed and wrapping his arms around him in horror, “Oh God Nick, I’m sorry. I didn’t think…”

“It’s OK.” He put his hand over the younger man’s and met his eyes, hearing Jazz retreat from the room once she was sure he was OK, “I’m OK, you’re OK. I’ll…”

“Hey.” Greg kissed him softly, “I’m so sorry, I should have thought.”

“Not your fault, we all get caught up in the moment occasionally.” He sighed and kissed Greg again, this time slow and lingering, drawing comfort from it and pouring reassurance back, “I love you Greg Sanders, don’t ever doubt that.”

“Never have, never will, never could.” He pulled Nick down so that the older man’s head rested against his chest and sighed, “I have to admit, it feels good to be out of the closet.”

Nick groaned, “I knew it, I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist.”

“Sorry.” Greg chuckled and the sound vibrated around the two of them as they held on to each other. Eventually the older man squeezed his boyfriend gently and stood up, flexing his shoulders gently and smiling at the look on Greg’s face.

“See something you like?”

“Something I like a lot.” Greg agreed, swinging over the bed and looking through the drawers, “I hope there’s something suitable to wear around here, otherwise everyone will know something’s up.”

Nick chuckled and opened the wardrobe fully, “It’s a safe house, which mean’s there’ll probably be lots of black… And a Hawaiian shirt if you’re interested?”

The younger man turned and caught it as it was thrown at him, “Oooh, just my colour. What’s that doing in there?”

“It’s not, you’ve got it, but they look to have a bit of everything really. Lots of black.” He pulled out a dark red T-shirt with a white guitar stamped across it and a black one with the same motif and held them up, “What do you think?”

“Yeah, I like the black.” Greg looked down at himself, he was now wearing the Hawaiian shirt over a white T-shirt and looked much like he had in his lab rat days, “Somehow this feels weird.”

“Looks good though. Would look even better with trousers.” Nick pointed out and he pulled a pair of jeans on, followed by the black T-shirt

“Fair point.” Greg hunted around and found his jeans from the night before, “Jazz didn’t even bat an eyelid.”

“Apart from checking us out you mean?”

“Checking you out you mean, which is only natural.” He came up behind his boyfriend and wrapped his arms around his waist, nuzzling gently at the back of his neck, “Found anything interesting?”

“Mm-hm. Lots of corsets.” He pulled one out, a red and black number with lots of lace, “I wonder what Jazz looks like in one of these?”

“I suspect she’d show us if we asked.” Greg chuckled, “Come on, I smell breakfast.”

Downstairs they could hear Jazz chattering and laughing happily before they got down to the kitchen and actually saw her, dressed in black pyjama bottoms and a white vest top, with a black top to match the bottoms slung over the back of a chair. A computer screen set into the front of a cupboard showed another kitchen with a blonde man moving around and also preparing breakfast. “… Jack and Ianto make it downstairs last night?”

“Yeh, they did.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah, actually lay awake for quite a while down in our room, it’s a bit empty without you.”

“I miss you too.” She leaned on a chair as she poked at a pancake, oblivious to the two men watching her, “Didn’t sleep a wink today, but that’s mainly because I got dragged out by Liberty Towers on a drug run.”

“Fun. You’ve got company by the way.”

She turned slightly and flipped the pancake smoothly, “Heya guys, sleep well?”

“Yes thanks.” Greg grinned at her and waved at the screen, “Evening, John?”

“Good morning Greg, oh, hey sleeping beauty.”

“Heya John.” Ianto’s voice joined the conversation and the man himself soon wandered across the picture, waving lazily at the camera on his way to the coffee machine, “Anyone for coffee?”

“Thanks Ianto, you two?” Jazz grinned at Nick and Greg, enjoying their confusion

“Erm… He’s in Cardiff, right?” Greg asked, sliding into a chair

“Yeah.”

“And we’re in Vegas.”

“Your usual Jay?” Ianto asked, the smirk audible in his voice

“You’re a star Yan.”

“I’ll send three over, see what you two make of it.” Moments later the oven pinged and Jazz opened the door, pulling out a tray with three mugs of coffee and handing them out, putting hers on the work surface whilst she flipped the last pancake and put the plate on the table.

“Erm…” Greg’s expression of complete bemusement, followed closely by astonished delight when he finally took a sip of the coffee, was too much for those watching who knew what was going on. Jazz collapsed into a chair with laughter and grabbed the bag of marshmallows, “What did we say?”

“It’s a portable teleportation device. Turns any metal box into a teleport station. It’s top secret, just in the testing stages and made using alien tech, but I’ve got one so that I can send stuff from wherever I am in the world, and they’ve got one so that I can send them the stuff.” Jazz explained, popping a marshmallow into her mouth and folding her pancake over on top of the pile of marshmallows, chocolate and more chocolate.

“How does it work?”

“No idea, you just attach it to the front of the box, set the destination device and whoop. Off it goes.” She laughed, “And if the device you send it to isn’t attached at the time it gets queued up, like an email.”

“That’s brilliant.”

“It’s extremely useful.” An American accent was added to the mix and they saw Jack wander across and tilt Ianto’s head back as he sat at the table in Cardiff to plant a kiss gently on his lips. “Morning gorgeous, morning all.”

“Heya Jack, put some clothes on dearest.” Jazz laughed, “Whatcha having for breakfast over there?”

“Full English.”

“Welsh.” Ianto corrected with a laugh, “You?”

“Pancakes.” Jazz sighed, “We’ve got to be at work in about two hours.”

“You say it like you don’t want to.”

“I’m shattered.” She chuckled, “Got a run this afternoon on a drug case, took us about six hours to get it cleared up, so I got about an hour’s sleep.”

“The life of Torchwood.”

“Hell yeah, wouldn’t want it any other way.” She laughed, “Oh Gods, I’m buzzed now. I actually can’t wait to go to work. No, that's a lie, I can't wait to get home.”

“Oh shit, she’s mood swinging!” Jack backed away from the camera in mock horror and made the sign of the cross with his fingers, “Get her away.”

“At least she’s not as bad as Gwen with her mood swings. Just mothers us to death.”

“I would really hate to see you pregnant.” Jack laughed, “You’re a proper nester, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I am, and even snugglier than I am normally.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Remind me not to get you pregnant.” John chuckled, “Wow, that was redundant.”

“Just a little.” She chuckled, “And I think it’s the coffee more than the hormones. Possibly.”

A claxon blared suddenly and the men in the kitchen in Cardiff moved rapidly, “Zee, we’ve got a spike, can you co ordinate from over there?”

“Sure thing.” She grabbed her mug and ate the last mouthful of her pancake, then practically ran down the corridor to her study. Greg and Nick exchanged bemused glances but followed her, “North end of Bute Terrace, of course. Hey guys, have a seat, watch and learn. No biological readings, big energy signatures though.”

“Great. Radiation?”

“Uh, yes. What sort though I couldn’t tell you. I’d need Tosh’s computer and it’s still too secure for me to get in from over here.”

“Shit. Is it dangerous?”

“Jaaaack, I haven’t a clue, but it’s not normal.”

“OK, I’m going in first then. You two can follow if and only if it’s safe.” Silence greeted this announcement, so Jack assumed that they agreed, even if they didn’t want to, “OK Jay, can you get the place evacuated.”

“One gas leak already sent. Andy’s on tonight, so I’ve tipped him the wink… Or something.”

“Cheers doll.”

“Just another day in Cardiff.” Ianto’s voice was brittle and silence fell on the team for a long time

Nick caught Greg’s hand and held it tightly, wondering for the first time what sort of life they’d got caught up in.

Jack stamped on the brakes and pushed the door open, rushing around to the boot and pulling it open to get out the containment box. “Any further instructions before I go in there Jazz?”

“Nothing new, readings are fairly consistent and the CCTV’s not showing any activity. Good luck Jack.”

“Thanks.” He pulled the box out and checked it, then turned to the street. “I won’t be long.”

“Hey.” Ianto stopped him with a hand on his arm and leant close to kiss him gently, “Be careful, OK.”

Jack pulled him closer for just a moment, holding on to that reassurance, “Always.” He kissed him once more and turned away, pulling out his gun with one hand and carrying the box with the other, “Let’s do this.”

The two mortals watched him go nervously and waited on his call. Ianto shivered and turned up the collar of his coat, trying to pretend that it was the cold that had him shaking and on edge. Unsurprisingly, John didn’t buy it and laid a hand gently on his arm, “You OK?”

The Welshman shook his head but smiled, “It never gets any easier, watching him go off into danger and having to stay behind. What wouldn’t I give for a normal life?”

“Well?” John leaned on a lamppost and watched him carefully, “What wouldn’t you give? What’s the one thing you couldn’t live without?”

Ianto smiled at the floor as he leant on the SUV, “You don’t half ask stupid questions.” He sighed, “Point taken though.”

“I wasn’t trying to make a point.” John smiled, “Just wondering. I guess it was a stupid question though, the way you look at him.”

Silence fell between them for a moment until Ianto broke it, “Are you ever jealous?”

“Hell yeah.” John chuckled, “Who wouldn’t be? He’s drop dead gorgeous and looks at you like you’re the only other person in the world, like he can’t quite believe that you’re his.” He grew suddenly serious, “But would I change our positions? Not for a second. A) I like you too much to do that to you. B) I have Zee, and I wouldn’t change that for the world. C) I couldn’t put up with him, I don’t know how you do it.” He grinned, “Do you ever wonder how it happened?”

“Every day. Every single day.” The young Welshman confessed with a soft smile.

“Jaaaay.” Jack’s drawl was even more drawn out than usual, into an almost petulant whine, “You had me all worried there for a moment.”

The responding laugh was girly and relieved, “It’s not dangerous then?”

“Not very, come on you two, it’s safe to come out.”

Ianto and John shared a secret look as they strolled idly around the corner, although his casual demeanour did nothing to hide Ianto’s intense relief, especially as he hurried straight into Jack’s arms as soon as he was in sight. “Heya baby, didya miss me?”

“I was only around the corner.”

“Hah, flattered.” Jack wrapped a single arm around Ianto’s waist and gestured at the floor, pulling out his phone and taking a photo to send to Jasmine, “You know when you checked for biological visitors, how come you missed this one?”

There was silence for a moment, then a sigh, “Well OK, I checked for life signs, not that there’s any other way to scan for biological. How did he die?”

“You’re the CSI.” He pointed out with a smirk

“Yes, but I’m in the wrong country, wrong continent even.”

“True enough.” He let go of Ianto reluctantly and bent closer to check the body, quickly identifying the cause of death, “Whoa, OK, so he died because he’s very bad at surfing.”

“Surfing?”

“Yeah, surfing, what does that look like to you?” He sent her a photo and laughed at her reaction

“Is that a tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator?”

He bellowed with laughter and clapped, “Couldn’t have put it better myself. Yeah, so basically he was out surfing.”

“Caribbean Galaxies?”

“Entirely possible. God that was a long time ago.” He shook his head, “We’re having a Shrek marathon tonight Yan. But yeah, out surfing, caught a burst he couldn’t handle, got sucked into the rift.”

“Dead before he got here.” John finished, “God I’m glad we were good.”

“Hell yeah, although I do remember some… unexpected deviations from our intended route.”

“Hell yeah, they were fun.”

“Erm… hello, gentlemen, the present please?” Jay sighed at them down the line, “You need my help anymore? Cos I gotta go put some clothes on.”

“We’re good Jay, we’ve got it from here.” Jack sighed, “Just got to get him into the freezer and his surfboard into the archive.”

“Jack…”

“No.” He mock-glared at his ex-partner, “No, you’re not having a tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator for Christmas darling. Get that thing in the boot, we’ll deal… On second thoughts; Ianto, can you deal with the board, we’ll do the body.”

“Got it Jack.” They cleared up quickly and were gone before Andy got there, waving to him as the disappeared. John even blew the frustrated PC a kiss, chuckling as they pulled away. Ianto caught a glimpse of him in the rear view mirror and groaned, “Do you ever stop?”

John stared in mock horror, “My girlfriend’s in America, I’m sexually frustrated. Would you rather I flirted with your fiancé?”

“Quite frankly, yes, it’s more entertaining and I won’t get an earful from him this evening.”

Silence greeted this announcement, until Jack grinned broadly, “So John, whilst Ianto’s busy getting an earful from Andy, how about it?”

“Hey.” Ianto slapped his thigh, leaving his hand there and stroking gently, which made Jack’s driving even more interesting than usual, “I said he could flirt with you, not the other way around.”

“I love it when he gets possessive.”

“Well once I’ve finished getting an earful from Andy, you, me… chocolate?” He laughed as Jack swerved left slightly, “OK, let’s finish this conversation once you’ve parked up.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” Jack gulped, moving Ianto’s hand slightly to make concentration easier, “But the best part is definitely resuming the conversation.”

“Agreed.”

Jasmine, Greg and Nick wandered into the break room laughing together and drawing subtle glances from members of their team. Some people knew there was something going on between Greg and Nick and were wondering at the fact that this was the first time they’d arrived together, some thought there was something going on between Jasmine and one of the guys and they were very confused at the three of them arriving together. Others, like Grissom, were completely oblivious, “Commander Donovan, I understand your case has stalled for the moment?”

She sighed, “Call me Jazz Doctor, I feel ancient when people call me Commander, and yeah. It has, nothing we can do on it for the moment.”

“Can I have my CSIs back then?”

“Sure, and you’ve got another one if you want me.”

He looked at her intently, “Do you have the training?”

“Sure I do. Forensics and criminology from Stanford, and forensic science from Glamorgan. Trained with Scotland Yard, served with NYPD, but that was for all of three weeks before I packed my bags and moved back to the UK.” She shrugged, “Sure, my specialty’s in cases without evidence or courts, but I’m more than capable.”

He continued to look at her slightly askance, “You look seventeen.”

“I know, it’s a curse, I can’t get served anywhere. So how about it?”

He shrugged, “You’re in, I’ll put you on the case with these two.” He moved away before they could respond and left them staring after him in amusement

“OK folks, this is Jasmine Donovan. She’s a bit strange.” They stared at him openly, “She’s joining us for a while, and she’ll be working with Greg and Nick, so you three have a double at a club on the strip. Catherine you’re got a B&E. Riley, you’re on a hit and run, and Doctor Langston you’ve got a home invasion. Vegas is reasonably quiet for once.”

“Nice.” Catherine stood up, “I’m not going to complain.”

“Me either.” Nick stood up and offered his hand to Jazz, who took it with a laugh and let him pull her up, “Let’s clean these streets up.”

Jazz was good, everyone had to admit it. She was thorough, patient, prepared to take calculated risks and never complained about being sent dumpster diving. Well, not much anyway. She sat now with Catherine in the break room, going over a case they were working together. The older woman found the apparently younger one a complete mystery, which was aggravated by her constant answers of ‘classified’. It was getting to her after two weeks. “So, Jasmine, what really brings you to Vegas?”

“You know I can’t tell you that Catherine.” She sighed and closed the folder, running a hand through her hair tiredly, “My work’s normally top secret; it’s nice to be doing a job I can talk about with someone other than my co-workers and my boyfriend. Not that I have anyone else to share it with.”

“No parents, friends?” Catherine asked in surprise

“Parents died in… In gang warfare when I was thirteen. Sister tried to kill me in retaliation for their deaths a few years ago, not many people have survived doing that.”

“You killed your own sister?”

“No, my extremely defensive boyfriend did. I was lucky to get out alive.” She rested her head in her hands and smiled gratefully when Catherine touched her shoulder gently, “And as for friends, my hours are worse than yours. What’s the most you’ve had to pull, a triple?”

“Yeah, done a few triples in my time though.”

Jazz chuckled, “My longest was a week with two hours of sleep. I don’t meet people outside work, which is why I relish the chance to get away and do stuff like this.”

“I’ll bet, so a triple homicide is reasonably easy for you.”

“Hell yeah. Heya baby, how’s things going?” She looked up at Greg as he walked in and made himself a coffee, chuckling all the way

“Very well actually.”

“You got him?”

“We got him. Easy, he trapped his thumb in the lid of his pen.” They looked confused, “In the victim’s apartment. Where he said he’d never been. Fessed up quickly.”

“Nice one.” Jazz laughed and grabbed his coffee mug, breathing deeply before taking a sip, “Nice stuff.”

“I know that.” He glared at her and took the mug back, “And you wonder why people think we’re together?”

“No, I don’t actually. I know exactly why they think that, it’s a carefully constructed impression.”

“And no one who knows Greg very well thinks it, we all know he’s with Nick.” Catherine stared at them both, “But why pretend you two are together? Or that you’re with Nick, which I’ve seen you do?”

“Because I’m bored and I know they can take it.” Jazz laughed, “I left my boyfriend in London, he’s now in Cardiff and I speak to him twice a day by video conferencing. These two are great fun.”

“And how, how did you know?” Greg asked with evident discomfort as he sat down next to Jazz, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and letting her curl against him happily

“OK, that’s a bit weird.” Catherine shook her head, “I’ve known for years. You don’t know how hard I pestered him to make a move before he did.”

“He didn’t, I did.”

“Then you probably know what I’m talking about. There’s a few know, but we’d never tell anyone.”

“Tell anyone what?” Grissom asked as he came into the break room

“Well that would defeat the object or not telling anyone, wouldn’t it?” Jazz asked with a laugh, “Hey Nick.” The CSI had followed Grissom in

“I guess it would, Jasmine, Liberty Towers sent a message, they want you and your two. Whatever your two is.”

She bolted upright and grabbed her bag, pulling out her blackberry and navigating through it, “Shit. Greg, Nick, you’re with me. We’ve got a triple, two of which are distinctly hinkey, one more than the other.” She slung her bag over her shoulder and checked the contents, alarming them when she pulled out a gun and checked it, “Let’s go.”

“Pardon?” Grissom looked astonished, “And no guns in the lab.”

“No phones in the call centre, I know.” She skirted past him and paused in the doorway, “This is why I’m here Doctor Grissom, remember?”

“And you need two of my CSIs why?”

“I have three dead bodies, why do you think?”

“Fair point, good luck.”

Nick studied the scene over the shoulder of the fed keeping them out, he could see three bodies, one partially obscured by a metal bin but the other two out in the open. Somehow the feds had beaten them here and were now keeping them out because of the apparent mob connection. Add on to that the fact that Jasmine had disappeared and he had a headache forming, “Look, we have jurisdiction here. Don’t ask me how, or how to prove it, we just do, OK?”

“No, CSI Stokes, it’s not OK. This scene is in our hands.”

“Have you looked at all the bodies? This is not a run of the mill case… Look, Greg, where has she got to?”

“No idea.” His boyfriend had been scanning the street but hadn’t seen her, “She’s vanished”

“Great.”

Two tall men approached the cordon and pushed past them, lifting the tape and going under it without saying a word. The fed looked around in shock and grabbed the last one by the arm, “Hey, you can’t go in there.”

“Erm, yes we can actually. We’re specialists.” The man had a thick Welsh accent and a friendly, slightly smug smile. His partner had stopped and turned back to join the conversation

He baulked slightly but didn’t let go, “I didn’t know the UK was co-operating with us on this case.”

“We’re not.” Jack flashed him a megawatt grin, which fell completely flat in the darkness, “We’re taking over your scene. Come on Yan, let’s leave the nice man to do his job and make sure we’re not disturbed. Oh, hey, CSIs Stokes and Sanders?”

“Yeah, Captain Harkness, Mr Jones, what are you doing here?”

“What do you think?” Jack asked with a laugh, “What are you doing out there? Come on, it’s your scene.”

They shrugged at each other and ducked under the tape to join the two Torchwood agents who waited for them. They greeted them with warm, firm handshakes before turning to the scene, “So, what have we got? Two humans and a Weevil, one of them actually killed by said Weevil I understand.”

“So how do you know about this?”

“It came through on the messaging service. We’re having a slow day so we figured, what the hell?” Jack laughed, “So where is she?”

“I’m over here.” Jasmine’s voice hailed them from the back of the alley, “Been waiting for you.” She was crouched by the body of a Weevil and looked up at them with a grin as they approached, “There’s always an easier way to get where you want to be. Especially if you do gymnastics and have lots of experience of getting to places other people don’t want you to be. What are you two doing here?”

Jack pulled her up and into a hug, squeezing her against him tightly, then let her go on to Ianto who actually picked her up, “Heya baby, missed you too.”

“Oh you have no idea how much.” She smiled up at him when he put her down, resting her hands on his shoulders gently, “So you’ve come to help out?”

“And flirt some with my favourite girl, yeah.” Ianto laughed, “So where do we start?”

“We start with you getting out of my crime scene.” She teased, standing on tip-toes to kiss him gently on the lips, “Go on, go play with the FBI. Actually, get them out of there. Really out. Send them home.”

Ianto nodded and turned for the end of the alley, trailing a bemused looking Jack in his wake. Jazz watched for just long enough to see the captain grab hold of his lover just beyond the crime scene tape, “That’s my good deed for the day. I wish they were all that pleasant.”

“Good deed?” Nick asked, pulling on his gloves

“Yeah, Ianto loves a possessive Jack.” She grinned naughtily and donned her own gloves, gesturing to the alley, “One body each? I’ll take the Weevil.”

“I got the one in the middle.” Nick said

“So I’m at the end.” Greg picked up his kit and headed towards the far end of the alley.

He finished with the body carefully, it was a simple gunshot wound to the back, more would be revealed at autopsy. Some wounding that appeared to be from a wild animal, presumably the Weevil. He groaned and sat back on his heels, looking up at Jack and Ianto who were leaning on opposite sides of the alley watching him, “You want a look, I’m done here?” They ducked under the tape again and he showed them what he’d found, “Clawed by a Weevil on his front, must have been ante-mortem judging by the blood. Then a single gunshot wound to the back, which killed him. Either that or he bled out from a combination of the injuries and the gunshot wound. We’ll be able to tell with an autopsy.”

“OK, want to see what the others have got?”

“I’m game.” He let Jack help him up and stretched, “God I’m glad I’m not doing this in Cardiff. Better in the warmth of Vegas than the rain of Wales.”

“Amen to that.” Jack laughed, his volume increasing when Ianto slapped his arse, “Hey, I will admit that Cardiff has its advantages.” The young man merely smirked. “Hey Nick, good to see you again, what have you got?”

The Texan looked up and smiled at Jack, but it was tense, “I don’t know what to make of it. He’s been badly mauled, but it didn’t bleed. He was already dead. I’m not a coroner, but that much is clear.”

“Oi, Jay, how’s our Weevil buddy?” Jack hollered

She laughed and pulled herself up, coming over to join them, “Killed with a 9mm.”

“A 9mm, that’s unlikely.” Jack folded his arms and leaned back, “Even I can’t do it with one shot.”

“I know, unless you get very lucky.”

“He got lucky?”

She grinned, “You know it, mouth shot.”

“A mouth shot?” A voice came form behind them and they swung round, “I dream of those.”

“John!” Jazz whirled round as he caught her up and kissed him, lacing her arms around his neck, then pulling back, “Hm, we’re on duty John.”

“We’re always on duty.” He moaned, “And I’ve missed you.”

“Horny git.” She laughed and pushed him away slightly, “Later baby, later. Right now, two dead men and a dead weevil. And bad news.” She ran her hand through her hair. “It’s not the one that killed Ellen and Mike.”

“What, you mean there’s more than one?” Nick asked, “Great.”

“More than one in Vegas.” Ianto shook his head, “It doesn’t make sense, there’s no rift here. How can you tell?”

“Wrong height, Mike Gartan was 6’1”, that’s an inch taller than you two. This weevil is an inch shorter than me.” She beckoned Jack over and stood face to face with him, “Now, if you try to fend me off… We know from experience that there’s no way I can reach your neck. Even if I had the strength of a Weevil.”

“Could it have jumped on him?”

“No, nothing to jump from. And the injuries were sustained, a prolonged attack. The weevil that attacked him was what, about half a foot taller?”

“So how are multiple weevils getting to Vegas, unless there’s another way apart from the rift?”

Jack raised his wrist, wrapping his arm around the back of Jay’s neck so that he could study the readout over her shoulder. She huffed theatrically, “What you looking at?”

“You know we tagged those Weevils about six months ago so we could keep tabs on the population?”

“Yeah?”

”Well this one was in Cardiff at the time.”

“Oh. So someone or something brought this weevil from Cardiff to Vegas. Why? And how?” She looked around, flashing her torch beam around the alley, “And… What were the guys doing here?”

“Welcome to Vegas honey.” Greg chuckled.

Nick looked up as Jazz entered and raised a hand idly, “How did it go?”

“Interesting.” She brushed her hair out of her eyes and sank into her chair, “You’ve been and gone I take it?”

“Yeah, crashed back at yours with Jack and Ianto. When did you two finish with the autopsy?”

“Just now.” She laughed, “Tiiiired.”

“Where’s John?”

“I sent him home to get some sleep.” She yawned and waved out of the glass window, signing a request for coffee across to Ianto who nodded briefly and disappeared smartly. “He’s only mortal after all.”

“You should do the same.” Greg suggested, “You can’t work if you’re exhausted.”

“I’ll be fine.” She shrugged, “Want to see what I’ve got?”

“Go on then.”

“Human vic number one from the closed end of the alley. Oh, this is useless.” She looked up and waved across to get Jack’s attention, signing a message to him, “Jack, get your arse over here.”

“Why?”

“I want you.”

“You always want me. Ianto’s just coming.”

“OK, bring him with you.”

A minute or so later, the two Torchwood agents appeared in the doorway and Ianto passed out mugs of coffee, leaning idly against the desk with Jack’s arm wrapped around his waist, “I understand you wanted us commander?”

She glared at him moodily over the top of her mug, “Call me commander and I’ll have Jack stand on the opposite side of the room to you.”

“Sorry Jazz.” He attempted a look of absolute contrition and held onto Jack’s hand possessively, “He stays there or you’re on decaff for the rest of our stay.”

“Erm… Touche.” She took a deep sip and sighed, “Thanks Yan, you’re a lifesaver.”

“You’re such a swinger.”

“You’ve slept, I haven’t. Remember that dear.” She sighed, “Anyway, you want to know how our three DBs became DBs?”

“Yes. And were you right about it being the wrong Weevil?”

“Yes she was.” Greg jumped in with a printed sheet and passed it across to Jasmine, “DNA doesn’t match. You know, I never thought I’d be comparing the DNA of two aliens.”

“You can have a look at my DNA later if you like.” Jack winked at him, grinning when Greg blushed brightly, but the grin dropped completely when Ianto unwound the arm from around his waist and crossed the room to stand behind Jasmine with a scowl. “Oh come on Yan, you know I don’t mean it.”

Ianto remained silent and merely took a measured sip from his coffee. Jazz sighed and reached back to clip him round the ear, “Stop enjoying it!” They exchanged a steady stream of silent communication until he glanced away and met Jack’s eyes instead, sending an equally silent apology. “For God’s sake, men!”

Ianto crossed the room again and wrapped his arms around Jack’s waist burying his head under the Captain’s chin, sighing sadly and happily at the same time, “Sorry Jack, I’m an ass. Flirt all you like.”

“Oi. Sweet and all that, but these two are off limits.” Jazz scanned through the readings. “I need to have a look at these back at the house, see what the DNA reader can give us.”

“OK. And you were right on the mouth shot?”

“Yeah.” She stiffened suddenly and her gaze became fixed on the door

“CSI Donovan, welcome…” Conrad Ecklie also froze, he in the doorway, and glared at Jack and Ianto who were still wrapped in each other’s arms, “What is going on here?”

“Assistant Director.” She greeted him, “Good to meet you at last. This is Captain Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones, they’re assisting us with our investigations.”

“Then surely they should be securely contained?” He demanded, still glaring at them as they moved only slightly into a more defensive pose

She snorted, taking a dislike to him even more than she had after Nick and Greg’s tales, “When I say ‘assisting us with our investigation’, I mean what I say. They’re experts from my team in the UK. They are not on your team and they do not work by your rules. Understood?”

“Who do you think you are?” He snarled

“Commander Donovan, UNIT level 1 and I know that you know what that means.” She glared, “Thank you Assistant Director. I’ll tell you what we find out.”

His face blanched when she announced her position and he turned and walked away without another word. Jack looked at her over the top of Ianto’s head and sighed, “Stuck up prat.”

“He’s been called that before.” Nick sighed, “Glad it was you two caught rather than us though.”

“You should be careful how you phrase things Nicky.” Catherine poked her head around the doorway, “Who steamed Ecklie?”

They pointed at Jazz, who was smirking at the table, “I do my best.”

“Yeah, well remember that you don’t actually have to work with him.” She warned, “Getting anywhere?”

“Started the same conversation twice, not finished it yet.”

“I’ll leave you to it then.” She disappeared with a wave and Jazz smiled down at the report on her desk

Jack shook his head, “You know, I’m really glad our director and assistant director are relaxed about the whole relationships in the workplace…”

“Sex in the workplace.” Ianto added

“Sex in the workplace, casual reports thing.” His partner sighed happily, pulling Ianto back against him and resting his hands on his arse, “Yep, definitely has its advantages.”

The Torchwood team chuckled, but Greg and Nick looked slightly suspicious, “Who are your director and assistant director?” Jack and Jazz pointed at each other, “Ah, thought so.”

“Anyway, can we please concentrate?” Jazz sighed, “Yes, Weevil killed by a one in, one in what Jack, one in fifty?”

“For me, yeah, for anyone else, one in two hundred?”

“Show off, but yeah, highly unlikely shot. But the fifteen shots before it and quite a lot that hit the walls probably improved his odds.” She sighed, “Human vic number one, the one who wasn’t killed by the Weevil.”

“He wasn’t?”

“No. He was shot. Twice in the back.”

“That would explain the FBI crawling over the scene.” Nick sighed, “They think it’s a mob killing.”

“Ianto, can you hack in and find out why they think that. Post them some demands for information, then hide it. You know…”

“Annoy them as only an archivist can. Got it.”

“You’re tampering with government files?” Greg asked in shock

“Yes. I’ll rubberise them so that they spring back after twenty-four hours. With integrated music videos of course.”

“Why music videos?”

“We Rick-Roll people we don’t like.”

“Nasty.” Archie wandered into the room with a file for them, “Mind if I join you?”

“Welcome to the party.” Jack grinned, extending a hand, “Archie Johnson I take it. Captain Jack Harkness, nice to meet you.”

“Captain Jack, it’s an honour. And Mr Jones, loved your report on the activities of Blowfish.”

“My… Oh.” He shook Archie’s hand and grinned, “Yeah, that was a rush job. Archivists annoying each other. It’s like war fought with post-its.”

“Well it made me chuckle on a long night.” He laughed, “Is it all true?”

“All completely factual based on observations. Observations made of a friend of ours who got very drunk the night she demanded the report.”

“That’s Atraxet?!” Jazz threw her head back and laughed, “I should have knowned.”

Ianto stood up and beckoned to the teenaged immortal, “Got that file Jazz, two similar deaths. All connected to a drug ring the FBI have been trying to crack for a while.”

“And now the ring is cracking itself and falling on them.”

"Basically. Files sent over to us. So he’s the next link they were after.”

“And let me guess, the last person they got on to was the last person to drop dead.” Jazz sighed, “So someone’s covering their tracks. Were the drugs terrestrial?”

“Completely, just normal E.” Ianto confirmed. “So where does the Weevil come in?”

“In the alley. Body dump.” Jack answered, “The other guy went to dump the body, got attacked by the Weevil hiding in the back of it. Presumably he was the one who shot the Weevil, but was too badly injured to get out of the alley and survive.”

“Wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“Unless he somehow shot himself in the back with a 9mm when he had a .45?” Jazz laid out her hands, “He wasn’t alone. He had a friend who tried to defend him.”

“And ended up killing him.” Jack sighed, “I hate it when that happens.”

“You’ve done it?”

“Had it done to me.” Jack touched his shoulder reflexively and shrugged at Ianto’s concerned glance, “Before your time, long before your time actually, early 20th century.”

“If it helps, the Weevil inflicted wounds would have been fatal too, just not as soon as the gunshot.”

“So now we have to find our witness?” Jack straightened up and folded his arms, “OK, Ianto and Jazz…” He quailed under her glare, “Sorry boss.”

“OK, Archie check the video feeds, see if you can find them on their way there. Ianto you go with him and give him some ‘help’.” The Welshman nodded his understanding and headed off, giving Jack a quick peck on his way out. “Jack, I want you to do fun stuff with Nick regarding those guns, see what you can find. Greg, you’re in here with me chasing paper regarding our vics. And I’m going to send John in to see what he can find out.”

“Are you sure?”

She hesitated a moment but nodded, expelling a great breath as she did so, “He’s the best man for the job.”

“Agreed. One more thing though.”

“It’s a Cardiff Weevil.” They nodded and she leaned on the desk, “I don’t want to know how many more there are.”

Jack tapped his wrist strap’s controls and looked up at her, “Sending the readings to you.”

There was silence whilst she waited, then Jazz dropped her gaze from the screen and swore violently, “Three, there’s another three.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, “I’ll get Archie and Ianto to deal with the mapping.”

“OK.” Jack sighed, “That can only mean one thing.”

“Someone’s importing Weevils.” Jazz agreed, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Only if you’re thinking Weevil fight club.” Jack told her through clenched teeth

Ianto pulled out his hand-held computer as he and Archie sat down and scanned through the message from Jack with concerned eyes, “Shit, we’ve got more Weevils to track down.”

“You what?” Archie tried to peer over his shoulder, “How do you know?”

“Arch, found you at last.” Catherine handed him a bag, “Can you go through that for me pronto, we’ve got a missing child and we suspect that that hard drive will contain evidence of her presence in the house. Photos, emails, anything that proves she was there and gives us an idea of where she may be now.”

“OK Cath, I’ll page you if I find anything.”

“Thanks Arch, hey Ianto.” She headed off to find someone else and left them to it

Ianto stretched and smiled at him, “OK, you do that, I’ll work on these Weevils.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I do it all the time in Cardiff.”

“OK.” He pointed across the room, “You can use that computer, it should have everything you need. Not that I know what you’ll need.” The tech expert was already loading up the hard-drive that Catherine had given him

Ianto nodded and sat in front of the computer, plugging in his PDA as it booted up. The hand held device contained all the tricks he could need on a computer; like a total override of the network, the software to connect him to the Hub, advanced anti-virus software and a ‘Bad Wolf Dropper’ to cover his tracks when he left, as well as all the scans he needed to run. He pulled out his mobile and called the Hub, working out the time difference in his head whilst he waited for someone to pick up.

“Ianto?”

“Who else would be using my phone Gwen?” He chuckled, “How’s things going back there?”

“Fairly quiet. Had a Weevil hunt this morning, currently following up one of Atraxet’s leads, a bit of rift activity but nothing above the normal. How about over there?”

“Dead Weevil and four dead humans.”

There was a pause, “In Vegas?”

He sighed, “Yeah, and there are another three tagged Weevils around. Is Mark available? I need his help.”

“Sure, I’ll pass you over.”

After a beat the cheerful voice of Mark Bond, Jasmine’s second in London who was covering for them whilst they were in Vegas, greeted him, “What up mate? Gwen says you need me?”

Ianto smiled despite himself, “Yeah, I’m just connecting this computer to the Hub, I need you to help me build a 3D map of Vegas.”

“Got it. OK, we’re connected.”

“Not something I ever wanted to hear from you Mark.” He laughed and started typing commands one handed, “I need a map of Vegas first.”

“Got it. There we go. Now what?”

“Now I need to add in the heights and overlay a map of the sewers.”

“Underlay, surely?” Mark chuckled, “You got what you need?”

“Yeah, whilst I’m doing that can you put in the Weevil scans?”

“Yup, on it.” They worked in silence for a while and Ianto switched from his phone to his Bluetooth headset until Mark spoke up again, “Just, how did you miss four Weevils going missing? That’s like, nearly 10% of the tagged population.”

“That’s what worries me, if they’ve got 10% of the tagged population, they’ve either picked up our scan frequency to track them down or they’ve got a lot more. We did pick up on it actually, but it coincided with big rift activity so we never followed up on it, you know how it is.”

“Not like you Ianto.”

He chuckled, “I’ve had other things on my mind, haven’t I? Got that in place?”

“Yup, let’s see how this looks.”

Ianto turned round and projected it onto the board so he could look at more of the map at once, “They’re all underground, that’s good. Jack and I can go round them up tonight. Seem to be in the same area too.”

“One close to your location Yan.”

“That one’s dead.”

“Oh.” Mark laughed, “I’ll not worry about it then. You need me for anything else?”

“No, that’s great. Thanks. I’ll get it loaded up and sent out, stuff like that. Don’t trash the joint, or you’ll find Janet in your closet.”

“Hannah wouldn’t be impressed.”

“I’ll get her to help, I’m sure she’ll understand. Now bugger off, I’ve got work to do.”

“See you mate.”

“Yeah, see you soon.” He flipped his phone shut and turned the projector off, downloading the map to his PDA and sending it to the others’ computers and PDAs. With that finished he moved on to the video, starting with the nearest camera to the scene and moving on from there, trying to locate his DBs whilst they were still LBs.

Archie set a scan running and wandered over to check on what Ianto was doing, “You found something?”

The Welshman was deep in concentration, clearing up the focus on a black SUV so that he could see inside it, “Possibly. They must have driven in and parked between the closest camera and the site, possibly right at the end of the alley even. But I found this, which seems the most likely. It came past three times, then not for a long time, then back in the opposite direction. Mind you, I’ve looked at two cars that did similar already.”

“That’s incredible.” Archie had missed most of what he was saying, so surprised was he at the level of clarity Ianto was achieving, “How do you do that?”

“Do what?” Ianto smiled to himself

“Get it that clear, I mean, you shouldn’t be able to do that.”

“I’m not using normal tech. You should have this. Don’t you?” He was slightly surprised

Archie shrugged but his eyes glowed, “Maybe, but I tend to use the system we have here. That’s just amazing though, I’ll have to have a play with the stuff I’ve never used.”

Ianto smiled at him softly, feeling ten years older than the other man, rather that about that much younger than him. “Yeah, it’s pretty incredible. I’ve been working with Torchwood for five years now, and it still throws up things to amaze me.”

“What’s it like, working for Torchwood?” Archie asked, “I mean, I assume it’s similar there to what it’s like at Liberty Towers?”

“You’ve worked for LT?”

“No, but they’ve made me an offer.” He smiled, “What do you think?”

Ianto turned to face him fully, leaning on the desk as he considered his answer carefully. He was always wary of encouraging people into this life; as wonderful and as amazing as it could be, it still had a very low life expectancy and little to no chance of a life outside it. “It’s brilliant, but terrifying. You see the wonders of the universe and the scum of the universe, more scum than wonderful stuff most of the time. Some things are so amazing that I dream about them for weeks afterwards, but the nightmares of others still linger years later. Any relationships outside get totally screwed up, inside it’s like having a family; complete with the fighting, the wings of the family not talking to each other and the cousins whose names you can’t remember.” He shrugged, “I wouldn’t change it for the world, even if I could.”

“You really sell it.”

“Not trying to.” He answered honestly, “It’s dangerous and I’d feel guilty if I felt I were trying to persuade you into it. I was one of twenty-seven survivors of the Battle of Canary Wharf, out of over eight hundred employees. I know how dangerous it is.”

“I’m sorry.”

Ianto smiled at him, “You see what I mean though.”

Archie was silent for a while, digesting what Ianto had said. After watching him for a couple of minutes, the Welshman turned back to the picture he was clearing up, confident that he was onto something. Archie’s voice broke his concentration, “But it’s worth it. The madness, the danger, the lack of a life, it’s all worth it?”

“Oh yeah.” Ianto chuckled, glancing across the halls and catching a glimpse of his lover passing through with Nick, “Very, in my case. But even if I hadn’t found Jack, I’d still be saving the world on a daily basis. And that’s got to count for something.”

“Yeah, that’s quite something.” Archie smiled, “Thanks Ianto.”

“Anytime, I got something.”

“Great.” He hurried over to have a look, “Oh that’s amazing. Who is that?”

“That’s the guy who arrived with our two DBs, his friend is in the driving seat.” He printed it off and grabbed the picture, “I’d better get this across to Jay, then I can get back to the house and set a search running, better system there. You coming?”

The techie sighed and sat back down, “Nah, I’d better get this sorted for Catherine and actually get some work done. Good luck.”

“You too. Come round to the house once you get off duty? I suspect Jay will be cooking.”

“In that case, I’ll see you there.” He waved once as Ianto disappeared down the corridor in the same direction that his lover had taken, slipping into the room as Jack started his explanation.

Jack slipped his ear protectors on and glanced over at Nick to check that the younger man had done the same. When he got a reassuring smile he squared off and fired a shot into the gel from the gun they’d found at the scene. He hurried to retrieve the bullet and pulled a chair up to the microscope to compare the two. Nick looked through the other eye piece and whistled, “It’s not a match.” He looked up at Jack, “But what’s it not a match to?”

The immortal chuckled and met Nick’s eyes, “It’s not a match to the bullet that Jazz pulled from the gut of the Weevil. Ergo, not the gun that killed our dumpee.”

“Great.” Nick sighed, “So where does that leave us?”

“Well I’ll run that through your databases, then if that doesn’t bring anything up I can run it through our database as well.” He switched one of the bullets and compared the new one with the one he’d shot into the gel, “But two of the shots that hit the wall were fired by our dead dumper. In addition to that…” he moved to another microscope and Nick followed him, “This is the bullet that killed our Weevil on the left, your right. And the other one is the bullet that killed the dead dumper.”

“Same gun.”

“Same gun indeed. A very lucky shot at the Weevil, a very unlucky shot at his companion.” Jack tapped the desk thoughtfully, “Or that’s what he wants us to believe and it was actually a very good shot at his companion.”

“Cheery thought.” Nick folded his arms, “Where do we go to from here then?”

“Scanning. Scanning through databases.” Jack straightened up and set the searches running, “We can leave these running and go tell Jay what we’ve found. I’ll lock the computers down so that no one sees what we’re up to.” He smiled up at Nick, “You’re got a burning question Nicholas Stokes.”

Nick blushed and looked down at the ground, “What’s it like, with everyone knowing that you live with a guy?”

“It’s fine, there are some arseholes who disapprove, but for the most part no one bats an eyelid. I’ll tell you something though, I wouldn’t do it here. Not for me, I can take it, but I wouldn’t put Ianto through it.” Jack smiled sadly, “If, if you ever want to make a go of it, and you think living in the UK would help, I’m saying it personally but I’d love to have you in Cardiff, and I’m sure Jay would say the same about London.” He smiled, “Consider that a job offer, for both of you.”

“Thanks. We’ll consider it.”

Jack nodded and led the way from the room down to where Jasmine and Greg were staring at computers and apparently chatting animatedly about what they were seeing.

“I got a DNA match on our vic.” Greg leaned back in his chair, “The one eaten by the Weevil. His name’s Dean Carinas, rap sheet as long as the Amazon for crimes ranging from drugs, illegal gun possession, lots of minor level mob connections that have never been confirmed.”

“I’ve just got into the FBI servers.”

“Got into?” Greg raised an eyebrow

She shrugged, “OK, hacked in, but I do have legal access. Do you want to know what I found?”

“Yeah.”

“He was the name the FBI were currently working on, trying to track him down.”

“They found him.”

“But someone else got to him first.” She printed out the file and closed the connection, “OK, so we have an idea of what he was doing there. What about the other guy?”

“Ah hah.” He whirled around and grabbed the printed sheet, “I got a name.”

“I got a search box.”

“You and me, together we could rule the world.” Greg grinned at her, “James Anthony Dru.”

“James…” She typed it in and her eyes widened, “Jebus, you know your rap sheet as long as the Amazon? Well this one would reach from here to the moon.”

“That’s impressive. All the same sort of stuff?”

“Pretty much.” She printed it out and read through it on the screen, “You know, if you ever feel you want to get out of Vegas, I would love to have you in London.”

“I wouldn’t come alone.”

“I wouldn’t let you. Working in London could have other advantages.” Jay smiled at him softly, “If you ever fancy it, just give me a call.”

“Thanks. I’ll ask him at some point.” He looked through the sheet and sighed, “So where do we go from here?”

“Well if you work on getting a background on the dumper, I’ll have a look and see if I can find who he was with when he died.”

“How will you do that?” He asked, searching first for school records

“You don’t want to know.” Her eyes sparkled as she danced through phone records, on to email inboxes and computerised diaries. “Oooh, I got a name.”

“Leggo my Greggo, what have you got?” Nick’s hands landed heavy but gentle on his shoulders and the older man’s thumbs rubbed light circles on the back of his neck, “Jazz.”

Jack had crossed the room and laid his hand on the young woman’s shoulder, bending to kiss her forehead gently, “Hey sweetie, how’s it going?”

“We’ve got names, I think I have the name of our witness even.”

“What?” Greg’s head snapped up and he glared at her, “How on earth did you do that?”

“Jay, I got you a picture.” Ianto waved the piece of paper at her as he slipped in and leant against the desk, “I’m going to have to run it through the system back at the house.”

“And I got a name that it will, hopefully, match.” She leaned back into Jack’s touch and grinned up at Ianto, “How about we head home and see if we can combine them into something that makes sense?”

“And we can locate him easier from home.” Jack agreed. “OK, let’s…”

“Jack!” Jazz tilted her head to the side and rested it on his hand so that she could look up at him with a half glare, “Jack, who’s in charge around here?”

“Sorry boss.”

“Hmm. OK, back to the house, we can wake John up and run the search.” She yawned, “Then I can get some sleep. And when I wake up we can send John out.”

“Wouldn’t it make sense for him to go whist you’re asleep and wake you when he gets back?” Jack asked

Jazz blushed, “Not if I want to get some sleep.”

John Hart groaned and rolled over away from the insistent shaking, “Go ‘way. Jack?”

A distinctly Welsh chuckle told him that this wasn’t the case and he poked his head out in embarrassment, less comfortable around his ex-lover’s new partner, not for that reason though. Ianto had a habit of laughing at him. The young man put a coffee down on the desk and slipped back out to the door as smoothly as ever, “Jasmine’s doing a briefing, she needs you there.”

“Thanks Yan, tell my girlfriend she’s a bitch.”

“Tell her yourself.” Ianto shot back, disappearing with a chuckle as John buried his head under the pillow.

As soon as the Welshman had gone, John swung himself out of bed and hurried to dress reasonably neatly. The coffee helped to wake him and he was following the sounds of chatter and laughter to the dining room in under five minutes. “Hey guys, how’s it going?”

“Study.” Jack didn’t bother with a greeting other than his stunning smile, the one that still made his knees go weak, and he hurried out of the room with a wave to the others, heading down the corridor to the room at the back of the house

“Hey baby.” He tugged on her ponytail to tip her head back and kiss her softly, then threw himself into a vacant chair and grabbed the bacon and egg sandwich off the side, “Why are we in here and them in there?”

“Because…” She swallowed down a mouthful of her own sandwich and opened up the connection to the interactive screen in the dining room, “Because there isn’t room for all of us in here, and the dining room doesn’t have all the tech we need. So two of us working in here, the rest of them in there.”

“OK, what do you need me to do then?” He buried the annoyance at the idea of working yet again, Jazz hadn’t been officially off duty since he got here and he hadn’t seen her for weeks before that. But they were here to do a job.

“First things first, I want to run the photo Ianto got of the other guy, more reliable than running names. If you can do that for me, I’ll see if we can dredge anything more up on these guns or on the guys we found. You know, stuff we can’t get at the lab.” She passed him the photo and turned to the camera, “Watch and learn Captain, watch and learn. Even Ianto can’t do the magic I can with a computer keyboard.”

“Take that back young lady.” The Welshman growled with a grin, “I’m better than you any day.”

“Hah!” Her fingers blurred across the keyboard and school records layered up with bank details, photos, a Facebook and MySpace account, favourited videos on YouTube; and next to them a different life entirely, one where the school records cut off sooner, more convictions, no Facebook account. “Admit it, I’m good.”

“Yes indeed, you are good. Face and name match up, fancy working some more of your magic?” John grinned across at her, “You guys getting this in there?”

“Yep.” On another screen they could see the video from the dining room where Jack was studying the feed closely, “Jazz, focus on the one who was being dumped for a moment.”

She spread the feeds out, “What have you spotted Jack?”

“Moved from Wales.” He pointed out, “Specifically Cardiff.”

Ianto stood up and looked closer at the picture, “I recognise him from somewhere. Where did he go to school?”

There was silence for a moment as she flicked through the school records, then Jazz sighed, “Two years above you, and we flagged him up with the Weevil fight club thing in Cardiff.”

“So that’s the link between the two, maybe it’s not as random as we thought.” Jack groaned and scrubbed his hands across his face, “So what do you want to do about it Jay?”

“Someone needs to talk to his girlfriend, see what she knows, and tell her that she’s in danger. Someone also needs to speak to the witness, and we need someone to go and see if there is a fight club, or if someone just thinks they’re useful around the place. John, can you do that?”

“Sure thing, you want me to go now and catch up with me? You need some sleep honey.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and reached for his gun but she stopped him

“No, I want to be on the other end of the comms when you’re out there. You’ve got a few hours before you go to get ready.” She looked up at the screen, “Once it goes to field, Jack, you’re in charge. You’ve more experience in that department.” She yawned, “Anyone got any questions?”

When everyone answered in the negative she stood up and drained her mug, “OK, John I want you to talk to Jack and prepare yourself thoroughly. And yes, I know exactly what your mind did with that sentence. Wake me up when you’re ready to go, but give me at least three hours. See you in the morning guys.”

Jasmine buried her head in the pillows and groaned as the bed sank behind her, “Whut? John.”

He chuckled as he slipped into bed and pulled her so that she was lying on top of him with her head tucked under his chin. His arms wrapped around her tightly and he felt his heart swell when she nuzzled into him happily, “Now you’re allowed to sleep.”

“Now you can watch me?” She grumbled against his chest

“Yeah, of course.” He pressed a kiss into her hair and sighed, “So why did you really want me to wait until you wake up?”

“John, let me sleep.”

“Now till I get an answer. Why do you want to watch me, don’t you trust me?”

“It’s not that.” She sighed and her breath ghosted warm across his chest

“Then what?”

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I knew you were out there and I was in here.” Her voice was quiet, barely there at all, but he heard every word, “And, quite honestly, I need you here to be able to sleep properly full stop.” She fell silent for a moment and he let her think, “I’ve always slept better with someone there.”

“Someone to protect you?”

She was clinging to him now, more asleep than awake, and nodded slowly, “Some people wouldn’t believe it.”

John stroked her hair and squeezed her gently with his other arm, “They don’t know you. You look after everyone else, you and Jack both, and now you both have someone who’ll do the same in return. Just don’t ask me to make the coffee.”

She fell asleep still smiling, and still holding on to him tightly.

Jack leaned back in his chair and looked at the screen for a moment, then reached out lazily to switch it off and grinned at the other men in the room. “I think that’s us off for the time being gentlemen, and I know what I want to do with my time off.”

“Jack…” His lover rolled his eyes with a groan

Jack’s smile was deliciously wicked, “What? It’s a gorgeous day and I haven’t been swimming in ages, might as well make use of the pool in the back garden. Weren’t expecting that, were you?”

“No one who knows you ever would Captain.” Nick sighed, “Although that idea is extremely tempting.”

Ianto was wandering around the room with drinks and dropped something down the back of Jack’s T-shirt as he passed. The look on Jack’s face revealed that it was an ice cube, “You little git!” He bolted upright and grabbed his young lover from behind, “I’m so glad you’re not in one of your suits, because you’re going straight in the pool.”

The CSIs laughed as Ianto struggled ineffectually and Jack carried him out of the room in a fireman’s lift, but Greg’s laughter was cut short by strong arms seizing him from behind and turning him. Hands gripped his shoulders and pushed him back against the wall whilst lips found his own insistently. He allowed the probing tongue access to his mouth and kissed Nick back with equal fervour, winding his fingers into Nick’s short hair whilst the other hand trailed down the Texan’s back to press him closer, “You are gorgeous, you know that?” Nick asked him breathily when they parted for air, “And their energy is contagious. Come on.” He grinned as he lifted the younger man into his arms, more gently than Jack had with Ianto, and carried him through to the back garden where he placed him on a bench under one of the trees.

Greg watched with undisguised lust as his boyfriend pulled off his shirt and T-shirt and then sat down beside him to pull off his shoes and socks, “You swimming G?” The older man asked softly, brushing his fingers across his cheek. Jack and Ianto were already both in the pool, a pile of wet clothes by the side testifying to the fact that they’d both gone in fully dressed and were no longer. The captain let out an undistinguished shriek as Ianto surfaced just behind him in an eruption of water and dunked the younger man with a laugh.

Greg smiled up at him gently, “Maybe later, once those two have calmed down a bit.”

“You could be waiting a while.” Nick surprised him by leaning forwards to kiss him briefly, not something they ever did in public, then turned and dived into the pool. Greg laughed as the two Torchwood operatives greeted his boyfriend enthusiastically, with a dunking of course. It was impossible to be ashamed of who he was around Jack and Ianto; they were so natural, so normal about it, unlike many people he’d met in the past. With Jack and Ianto, and Jasmine and John, he felt like they belonged, like they were more than accepted.

It was such a long time since he’d felt like that in company, like someone could see him for him, could see past the defences and formality he’d created to help him deal with the change from lab-rat to CSI. They looked at him and stripped all that away, encouraging him to come out and play. His mind made up, he slipped off his shoes and shoved his socks into them, then stood up and pulled his shirt off in one movement, running to the edge of the pool and bombing in on top of Nick.

Jack and Ianto shifted out of the way as they saw Greg coming and laughed at the shocked expression on Nick’s face when he finally surfaced again, “Finally come out to play Greg?” Jack laughed, swimming to the side and grabbing a ball, “Anyone for piggyback… piggy back netball?”

“Jack.” Ianto grabbed the ball from him, “We don’t have a net.”

“Meh, make it up.” He dived and Ianto wooped as he rose into the air on Jack’s shoulders. “Come on Yan, lighten up.”

“You picked me up you dozy git.” Ianto wound the fingers of one hand into Jack’s hair and tugged lightly, tossing the ball over to Greg, “You in then?”

“What are we doing?” Greg asked sceptically as Nick ducked to pick him up, “Nicky, what are you doing?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you do something with that ball?”

“I’ll do something with this ball, Nick!” He threw it to Ianto, who caught it with a laugh, and leaned over backwards so they both tumbled backwards into the water. “You’re a pain in the arse sometimes Nick Stokes.”

“And you love it.” Nick grabbed him and kissed him, then dunked him again

Greg surfaced spluttering and glaring half-heartedly, “You know, last week we were in the closet.”

“We don’t count.” Ianto insisted, having dropped from Jack’s shoulders he was now standing with his back to Jack’s chest and the immortal’s arms wrapped possessively around his waist

Nick grinned at them as he mimicked their pose, with his arms around Greg’s waist, “Are you two…”

“Don’t ask.” Ianto laughed, “Most of the questions you could ask, we don’t know the answers to. We’re together, we’re engaged, and beyond that your guess is probably better than ours.”

“I don’t do labels.” Jack explained, “Just Ianto.”

“What about you two? Jazz only told us that you were off limits. Eventually.” Ianto glanced up at the only window with the curtains closed, “And she’ll be pissed if we wake her up.”

“True enough. We’re, we’re together.” Nick smiled, repeating Ianto’s comment even as he felt Greg tense in his arms, “We can’t be out about our relationship, because we’d be split up at work. I’m out bi, but very few people have noticed. I think it’s the Texanness, they assume I’m a straight laced Texan Christian good boy, so I couldn’t possibly fancy blokes. Greg’s not out.”

“I got beaten up for it when I was in high school, haven’t had the confidence to come out since. It, it took a lot to come out to Nick. A hell of a lot.”

Jack’s face had tightened when Greg said that he’d suffered for it and he sighed heavily, “Yeah, I used to get it pretty bad in Cardiff after I’d had a couple. My boyfriend and I got beaten to death when someone found out, but I always wake up. He didn’t.”

“I’m sorry.”

The captain shrugged; apparently Jazz had told them about their ‘talent’, which made things easier, “It was a long time ago, I wouldn’t let it happen again.” He kissed the pulse point just behind Ianto’s ear, “He’s mine.”

”Oh yeah?” Ianto grinned

“Yep. I’m going to get some sleep before this evening, you coming?” The captain stepped back and tugged on Ianto’s arm, encouraging to join him.

“Yeah, I’ll join you.” He grinned knowing full well that they probably wouldn’t be getting that much sleep if they went together, “You two staying here? By here I mean the house by the way.”

“Yeah, we will, or at least I will.” Nick leaned to the side to study Greg’s face, “You G?”

“Yeah, yeah I’ll stay.” He leaned back into Nick’s embrace and managed a smile, whispering as soon as the other two men were out of earshot, “As long as you’re here, I’ll stay.”

Ianto gasped as his back hit the door hard and warm lips attacked the pulse point in his neck. Jack’s teeth grazed briefly at his neck, then moved up to tug on his ear before his lips covered Ianto’s own, smothering his groans and gasps. Nimble fingers undid the buttons of his shirt and pulled his tie off, then Jack pulled his arms up and looped the tie around his wrists, tying it just tight enough to hold him in position, but not so tight that he couldn’t escape. He'd only just got dressed again, but found that he didn't really care.

“Mine.” Jack’s eyes never left his as the captain declared his possession and his hands wandered down, pinching at his nipples, digging nails in down his sides, brushing shockingly softly against his navel before gripping tightly to his hips, bringing their now straining erections to rub against each other painfully.

“Yours, always yours.” Ianto gasped and strained against the bonds, “Jack!”

“Yan.” Jack dragged his lips away as Ianto’s head tilted back and moved down to his neck again, sucking and biting gently to mark his lover. His fingers went to work on the buckle of Ianto’s trousers as his mouth moved down, sucking first one nipple and then the other into his mouth, tugging and biting, reducing Ianto to a quivering mess. He slipped his hand into Ianto’s boxers, gripping his member tightly, meeting his lover’s eyes briefly to give his reassurance, seeking the same in return.

Ianto swallowed hard, but strained forwards as much as he could to kiss Jack. The kiss was more tender than he’d expected. But Jack was unpredictable in this mood; he was very rarely so possessive, so almost-violent. Their lovemaking at times like this was rough, passionate, mind-blowing. He gave into the mood willingly.

Reassured, Jack squeezed at Ianto’s sides, then turned him around to face the door. “Stay right there.” He growled, hurrying across to the bedside table to get the tube, the last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt his lover, and shedding his clothes at double pace. Returning to his young lover he stroked his hip gently and removed the last of his clothes, apart from his shirt which was slightly stuck because his hands were tied together, “Should have thought of that, shouldn’t I?”

“Yes sir.”

He smacked Ianto’s arse, open palmed, and growled in his ear, “Hush, that was a rhetorical question.” A grin appeared at the startled yelp Ianto emitted, “Did you like that Yan?” The younger man just nodded and gasped when Jack struck him again, “You like it when I’m rough, don’t you?”

“Jack, need you now!” The captain pulled the lid off the bottle and coated his fingers in it, slipping one finger into Ianto’s tight tunnel, twisting it around and letting him accommodate the intrusion before adding a second, scissoring them gently and brushing against his prostate to stretch him further. “Jack!” Ianto groaned and let his head fall back, biting his lip hard, “Jack, bugger that. I need you!”

The immortal stilled momentarily, fighting the urge to do as Ianto insisted, “I won’t hurt you.” He growled, “I won’t do anything to hurt you.”

“You won’t, Jack take me!”

Jack bit his lip hard enough to draw blood and slicked himself up, lining himself up and sliding roughly into him, “Yan, don’t let me hurt you.”

The young man managed to roll his eyes and pushed back against his lover, taking more of him in. It did hurt, God it hurt, but it was fantastic. “Jack, for God’s sake! Make it up to me, I need you.”

The captain gave up his reservations at that point and wrapped one arm tight around Ianto’s waist, loosening the bonds around his wrists so that the younger man could brace himself and covering one of Ianto’s hands with his own, lacing their fingers together and gripping tightly. Then they started to move against each other and with each other. Jack bit gently at the back of Ianto’s neck and changed his angle, increasing the pace and striking deeper with each stroke. “Ianto!” He gasped, “Close, so close. God Yan, you’re so tight, so perfect.”

“Jack.” Ianto cried out and rocked back against his lover fiercely again as Jack’s hand slid down and gripped his member tightly, twisting and pulling expertly and fiercely.

“Ianto, come for me.” The young man didn’t need any more encouragement and cried Jack’s name as he climaxed as fiercely as they’d made love, and the tightening drew his lover into following close behind him.

They fought to steady their breathing together and, when he felt he could stand without support, Jack turned Ianto gently and leaned into him again, kissing him softly and tenderly, “Mine, always mine.”

“Always yours.” Ianto agreed, tangling his fingers in Jack’s hair and smiling, capturing Jack’s lips again, relishing the soft pressure and the familiar, exotic, wonderful taste

He smiled when Jack swept him up into his arms and rested their foreheads together, then carried him across the room to the bed, “Thank you, I’ll make it up to you.”

Ianto grabbed Jack’s shoulders and tugged him down into bed with him, kissing him passionately, “You already have, every day. Besides,” he huffed out a laugh and stroked his lover’s sweat-dampened hair out of his eyes tenderly, “I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t enjoy it.”

“I’d never consider it if I thought you didn’t.”

“I know.” He kissed Jack again and pulled the older man so that his head was resting on his chest, “I love you.”

“Love you too.”

Jack rested his chin on his hands and watched John check off his weapons inventory, “Flick knife in my boot, two sets of handcuffs, gun, another gun.” He patted his breast pocket, “Passport.”

“Passport?” Jack raised an eyebrow in amused bemusement, “You planning on leaving the country?”

“Following the evidence wherever it takes me.” He shrugged and grabbed a set of keys and a knuckle-duster from the table top, “And a knuckle-duster.”

“You sure that’s all you’ll need?” Jack looked at him thoughtfully, “And do you want backup?”

“Yes to the first and yes to the second, but only so far as they keep to the shadows.” He grabbed his wallet and slid that into his pocket with his passport

Jack looked impressed, “You know your popular culture.”

“Yeah.” He looked up and chuckled as the knuckle-duster went into a pocket in the lining of his trousers, “Blame young missy over there.”

“Should have guessed, so what back-up do you want?”

John hesitated a moment, then looked Jack straight in the eye, “I want Ianto.”

Jack nodded silently and turned to his partner, “Are you good with that Yan?”

The younger man nodded and stood up, “Give me ten minutes to get changed. What do you want me to do John?”

“A second pair of eyes around the place.” John grinned at him, “And a drinking partner if it goes wrong and we can’t find anything. You know, maintain the impression, give us a valid reason to return.”

Ianto rolled his eyes and disappeared up the stairs, leaving the two former time agents alone in the room, waiting for him to return. They studied each other over the tops of their coffee mugs, silent communication flying between them. Jack didn’t need to say anything like ‘Don’t let him get hurt’, or ‘Take care of each other’; John and Ianto were both professionals, experienced at working in all situations. Still, “Daring choice there.”

John grinned, knowing that he’d won something because Jack was the first to speak, “Ah, you know, best tool for the job.”

Jack raised an eyebrow, “And Ianto’s a tool is he?”

“Must be, to try to tame you.” He raised a finger as if listening intently, then reached out to grab Jasmine as she tried to pass him, “Good morning oh fair and beautiful angel.”

She gave him what could only be described as ‘a look’ and kissed him briefly, “I know, my hair’s a mess. I’ve got a bandana somewhere.”

“On top of the TV.” Ianto had returned in tight black jeans and a white shirt with the top three buttons undone, revealing a black choker.

Jack’s eyes widened and he swallowed, his mouth suddenly very dry and his trousers suddenly, inexplicably and uncomfortably tight. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again, apparently deciding that discretion was the better part of valour in this case.

Ianto looked decidedly uncomfortable, but very smug, under the scrutiny and put a black leather jacket over the back of one of the chairs, “This do?”

“I think that’s a yes.” Jazz fanned herself as she returned with her bandana, a bright blue one, and slipped an arm around his waist, “You’re practically edible.”

“I’ll say, I’ll be beating them off with a stick.” John laughed, “Jack, you’re very quiet.”

“The older man glared at him for barely a moment before his eyes swung back to his partner, “Wsgfl. Ahem. Yeah, you look great, really… Bloody hell.”

Ianto chuckled and grabbed his keys, “Don’t wait up.”

A tall, slim but well built, dark haired young man made his way across the almost deserted dance floor to the bar and leaned back against his whilst he waited for the Valarian barmaid to finish with the other customers and get round to him. The bar was busy, but not crowded. A couple of Raxacoricophalipatorians had the dance floor to themselves, probably mainly due to their large bulk, and their skin suits hung over the backs of two chairs, watched by an apparently human, probably disguised Raxacoricophalipatorian. Towards the back of the room, two aliens with lots of tentacles were playing table football; egged on by a couple of Toxions and another Valarian. There was a raised seating area off to one side, and a loud, distinctive voice was regaling anyone who would listen with far-fetched stories of far-flung travels. Judging by the laughter and cheers, he was proving popular.

“What can I get for you doll?” The barmaid’s question snapped Ianto from his scan of the room and he turned back to her with his most flirtatious grin,

He made a show of scanning the drinks list quickly and nodded towards the top shelf, “I’ll have a Venusian shock.”

She blinked all three eyes and turned to get the mixers, “With an accent like that, I’ll trust you now what you’re ordering.” He laughed loudly, loudly enough to alert John to his presence, and she grinned at him as she mixed the cocktail. She passed it over and smiled approvingly as he bit off a lump of banana before downing the drink with it. “Do you know what they did before bananas?”

He put the glass back down and took another bite of banana, “Marzipan, or icing, anything like that really.”

She nodded approvingly. “You know your drinks, you looking for a job? Mr…”

He shook his head and laughed, “Smith, Matt Smith.”

“Tracey. Well, actually it’s Traclejanratasuraly, but that’s a bit of a mouthful.”

“No kidding.” He raised an eyebrow as she poured him another shot

“On the house.”

“Muchas gracias.” They downed their shots together and he slid the glass across the counter, “Don’t think I can keep that up.”

Tracey laughed brightly and removed the glasses, checking along the bar to see that no one else wanted her attention, “I like a guy who knows his limits. So what brings you to Vegas, Matt?”

“Holiday. Seeing the sights and all that.”

“Speaking of sights, the Captain’s noticed you.” She nodded across the room and smiled wickedly

Ianto looked in the direction she had nodded and caught John’s heated gaze, smirking to himself when the time agent winked and turned away, “He one of your regulars?”

“No, first time here, same as you. Rumour has it he’s been this way once before, but many years ago.” she grinned, “He’s got some fantastic stories to tell.”

“Yeah?” He looked at the drinks list again and smirked, “He’s coming this way, isn’t he?”

“Yes he is.”

Sure enough, Ianto soon felt a hand in the small of his back, which slid down to grab his arse briefly before it moved away to rest on the counter. John grinned at him sidelong and winked at Tracey, “Heya handsome, what’s a guy like you doing in a place like this?”

The Welshman had slid a blank mask into place and merely raised an eyebrow coolly, “That’s the worst chat up I’ve heard in a long time.”

John sighed and leaned forwards against the bar, “Can’t blame a guy for trying, not when you wear jeans like those. Let me buy you a drink?”

He pretended to consider the question and treated John to a slow, lecherous smile, “That I can cope with.”

The time agent smiled predatorily and turned back to Tracey with a wink that made her blush, “Hey Blue, two hyper vodkas thanks, and whatever you’re drinking.” He turned to Ianto and passed him one of the drinks, “Think you can manage that, Eyecandy?”

“Is that a challenge Captain?” He took the drink and raised his glass

“I do love a challenge.” He too raised his drink and downed it, slinging the burning drink back and watching in grudging admiration as Ianto did the same. “So, and that’s quite enough of that I think, so, what brings you to Vegas Eyecandy?”

Ianto ordered two rum and cokes and gestured across to a table, letting John lead the way and seat them so that the time agent could watch the door and Ianto could watch the bar. He leaned back in his chair and smiled at the ceiling, “I’m doing on of those lists, the hundred things to do before you have kids.”

John looked amused, “You know, an alien bar in Vegas wouldn’t be on most people’s lists.”

He shrugged with a smirk, “Depends where you’re from. I’m from Cardiff.”

“Yeah, the accent gives you away.” An idea formed in John’s mind and he leered at Ianto for a moment before taking his gaze very deliberately back to the door, “You know, I’ve heard that Captain Jack Harkness is on the list of every alien in Cardiff?”

“Done it.” The Welshman’s expression never changed, apart from a flicker of amusement deep in his blue eyes.

John frowned, “Touche.” They exchanged mindless small talk for a while, flirting easily and enjoying each other’s company, not letting up their careful scrutiny without knowing what they were looking for.

After about ten minutes the door swung open again and a group of three men and two women breezed in, making straight for the bar. John stood up, “I’m getting another drink, can I get you one?”

Ianto nodded in understanding and ran n expert eye along the line of backs along the bar, “Same again thanks.” As John headed across to join them at the bar, the Welshman studied their body language closely; their posture, the way one of the women moved her hands in excitement whilst the other kept them perfectly still, one of the men kept his left hand close to her at all times, whilst the other two men touched each other too often to be just friends but in the wrong way to be lovers. He pretended to scratch his ear and activated his comm, “Looks like two brothers, maybe one of their girlfriends and then definitely another couple.”

John couldn’t reply, and Jack and Jazz were leaving them to it, but John acknowledged his message by winking across the room at him before turning to engage the more active girl and the nearest brother in conversation.

“Heya cutie, you come here often?” He leaned on the bar and tried to catch Tracey’s attention with a smirk

The man, tall and with spiked blond hair, scowled at him, “She’s spoken for.” and wrapped his arm around the giggling brunette’s shoulders.

John shrugged and winked at him, “I wasn’t talking to her.”

“You new in town?” The other man looked him over with mixed amusement and disgust

He shrugged and turned back to the bar, “Just got in today.”

“Then I’ll give you a friendly warning, watch who you try to chat up.”

John smiled as Tracey made her way across to him, “Thanks for the advice. Hey Doll, two cokes thanks.”

She laughed in confusion, “Normally people’s drinks get stronger through the night, not weaker Captain.”

He shrugged, “Yeah, well, there’s a very good reason for that. Let’s just say that I’ve had better ideas than starting at the top and working down, and the night is yet young.”

“You got plans for tonight then?”

The group of humans were watching him quite closely, and he silently thanked the blue alien for her inquisitiveness, “Not yet, we’ll probably head out somewhere, don’t know where yet though.”

The brunette appeared to be hanging off her boyfriend’s hand now, “Who’s we?”

Her boyfriend tried to shush her amicably, but they both ignored him. John gestured over his shoulder, “Me and Matt, we’re both new in town today.”

“That so?” The other man, who he thought was with the other woman and wasn’t related to either of the other men; so probably two brothers, one of their girlfriends and her sister, then sister’s boyfriend; grinned at him, “We could show you some fun.”

“Dan…”

He waved his girl off, “Aw, come on Sal, they’re new in town, it’s the least we can do.”

The older of the brothers laughed and thumped his brother, causing him to remove his arm from around the giggling sister to rub his shoulder, “Dan’s got a point Jack, what do you say?”

He shrugged, “Can’t get out of it now, can we?” A smile quirked at his lips, “I’m Jack, this is James, my brother, Alice my girlfriend.” She waved at him, despite being the closest one to him, her mass of brunette curls bouncing around her face madly, “Her sister Sally, and Sal’s husband Dan.”

“Pleasure to meet you all, I’m also James, that’s Matt over there.” He turned and gestured for Ianto to join them

The Welshman slid out of the seat and had to wind through a crowd now to join them, “Wondered when you’d remember I was there.”

John laughed and did the introductions, then they followed Alice and Jack across to a corner booth and dragged enough chairs over so they could all sit around.

Sally still looked less than impressed, “So, you two tourists here?”

“Yup, second gap year.” Ianto fabricated, “Getting the boxes off my list that I couldn’t afford to do first time round.”

“List?”

“Hundred things to do before you have kids.” He raised his glass in a silent toast to anyone who’d listen, “But it’s the Cardiff list.”

“What’s so special about the Cardiff list?” James asked

Ianto smirked, “We live on the Rift, all sorts of weird stuff going on over there.”

“That’s how come you’re in an alien bar and not batting an eyelid at the fact that the barmaid’s blue and has three eyes?” Alice giggled

Ianto pulled a shocked face, “I thought that must have been the alcohol.” they all laughed, “Nah, I’m cool with it. My best friend’s a Blowfish.”

“Really? We get some great drugs from them. Do you have trouble with Torchwood?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow

Ianto was impressed, “You’ve heard of Torchwood?”

“If you go to the right places, you hear these things. I take it you have too?”

“Yeah, and as for trouble, have you heard of Captain Harkness?” He smirked, hiding the sudden concern carefully

Jack laughed, “Heard of him, never had the chance to meet him, mores the pity. I’ve heard his sexual appetites are all round entertaining, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh I know.” Ianto winked at him, “Yeah, I know all right. Suffice to say, I don’t get much trouble from them. Not the sort I don’t want, anyway.”

“You want to be careful what you say around here mate.” Jack warned, “That sort of thing around here can land you in a whole lot of trouble.”

He shrugged carelessly, “I’m from Cardiff, I’ve probably dealt with worse.”

“Yeah, you reckon you can handle yourself?” Dan made it sound like a definite challenge

Ianto rose to it, “Yeah, I reckon so.”

“We’ll see.” he leant forwards conspiratorially, “Have you heard of… The Chupacabra?”

Ianto blinked, “Bless you.”

James rolled his eyes, “The Chupacabra is a mythical creature. Vampiric, humanoid figures that attack and kill livestock. Wikipedia informs us that they have been sighted in Russia and Spain, although the legend started in Puerto Rico.”

They snorted with laughter, “Wikipedia?” John laughed, “Oh dear. So what of the ‘Chupacabra’?”

“It’s not an urban legend. It’s real.” Sally leant forwards, “There are some loose in the city, but you can see them, you can fight them, in a warehouse out on the edge of the desert.”

“Fight them? Why would you want to fight a vampire?” Ianto asked, knowing the answer and feeling things dropping into place. His comm. activated suddenly and he heard Jack’s warning in his ear, telling him to let John go alone from this point.

Jack shook his head, “Not a vampire, vampiric. We don’t know that they drink blood, but they eat human flesh. If you let them, that is.”

“Best not to let them really.” John grinned dangerously, having got the same message as Ianto, “Well I’m game, you Matt?”

Just then, Ianto’s leg vibrated and he stood up in surprise, fishing his phone out of his pocket, “Hello? Oh, hey.”

They watched him as he talked to the other person on the phone with a definite expression of ‘oops’, “Yeah, I’m just in the bar. Some guys I met here. No, he’s not with me. Yeah I’ll… Yes… No, I’ll… Yeah, OK. Alright then, I’ll… Babe.” He pulled a face and grabbed his wallet from the table, pulling his coat on with a very worried expression, “I’m coming back now… No, no I can’t drive. Yeah, yes I’m sorry. I’ll… OK, bye.” He hung up and ran his fingers through his hair, “Sorry about that, my boyfriend. I’ve got to go. Nice to meet you all, maybe I’ll see you around again?”

“Yeah, yeah, that’d be cool.” After Ianto had made his goodbyes, John was left feeling surprisingly bereft, even though he knew the conversation had been staged and both he and Ianto were spoken for. His remaining companions were staring at him with expressions ranging from compassion to outright bemusement, “What?”

“We just assumed that you two…” Alice blushed, “You know.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, “I guess so did I. Ah well, you win some you lose some. Tell me about the Chupacabra.”

Jasmine pulled up by the side of the road and grinned up at Ianto as he pulled the door open, restraining herself from ruffling his hair until they were on the move again, “Has my boyfriend been getting you drunk?”

“Just a bit.” He chuckled ruefully, “I’m going to regret that in the morning. How’s it going?”

“They’re just on their way out, heading to the warehouse. John’ll check it out and if it’s the right place we’ll arrange a plan before tomorrow night.” She tapped on the steering wheel as she controlled the car effortlessly and sighed, puffing her cheeks out, “Sounds promising though. We’ve had a look at the Wikipedia page.” Ianto snorted, “Yeah, I know, but it’s the best we have. Officially the Chupacabra is an urban legend, most reported sightings are just coyotes.”

“This ain’t no coyote.”

“No, it’s not.” She glared at a swerving driver and licked her lips, “Bed for you when we get in dear. Bed and lots of water.”

“Yes Commander.” He laughed when she shoved him playfully, “Sorry boss.”

“Not to worry. Jack’ll be glad to have you back safe.” She hesitated, “He’s not good when he can’t protect you, when it’s up to someone else.”

Ianto smiled, “Yeah, I know.”

“You’re smiling about it.”

He shrugged and turned his soft glow on her, “It all shows that he cares, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, yeah I guess it does.” She smiled, but it was strained

“You want him home?”

“Oh yes.” The laugh, the smile, the body were those of a teenager, but the eyes were so much older as they flicked easily around the street, anywhere but at him, “But he’s doing the job he has to do, like we all do. But there’s no risk if it’s me or Jack.”

“Hey.” Ianto shook his head, “The risk’s as high for you two as it is for us, it’s just different. And you know that you’re both too high profile to go in there. They’d heard of Jack at least.”

“Yeah, we heard.” She worried at her bottom lip lightly, and then sighed, “We’ll talk about it later.”

Jay pushed the door open with her hip and passed Jack one of the mugs of coffee she carried, setting hers down on the desk and looping her arms loosely around his neck from behind, “I sent Yan to bed.”

“Thanks.” He covered her hands with one of his own and smiled up at her, “One day he’ll learn not to try to keep up with John.”

“Hah, yeah, maybe.” She squeezed Jack’s shoulders gently, “How’s he doing?”

“They’re just heading out there. I’ve told him not to face one, we don’t want them knowing how much experience he has.” The Torchwood commander simply nodded in agreement, so Jack felt the need to fill her silence, “I’ve checked the location, it’s close to where we’re getting the signals from.”

“So they’ve escaped?”

“Or been let loose. Maybe someone thought they’d been killed.” He shrugged, “Even we can’t always tell.”

“True enough. You want me to do anything?”

“No, I’ve got it covered. He’s just going to hang around for an hour or o, have a couple of drinks, then get a taxi back. I’m just here because it’s procedure.” He smiled into his mug, “One of Ianto’s, yeah?” She nodded, “Thought o. You get some sleep, or try to. I’ll wake you up when he’s on his way back.”

“Thanks.” She moved back and ran her fingers briefly through his hair, bending down to kiss his forehead before she left the room.

John got out of the car and shivered involuntarily at the brooding presence on the edge of the city and the burning hot wind that blasted around it from the desert, even this late at night. Sally followed his gaze and smiled slightly, “This whole area used to be miles out of the city, but the desert’s being encroached on further and further. They fell out of use, but now they’re closer…” She sighed, “Give it a couple of years and this’ll be busy and industrial. No wonder the creatures of our nightmares are coming closer.”

“The city’s encroaching on their territory?” He took a deep breath and regretted it, the air seemed to burn; unlike the air in Cardiff which was always cold and wet, “Did you know that a higher proportion of the USA is wilderness than Africa?”

“Really?” She raised her eyebrows and looked around as the second car arrived with Jack, James and Alice, “Maybe there’s more to find out there then.”

“Yeah, maybe there is.” He pulled Alice into a one armed hug as she got within reaching distance and ruffled her mad curls, “Tell me this place has got air conditioning?”

James laughed, “You know what they say, if you can’t stand the heat.”

“Get out of the fire.” Jack finished for him, “Don’t want to back out?”

“Not a chance.” He grinned wolfishly, “I can cope with ‘heat’.” And he made inverted commas with his fingers, “It’s just heat I have a problem with.”

“Haha, well said.” Dan thumped him on the shoulder and he stumbled slightly. The guy had to be a body builder or something, and quite a bit taller than the former time agent, “Let’s get in there before the party’s finished guys.”

Inside it was similar to the alien bar, but louder, smokier, much more crowded. There were more humans, and more different species, but there wasn’t the variety, they were all humanoid and could pass as human, especially in the dark, smoky atmosphere. Under the heavy thump of the bass, the shouting and yelling, he heard the distinctive snarl of a Weevil. Suddenly it all became real.

“Do you want a drink?” James had to yell in his ear

“On me.” He insisted, “What do you fancy?”

“Thanks mate. You choose.”

John nodded and made his way across to the bar, leaving the group to find a quiet corner and him to have a look around. Apart from that first snarl, he hadn’t heard anything more from the Weevil, but the smell indicated that it was definitely there. “Five hypervodkas please.”

“We don’t do hypervodkas.” The teenager behind the bar looked frazzled, stressed and unbelievably bored.

He winked, “It’ll have to be doubles with a shot of Absinthe then.”

“We’ve got Absente?”

“That’ll do.” Would it? Who knew, he was making it up as he went along. “Thanks doll.”

“Cath.” She glared at him and it was clearly not an invitation to use it, “My name is Cath.”

“Lesbian?”

“None of your business.”

“That’s a yes then.” He shrugged as she shot him a look to kill and picked up the glasses, “My loss.” That seemed to mollify her slightly, even though she tried to pretend she hadn’t heard.

“To new friends, and damn good fun.” He raised his glass with a laugh

Half an hour later, Jack and Alice and Sally and Dan were grinding against each other on the dance floor, well lubricated by the cocktails John had been inventing since they got there. John scanned the crowd constantly, looking for faces he recognised, accents out of place. It was like trying to find a specific needle in a box of needles. And God knew, Captain John Hart loved a challenge.

James tapped his arm and giggled slightly, “Hey, other James, the cage’ll be here soon, we should get a good place.”

“Yeah, yeah OK.” He stood up and followed James across the dance floor, not really surprised when the man ground back against him occasionally. Just for good measure he grabbed hold of his arse and squeezed, but it felt wrong, “You’re drunk.”

“Very.” James laughed, “There’s the others.”

They joined the rest of their group around a raised area and now John could hear the snarls of the Weevil and smell it even better, “Shit.”

“Wait till you see it.”

The crowd was gathering around them and they were jostled almost constantly. John jostled back for good measure and Alice laughed at him, “You enjoy that.”

“What, being arsey? Love it.” He tugged her close and grinned at Jack over her head, “Don’t worry, I’m just tactile.”

“I wasn’t worrying. I’d only worry if you did it to me.”

They laughed together again and John felt strangely guilty, but pushed it aside as a countdown started, rippling through the crowd. “What are we counting for?”

“Watch and see!”

He turned back to the raised area and hugged Alice, joining in the countdown with gusto, “Three, two, one!” There was a clank of gears and whirring of machinery and a cage rose up through the platform. Inside was the easily recognisable form of a Weevil. “Oh shit indeed.”

Alice laughed, “You should fight it, go into the cage.”

He shook his head fiercely, he didn’t know how Jack and Ianto did that almost for fun, although he had his suspicions about a euphemism, “Not likely. Not when I’ve had this much to drink.”

“I got ya.” Jack agreed, “Yeah, I wouldn’t either.”

Two hours later they fell out of the warehouse together as part of a milling throng. Everyone was high, some on drugs, some on alcohol, some on the atmosphere. John seemed to be the only person there who had noticed that, quietly, in a corner of the room, one of the guys who went into the cage had died of his injuries. He shivered and blinked in the soft dawn light that suffused the area and studied the desert that would soon be eaten up by the ceaseless urbanisation and reflected that whilst many things changed, humanity never would.

John leaned his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes, aware that Jack hadn’t moved off yet and was watching him closely, “A guy died in there. Death by Weevil and incompetence. I want to shut it down as soon as we can.”

Jack sighed and started the engine, “We’ll get the plan in place, draft Liberty Towers in and shut the place down tomorrow night.”

“Good.” They travelled in silence for a while. John opened his eyes and glanced across at his companion, noting the tense jaw and the hard eyes, “I would have pulled him out of there if I’d thought he was in any danger, you know that.”

“He was well over the limit when he got back.” Jack pointed out, “Hypervodkas?”

“I was trying to culture an impression, I took a calculated risk.”

“With my boyfriend.” Jack sighed as John started to defend himself, “I’m sorry John, I know you’re just doing your job and… It’s been a long night.”

“I should never have taken him, of all people.”

The immortal shook his head, “No, he was the right man for the job and I accept that. I might not like it, but sometimes, sometimes I have to let him out of my protection. And no matter how much it hurts, I can’t keep him safe forever.”

John touched Jack’s shoulder in reassurance and turned hurriedly to watch the strip go past, “Have you seen him since he got back?”

“No, Jazz sent him straight up to get some sleep. I’ll join him once we’ve gone over your report.”

“Jazzy’s still up?” Jack nodded, “Then you go straight up to Ianto, that’s where you need to be. Jazz can do my report with me.” John could see how much Jack wanted to agree with him, so cut across the immortal’s half-hearted protests, “All I need is a translator, and Jazz has the authority to sign off on my reports and pass them along to Liberty Towers. We’ll tell them to expect instructions and have a team ready. And in the mean time you can snuggle up with your nice warm Welshman.”

Jack glared at him sidelong and sighed, “So we’re raiding tonight?”

John rolled his eyes at the change of subject, “Yeah, yeah. The sooner the better.” The former time agent frowned in thought, “But we’ll need to check with Jazzy’s schedule at the crime lab.”

“We can do it without her more than easily. All we really need is us.”

“She won’t be happy.” Jack raised an eyebrow and John barked out a laugh, “Fair point.”

Jazz checked out of the window as a car pulled into the driveway and smiled involuntarily when she recognised it. She poured out three mugs of coffee - one into a blue and white mug, one into a black mug with silver stars and one into a curvy rainbow striped mug – and set them down on the table to await the arrival of her friends. The door opened and closed and two sets of footsteps came through the living room, stopping for a while to take off shoes and boots, then continued on more quietly to the kitchen.

The Torchwood commander was crossing back to the sink when arms wrapped around her waist and lips nuzzled into her hair, “Heya baby!” She turned in John’s arms and kissed him softly, then unwrapped him from around her and pushed him back slightly, “Coffee.”

“You little star.” John sank into a chair and pulled his young lover into his lap. He looked up as Jack shook his head fondly and picked his own mug up, heading out of the room, “Sleep well Jack.”

“I’m sure I will, have a good night you two.” He raised his mug in a salute and climbed the stairs, drinking slowly from the coffee. Not as good as Ianto’s, but definitely drinkable.

He stopped in the doorway of their bedroom to watch his partner sleep. Ianto had got in in the middle of the night and forgotten to close the curtains; now the soft light of dawn was filtering through the window and falling across the bed, casting shadows across Ianto’s softly sleeping face. Jack’s breath caught in his throat as he gazed at his too young lover, tracing the curve of his shoulder, curving in over his body as though protecting himself from the light. His gaze moved down, over the plane of his back, up over the rise and soft curve of his hip, then back up again, lingering on the rise and fall of his chest as he finished his coffee.

When he finished it he set it down as quietly as he could on the bedside table and pulled off his shirt and trousers near silently, folding them neatly and placing them on a chair. He hesitated a moment longer, just watching his partner, then pulled the covers back enough to slide under. Ianto murmured softly as Jack wrapped an arm around him and pulled him closer so that the younger man’s back was flush against his chest. He held his breath and smiled in surprised happiness when Ianto rolled over to curl against him without waking up. Yeah, life was good.

The immortal played his fingers gently through Ianto’s hair and pressed a kiss to his forehead, “Love you Yan.” He whispered, although he knew that Ianto couldn’t hear him, it still made him happy to say it.

John and Ianto wound their way through the grinding, milling throng to the busy bar. It took ten minutes to get served, which gave them plenty of time to locate their friends from the night before. Ianto caught the eye of the frazzled barmaid and leaned across the bar to talk to her, seizing his chance. He had to yell to be heard, “Do you want a hand? You look like you could do with another person.”

“Can you do a screaming orgasm?” He just grinned at that one and she rolled her eyes, “Flaming Lamborghini?”

“Yep.”

“You’re overqualified then, come on round.” He came round to join her and she looked him up and down appreciatively, “Definitely overqualified, what’s a guy like you doing in a place like this?”

“Serving drinks I assume.”

She laughed again and gestured along the bar, “They’ll mainly be wanting bottled stuff, the occasional Tequila Slammer and ‘tough’”, she mimed the inverted commas, “college kids who think that ordering a screaming orgasm makes them look cool. Just keep up.”

He nodded and smiled at her, “Do you normally let people behind the bar?”

“No, but you’re cute and we’ve got two girls off tonight.”

Ianto winked at her and turned away, catching John’s eye, “What can I get you?”

John smirked, “You can give me a screaming orgasm any time you like, but right now I think six bottles of WKD.”

“Colour?”

“Oh, two of each.” He laughed internally at Ianto’s efficiency as the drinks appeared on the bar and picked them up, giving the younger man a nod before heading across the room towards where he’d seen the other guys. They spotted him before he got there and greeted him enthusiastically, but not as enthusiastically as the drinks. “Evening.”

“James!” Alice at least was already fairly drunk, “You’re here!”

“Yes I am, and so are you I see.”

“Yeah.” she gazed at him with wide eyes, “But you’re on your own again.”

“Not anymore I’m not.” he pointed out with a grin, “And Matt’s here, but got distracted.”

“He’s behind the bar.” The other James looked at him questioningly, “Why?”

“He has a gift for it apparently. Go order a screaming orgasm and you’ll see what I mean.”

“Why would I want a screaming orgasm?” They all laughed at that one and he shook his head, picking up one of the red bottles, “Yeah, yeah, OK. Foot in mouth or what.”

“He’ll give you ‘that’ look.” John explained, “He’s very good at it.”

“So what are you both doing here again?”

“I speak for only myself when I say that I’m enjoying the atmosphere. He called me today and I persuaded him to come along. If I’d known he’d end up behind the bar I wouldn’t have bothered.”

“I thought he had a boyfriend?” Alice asked giddily

John raised an eyebrow and took a sip from his drink, “At the moment, yeah.“

On a nearby rooftop, a commanding figure watched the last revellers enter the building before it was locked down. The hot desert wind blew his hair around and he smiled into it, revelling in its burningly soft touch. Down below he could see the first of the Liberty Towers team getting into place; lounging against walls with studied casualness, packing and repacking gear into vans. No one looked at them twice. He smiled to himself as his comms beeped into life, “Harkness.”

“Captain, this is Sergeant Collins, where are you?”

He sighed, “I’m on the roof, do you need me?”

“Not yet, we’re going to move in forty five minutes.”

“Yeah, I know, I can tell the time.” He huffed and put his hands in his trouser pockets; he’d not brought his coat and was glad of it, although if it didn’t get much cooler he’d have to get rid of the shirt as well. “Are your lot in position?”

“The lockdown takes place in five minutes, the first trucks will arrive five minutes after that.”

“OK, and the guys in position now are reporting back to you?”

“Yes sir. I’ll let you know if they have anything to report.”

“Thank you.” Jack smiled to himself as he imagined the slightly officious but very accommodating sergeant. He was young, from New York; probably dark haired, cut short and spiked and in the stylish but functional Liberty Towers uniform. Polo shirt, white, no logo. Slim black trousers which invariably hugged a trim waist hidden below the polo shirt and showed off developed thighs, because everyone at Liberty Towers started on the ground, doing the running around and world saving, then moved up as their talents were discovered. Then again, if he was joining the exercise he might be in one of the extremely flattering dark blue T-shirts that highlighted every muscle.

Still, Jack reflected, he still wouldn’t look as good as Ianto (although maybe he was biased on that count). The young man had spent almost an hour getting ready and has asked Jack to ‘help him’, which meant the older man sitting on the bed and watching with undisguised lust as Ianto put on tight T-shirts and jeans, unbuttoned shirts, his cutest suit, even a pair of shorts at one point, and took them all off again. Jack had eventually got frustrated (more frustrated than he could cope with) and had him up against the bedroom wall. Ianto’s only coherent reply had been “Finally!”, which hadn’t helped matters.

The captain ran a finger along his bottom lip and smiled even more when he felt where he’d bitten it and drawn blood. Yeah, Ianto drove him crazy, but very good crazy. He sighed and gave up on the shirt, glad he’d listened to Ianto and not put his suspenders on as he unbuttoned it and pulled it off. The sun was even warmer as it hit his now bare arms and he turned to close his eyes and face into the dying rays, smiling in the warmth. He sat down facing along the edge of the roof, one foot on the roof and one leg dangling down, his face angled so that the sun’s rays hit maybe two thirds of it, leaving the rest in shadow. Textbook relaxing hero as Jasmine would call it.

The comms beeped again and he sighed. “Captain, dare I ask why the codeword is Cheeky Vimto?”

He laughed and shook his head, “Are you bored by any chance Sergeant?”

“Nothing more to do until they move in, is there?”

“Are we going to answer all questions with questions?”

“Will it pass the time?”

“What do you think?”

“Erm… why are you asking what I think?”

“Why do you think I’m asking what you think?”

“Do you know how juvenile that is sir?”

“Do you know how old I am Sergeant?”

“What?”

“Hah.” Jack laughed and looked up at the sky, “You lose, and a Cheeky Vimto is a cocktail. It’s a John thing.”

There was silence for a moment, which piqued Jack’s interest, “Technically sir, I win. ‘What?’ is a question.”

He shook his head in amusement, “OK, you win, I’ll buy you a Cheeky Vimto as a prize.”

“Deal.”

“What’s your name?”

“Playing that game again sir?” The young man chuckled, “It’s Simon.”

“Nice to meet you Simon, and call me Jack. “

“Thank you Jack.”

The immortal stood up and stretched as the last glimpse of the sun disappeared blow the horizon. He walked to the other edge of the roof and gazed out at the as yet untouched desert, stretching as far as the eye could see. He’d once read somewhere, or heard someone say maybe, that space was too big to comprehend but much smaller things could seem enormous, so they seemed somehow bigger. Standing here, looking out, he believed it. The desert filled his whole vision, his mind was consumed by it. Shaking his head he turned back and headed down through the building to street level where the Liberty towers forces were gathering.

Sergeant Simon Collins of Liberty Towers jumped out of the truck as soon as it stopped moving and advanced on the easily identifiable figure of Captain Jack Harkness with his hand outstretched. The captain greeted him warmly with a firm handshake, a hand clapped to his shoulder and an appreciative grin, “Thanks for your help Sergeant.”

“Not at all.” He smiled back warmly and fished a necklace out from underneath the dark blue T-shirt, “You could say it runs in the family.”

Jack bent close to look at it already knowing what he would see and laughed, “You’re one of Jazz’s brood? Go figure.” He had her hair, the immortal reflected, blonde with blue streaks (not natural mind) and slightly longer than he’d expected. Not dark. Still…

“Yes I am, comes in very useful, opens many doors. It’s a shame she couldn’t come out tonight, I was looking forwards to meeting her.”

“Yeah, she’s on at the crime lab, will join us if she can. You’ll be what, grandson?”

“Great grandson actually.” He smiled and looked down at his watch, “Cheeky Vimto went active two minutes ago.”

“Good.” he shook his head with a smile, “Let’s just hope that Yan didn’t get so annoyed with John that he drugged him too.”

Simon laughed, then sobered, “Is that possible?”

“No… Probably not anyway.” He gave the younger man a reassuring grin, “Ianto’s a professional.”

“Hmmm.”

Inside the warehouse, operation Cheeky Vimto was progressing apace. John had got three bags of the new memory drug spread around the place and being sold as uppers, whilst Ianto was slipping more into drinks. It was a new formula without the sedative and acted immediately, so people were effectively put into a dream state and would remember no details of what happened from the instant they took the pill until the effects wore off six hours later. John had suggested pumping cannabis fumes into the room, but that had been vetoed with alacrity.

He made his way around the edge of the room, slipping yet more pills into unattended drinks. He’s tried to get into the back room, but had been sent on his way in no uncertain terms. Still, it was reassuring to know that the “Sorry, thought it was the toilet” line did work. He was almost back at the bar now, and grinned at Ianto’s serene expression, which he knew very well his dark feelings of “going to stab someone in a moment or screw Jack into the mattress when we get home”. Jack liked it when he got that look on his face, and had occasionally paid Owen, the late Torchwood medic, to cause the exact same expression.

John cleared his throat and slid up to the bar between it and a group of very drunken revellers. He checked his watch and grinned at Ianto, “I’ll have a…” The doors burst open and the lights all went out as Liberty Towers stormed the building. He raised his voice and leaned forwards, “A blast off please.”

Jack scanned the room and noted the island of calm among the mad panic that was John slipping behind the bar to duck below it with Ianto and smiled grimly. Now that those two were safely out of the way they could start moving people out to the Liberty Towers vans where their memories would be modified and they would be sent on their way with false memories of a noisy, drunken mess, vomiting, an unpleasant fumble in the toilets and a bad trip. Not quite as satisfying as retconning them back to puberty, but possibly more vindictive; and all in the name of negative reinforcement.

He looked around the room again as the doors closed, cutting off all light, so only the three of them and the Liberty Towers team, all of whom had night vision contact lenses, could see. The DJ booth was quite close to where he was, so he made his way over to it and used a portable piggy-backer to give it just enough power to be useful, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a government raid.” Not technically true but it shut them up and would hopefully drag out the people they wanted to be dragged out. His eyes never stopped scanning as he spoke, reassuring the crowd, giving instructions. Two Liberty Towers guards took up positions by the door whilst others huddled close by, ready to move on his orders, “Right, you will be escorted from the building in an orderly fashion for questioning, then released. I suggest you go home and sleep it off. Gentlemen, it’s all yours.”

Four hours later and everyone in the building was now out of the building, the civilians on their way home and the not-so civilians locked up to be taken care of later. Seven Weevils had been removed from storage cells in one of the back rooms and were on their way to be flown back to Cardiff. Jack wiped his forehead and grinned at Simon, “What have we got?”

“Two dozen complicit, five different alien drugs, no one in overall control though, orders come from higher up and he’ll have moved on.”

Jack nodded, suddenly grim, “We’ll get him.”

A shout came from behind them where Ianto and John stood talking quietly, or not so quietly now. John was on the phone, his face deathly pale, and Ianto was beckoning to Jack. “Jack, we’ve got a problem.”

John snapped the phone shut and fished his keys out, “Jazz and Nick.” He started, stopped, shook his head, started again, “Jasmine and Nick have been taken, from a crime scene. I’ve got to…”

Jack nodded, cutting off his explanation, “Go!”

Nick shook his head in a vain attempt at clearing it of the fog clouding it, but found that that just made his brain rattle. He was tied to a chair with his hands behind his back, facing one corner of the room where bare wooden floorboards met dull concrete walls with peeling paper. The room was in half darkness, with the only light coming from behind him, presumably a window. The concentration made his head ace, so he closed his eyes again and steadied his breathing. Fingers tangled with his own behind his back and squeezed softly, “You awake yet?”

He turned his head as far as he could but found that A) That wasn’t very far and B) It would never be enough to be able to see Jazz behind him, “Yeah, where are we?”

“No idea, he’s in and out by the way, been gone five minutes so should be back soon. Who he is, I’m not sure.” She fell silent for a moment and squeezed his fingers again, “We’ll be OK, I promise.”

“OK.” He struggled against the bonds but her fingers stilled him, “Have you done this before by any chance?”

Her tone was bitter but amused, “More often that I’d like to have. Did that sentence make sense?”

“Just about.” He sighed and dropped his head, the headache was just getting worse, “So what do we do now?”

“Leave it with me.” Her fingers left his again and the backs of her hands started moving against his, “I’m working on these bonds. Put it this way, I have a very, very kinky boyfriend. And he likes nothing more than for me to escape.”

“Any connection to the fact that you came into work looking like something out of Lady Heather’s place the other day?” He asked, trying the knots and finding them impossible

“That was because we’d been to Lady Heather’s place.” She answered, “Like I said, kinky boyfriend.”

“So are you…”

“Submissive, in bed at least.” She stilled for a moment, “I hope that was the question you were about to ask.”

“Yeah, it was.” He chuckled, “And Jack, is he the same?”

She laughed, “I really don’t know. Although I have a feeling that it’s a bit of give and take. I mean, I have walked in on them on more than one occasion and they used to keep me up at night until I got my own place in Cardiff but I don’t know what they get up to… Just that Ianto swears in Welsh. As a result, most of the Welsh I know is swear words. He can be very creative in that department.”

“You’re gabbling.”

“My head hurts.” She was moving again, just slightly, “He’s coming.”

“Who’s…” Nick started, but then he heard a door swing open and the question was answered for him.

“Ah, other one, you’re awake.” The voice was smooth, English received pronunciation, so he could have been from anywhere really. It had a hint of an accent, but not enough to give a location

He sighed and desperately wanted to rub his head, “Unfortunately, that is the case.”

“Yes, sorry, we had to drug you, and we still get the dosages wrong. Still in the experimental stages you see. Oh, by the way, you are completely disposable, so I’d stay quiet. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but if Commander Donovan complies with my wishes, you should both be able to go unharmed.”

Jazz sighed behind him, “Do you know how likely it is that I will agree to your demands?”

The man, still out of both their lines of sight, chuckled, “Yes my dear, I do, that’s why I had them bring your friend. We’ve not been introduced by the way. My name is irrelevant, but you are?”

“CSI Stokes, Mr Irrelevant.” He wasn’t in the mood, and the fact that the other man just laughed didn’t help matters, “So what do you want?”

“CSI Stokes, just because you’re here, doesn’t mean you will understand what’s going on. But just so you know, I need information, my boss, in fact, needs information that only the Commander or the infamous Jack Harkness…”

“Captain Jack Harkness.” Jazz seemed to find it amusing

“Indeed, Captain Jack Harkness, can supply.” He snapped his fingers theatrically and a slim blonde entered the room, came over to them silently, blindfolded them and left again without a single word. The man chuckled and started walking around them, “You will have realised by now that I am good at what I do. Little Sally is not remotely experienced at this, she just does my bidding, and as a result you both saw her as she came in. No matter, her name is Sally Lockhart…”

“As in the fictional character from the Ruby in the Smoke and subsequent books by Phillip Pullman?”

“Ah, never try to pull the wool over the eyes of someone with such an evident love of contemporary literature. Indeed, are you going to believe anything I tell you now?”

“Only when you’re telling the truth.” Nick wished he could see Jazz, but her fingers had wound back into his and squeezed softly, reassuring him. She at least sounded confident, “What is it that you want?”

“As I said, I want information. Now what I am going to do is leave you alone for a while, so that you can make your decision. I know of your almost unique… talent, Commander, so you should be aware that it will be Mr Stokes, not yourself who will suffer the consequences if you choose to refuse. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal.” Jazz sighed

“Good, I’ll leave you two to it then. You have exactly thirty minutes.” The door opened and closed, then opened again and footsteps crossed the room. Their blindfolds were removed and they watched Sally leave the room again.

“He’s good, he’d very good.” Jazz muttered, releasing Nick’s fingers again and going to work on her bonds.

“Yes, I can see that. What happened?” Nick thought back to the scene, it had seemed perfectly ordinary

“What do you remember?”

“Ordinary scene really. Seemed like a body dump. You found something, you called me…”

“I got whacked over the head and had my throat cut.” She huffed out a laugh, “Which means the scene’s now contaminated. Not that that matters now.”

“That still weirds me out, but why doesn’t it matter?”

“Scene belongs to Liberty Towers now.” She shrugged and appeared to have more movement, “Got it, anyway, after they whacked me I have to assume that they drugged you somehow.”

“Needle, I can feel it.” It was in his neck, they had to have known what they were doing otherwise he wouldn’t still be here.

“Thought it must have been, the alternative would be a patch, and I don’t think they’re advanced enough to have those yet. We only have them because John took a day trip for me.”

“A daytrip where?”

“Wrong pronoun, it’s more when. Long way in the future.” He felt her roll her shoulders and she stood up, then turned her attention to the bonds on his hands, “Tell me I’m good.”

“Yes, you’re good, how long have we got?”

“No idea, there’s no clock, no way of knowing. Can’t have taken more than five minutes though.” It was easier with one she could see, but this knot was more complicated, “He’s playing with me.”

Nick didn’t reply as she got his bonds off and stayed silent as she paced, waiting for her to speak. Finally she turned to him, “I need to get you out of here.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“Nick, I cannot give in to his demands and he means what he says. If you stay here, you will die, and I couldn’t live with myself.”

“It won’t come to that.”

Jazz rubbed her forehead and waved a hand, now he was face to face with her he could see the blood that stained the front of her white top, her blood, so much blood. “He left us alone so that I would untie us, so that we have to have this conversation so that…” She swore, “Fuckit, he’s playing me, and I’m not sure yet whether I should be dancing a tango or a waltz.”

“What?”

She started pacing around the room again, “Half an hour, and I’ve no tracking devices on me, or traceable devices, they must have left them at the scene to only give us half an hour. And I don’t even know what he wants.” her gaze fell on the chair and she stopped, staring at it. “Maybe…”

Nick leant on the wall and watched and she pulled the chair apart and put crafted it into some sort of weapon, “Is that supposed to do anything?”“It’s mainly symbolic, it’s just… Just trust me, OK?”

“Why should I trust you? You’ve already told me that you won’t agree to his demands, you’d trade my life for your secrets.”

Finally she met his eyes, “it’s not a matter of won’t Nick, you have to believe that.” He snorted and turned away, “I just can’t.”

“You can actually look me in the eye and say that?”

“If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t be doing this job.” She turned away and thumped her hand against the wall, “I will get you out of here Nick, I just don’t know how yet.”

“Vertical?”

She could hear the slight forgiveness, or at least acceptance, in his tone and was grateful for it, “I will do my best.”

The door swung open and they turned to face their captor, Jasmine moving closer to face him properly and put herself between him and Nick. He was in his late forties or early fifties, obviously kept in shape and was dressed in a three piece suit that would have put Ianto to shame. It was black, with a deep plum pinstripe that seemed to be barely there. The waistcoat was probably the only reason it was visible, because it matched the stripe. He didn’t have a tie, probably because of the heat, and instead wore his shirt collar unbuttoned to just above the waistcoat. “You know,” Jasmine started, “It’s very hard to get away with a three piece and your top button undone.”

“Do I pass?” He smirked

“I guess you’ll do, I feel like I should have dressed for the occasion. But then again, I didn’t know there would be an occasion.”

“Indeed not, that was part of the plan really.” He smiled, a pleasant enough smile were it not for the fact that it didn’t reach his eyes, which really should have been sparkling emerald or glittering blue but were actually just a dull brown. It came as something of a disappointment, “very well done by the way, I wasn’t expecting you to have time to get yourself loose and craft a weapon from the tools I gave you in the time allowed. I’m sure that gets you bonus points.”

“It certainly should do, it took a moment of brilliant parallel thinking.”

“Indeed, and have you considered my threat?” He hadn’t moved from the doorway, and Jasmine could see people moving around in another room of the house, but she could also see a window, a road. A fairly busy road at that

She shrugged, “I don’t know what you’re demanding, but I cannot agree to your demands. Unless, of course, you just want to know where Ianto gets his suits; in which case I would say that you don’t really need to know as your supplier is excellent.”

“Ah, but I shot the man who made this suit, so I need a new tailor.”

“I’m sorry, I really don’t know. He may even make them himself, his father was a tailor.”

“That would be rather impressive.” He commented

“Yes, he is rather.” She swung the modified chair leg thoughtfully and pointed it at him, “So what did you really want to know?”

“the entry codes for the Torchwood archive.”

Jazz started and raised an eyebrow at him, “Really?”

“Absolutely.”

“Well, erm…” She stared at him, “No.”

He rolled his eyes and pulled out a gun, pointing it over her shoulder towards Nick, “Reconsider?”

Her eyes flicked to the gun and back to his face and the horror was easy to read, “I can’t.”

“Not even once, to save the life of your friend?”

“And if I do it once, and people hear that I backed down, what then? I will be in this job long after you are gone and I will be making these decisions long after you are gone, but if I choose to save someone once, I set a precedent. People will see me as weak and will try to take advantage of that. More people will be put in danger.” The immortal in a teenaged body shook her head, “You’re not going to get the codes off me, no matter what.”

“I wonder, if it were your boyfriend…”

“he’d have flirted you to death by now.”

“Or Mr Jones?”

“Outcome would be the same.”

“Captain Harkness would never forgive you.” Their captor seemed genuinely interested by the idea

“No, neither would I though.”

“But you’d still make this choice.”

“It’s all very academic, it’s the only choice I can make.”

He shook his head and pulled back the catch, “But you know as well as I do, that all actions must have consequences.” He smiled smugly and pulled the trigger and a single tear trailed down Jasmine’s cheek as she felt its path pass over her shoulder.

Greg grinned with the familiar buzz of excitement as he lifted a complete print from the edge of the window. He was about to call across to Grissom and tell him when the older man’s phone rang, distracting him from his study of the bookcase. The Californian smiled to himself and secured the print, humming under his breath and turning back to the window. He didn’t often get to work a scene with Grissom, for which he was secretly extremely grateful, but just occasionally he found the quiet, methodical nature of their leader soothing.

“Greg.” Nothing soothing about his voice now. Grissom sounded faintly terrified, which was definitely not a good thing

He stood up and turned to face the older man, “What’s up, what’s happened?”

“It’s Nicky, he’s been taken from a scene.” The unspoken ‘again’ hung in the air.

Greg struggled to breathe, this could not be happening, not now, not to Nick, “Who was he with?” His brain had turned to mush, he just couldn’t remember if his lover was alone at the scene

“He was with Jasmine.” Grissom was already packing up his things, “Stay here and finish the scene, I’ve got to get back to the crime lab.”

“Griss, no, I can’t…”

“I’m sorry Greg, but this scene needs to be processed and I need to get back to the lab.” Grissom watched him closely, “I know it’s a shock, but do your best work, we’ll get him back.”

Greg bit his lip so hard it bled, he couldn’t say what was running through his mind, the ‘Grissom, that would be my husband if the law allowed it’, or even ‘you have no idea what’s running through my mind now’. Grissom couldn’t know the nature of their relationship, it was just against the rules. And so he had to stay here and let other people find and save the man he loved beyond words. He settled for, “Okay.” Even though it wasn’t, not at all.

Grissom packed up the last of his stuff and straightened up, turning for the door, “I’ll call you if anything comes up. Just get back to the crime lab as soon as you can.”

It was at that precise moment that the door flew open.

Jack clapped a hand to Simon’s shoulder and tugged slightly, pulling the younger man into his wake as he headed for one of the vans, Ianto just behind the two of them. “Let’s get a move on.” He signalled to one of the UNIT guards, who tossed him the keys, and paused with his hand on the door, “We’ll probably need backup at some point. Can you arrange that?”

Simon glared at him, “I’m coming with you.”

“Good answer.” Jack met his glare, “Can you arrange it?”

“I’ll have a squad ready to move on my orders as soon as we have a location.”

Ianto had slid silently into the middle seat, ignoring the alpha-male posturing going on and concentrating on linking up with everyone who needed to know what was happening. Jack swung himself into the seat, leaving Simon to come around to the other door and get in on the other side of Ianto. “I give the orders if it comes down to it.”

“Of course Captain.” Simon smiled grimly, “I wouldn’t trust anyone else with the job.”

“Where are we heading Jack?” Ianto spoke up for the first time as he grabbed hold of the Captain’s arm to steady himself when Jack took a corner too sharply

“Back to the house, get Archie, David and Greg there too. Especially Greg.”

“On it.”

John looked around the room once, took in the stunned expressions and stunted protests and turned on his heel, “Come on.”

Greg hesitated a moment, then pulled his gloves off and dumped them in his kit, closing it hurriedly and going after the former Time Agent, “Where are we going?”

“Back to the house.” John held the door for him and nodded curtly to Grissom, who looked thoroughly perplexed by now, “The moment they got taken, you went onto Torchwood time. Chances are they wanted Jasmine, and Nick was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Jasmine.” John vaulted a railing and watched as Greg came around it, opening the doors of his car and swinging in, starting the engine before Greg had even got there, “Stuff happens to us.”

“Stuff happens to us too. This isn’t the first time Nick’s been kidnapped from a crime scene.” Greg pointed out, half to himself. If Nick had been hurt…

John shook his head, but didn’t reply directly, “We’ll get back to the safe house and let Jack take over proceedings. He’ll know how to go on.”

Captain Jack Harkness and Sergeant Simon Collins set the systems up in the dining room of UNIT Safe House 376 and started scanning for tracers, tracking devices, sightings and known enemies. “Her tracking devices and phone are all at the site still.”

Jack hurried over to him and studied it in surprise, “What, all of them?”

“Every single tracking device or tracer tagged to the Commander is at the crime scene.” Simon brought up the list, “Any that have been missed, or secret ones?”

“Not on Jazz, you know what she’s like on sharing information.” Jack shook his head, “The only way I would know all of her tracers is by checking that list, and she wouldn’t carry any that didn’t come up automatically on the system. She wouldn’t see the point.”

“No, I thought not. But look, they got the one out of her boot heel.” He pointed to one of the results and shook his head, “Either she’s still there, or someone really knew what they were looking for.”

“Oh shit.”

“Yeah.” Simon chuckled, “That’s the concise way of putting it.” A car pulled up outside and he checked another screen, “That’s them, and John’s just behind.”

“Okay, they can catch up when they get in.”

Ianto was first through the door, with Archie and Hodges close behind him, and made his way straight across to his partner, resting a hand in the small of his back and glancing expertly through the data feeds, “What do you want me to do Jack?”

The immortal turned as John entered the room and nodded a greeting to him and the CSI with him, “Brief them, we’ll concentrate on this.”

“OK.” He turned back to the table and gestured for everyone to sit down, “What we know is that Jasmine and Nick have been taken from their scene. The professionalism - all of the tracking devices have been removed - suggests that Jasmine, rather than Nick was the target. This means that they want information or something else that Jasmine can get them access to. Our main concern, therefore, is Nick. I’m sorry Greg.” He looked directly at the older man, “But his chances aren’t good. Either they have already disposed of him, or they will try to use him to get to Jasmine. If they try the latter, she’ll probably be able to get him out of there, but she can’t give them what they want.”

Greg just nodded, too stunned to speak and worried that if he tried he’d break. Jack watched his boyfriend out of the corner of his eye and smiled sadly at his constant professionalism and expertise. He was the youngest person in the room, but still held such an aura of command that the CSIs and lab technicians, even Simon, were hanging on his every word. No explanations, no theorising, just the plain facts, all gleaned form a single glance at the readouts; he’d learnt from the best after all.

They shared a worried look as Ianto checked for new information and Jack turned his attention back to finding their friends, “There will be a very short turn around on this. They won’t have taken them far, because they know we’ll get onto finding them immediately. Assuming that they’ve knocked them out somehow, they’ll want to get them secured before they wake up. Maximum of fifteen minutes travelling distance.” Jack mused as he set a search radius. “Which means we can knock out quite a lot of houses, but gives us quite a lot of desert to work at.”

“It doesn’t matter to them if we find them once they have the information or carry out their threats.” Simon glanced up at Jack, seeking approval

“But it would be better for them if we did.” Ianto pointed out without turning

“Captain.” Simon’s voice had taken on an excited, adrenaline fuelled quality that John, Jack and Ianto recognised well, “How does this sound, Peter Hilona, illegal casino and brothel owner, fingers in a lot of criminal pies. Suggested links to alien drug rings, illegal domestications, we’ve managed to link him to plants in the past, but not had enough to convince us to move.”

“And?”

“And one of his places is five minutes from the scene. More to the point, the body that Jazz and Nick were investigating has come back as one of his main rival’s boys.” The Sergeant pointed to it on the map

Jack grinned, “I think we’ve got a location. Ianto?”

“Thirty seven minutes gone. Estimated twenty three minutes left.” He grabbed the keys and tossed them to Jack, then caught them as he threw them back, questioning only with a puzzled glance.

Jack tossed another set of keys to Simon, “Sergeant, you take John and Greg in the car, we’ll go in the van. I want you two,” he pointed to Hodges and Archie, “Stay here and monitor the systems, be ready for us coming back and send us any messages that come through. The systems should run themselves, but if anything goes wrong, call Ianto and he’ll put you straight. Greg?”

The young man hadn’t moved and suddenly looked much older than he was, rather than his usual ten years younger, “Jack?”

“Come on, we’ll get him back.”

The immortal hurried out towards where the sounds of the cars starting up could be heard easily and Greg followed him more slowly. Archie squeezed his arm softly as he took up his seat at the head of the table and Hodges smiled grimly, “They’re the best Greg, he’s coming home.”

Outside he hesitated a moment, watching Jack and Ianto already leaving in the van, before going to get in the back of the car with John, the only person he felt he had anything in common with at the moment. He stared blankly out of the window, not really seeing the streets going by. A gentle touch startled him as John took his hand and held it. He smiled weakly but gratefully and squeezed the hand, holding on to it like it was his only lifeline.

A Liberty Towers force met them outside the house. It was a severe, professional operation; residents evacuated and a perimeter set up within minutes of Jack’s orders. The house they had come to had had signs of activity until their arrival; then it had gone deadly silent, curtains closed, doors locked. It was more than slightly suspicious. Jack had sent Greg and Ianto around to the back of the building with a couple of Liberty Towers guards, setting them to watch the house, giving the CSI something to do, something to distract him, and also putting him as close as possible to their probable exit point. He just hoped that that was the right decision.

He met John’s eyes grimly and pulled him into a one armed hug as they both watched the house, “So what, talk first, shoot second?”

“Get an assurance that Nick is alive, then go from there. If he isn’t, then we knockout gas the place and get Greg out of here. He…”

John squeezed him reassuringly, “You can’t win them all Jack, you know that better than any of us.”

“Yeah, well, let’s just hope that this is one we do win.”

“Yeah.”

Ianto looked across at his friend and covered his hand with his own, “How are you doing?”

Greg looked surprised, “That’s the first time any of you has asked me that.”

Ianto nodded, returning his eyes to the back of the house but not removing his hand from where his thumb rubbed soothingly at the back of the other man’s hand, “We’ve all been there, friends and lovers in trouble. The trick to coping is to not think about it.”

“I can’t not think about it, what if he doesn’t come out? What if I’m alone again, I never even got to take him home to meet my parents.” He looked wretched

Ianto smiled slightly, “I know, that’s why I asked. Trust us Greg, we’ve done this more times than I care to remember, with John, with me, with Jack and Jasmine, with the other members of our team… Jack’s never lost someone from a situation like this yet.” As long as Nick’s still alive, as long as he’s still there, living and breathing, then they can get him out.

But as Greg pointed out in a voice so quiet that it was barely audible, “There’s always a first.”

“Interesting Commander, you didn’t even blink.” Peter Hilona lowered his gun without taking his eyes from the young woman in front of him

She shrugged one shoulder, “Did you expect me to?”

Her aggressor smiled grudgingly and looked over her shoulder, “And what do you have to say Mr…” The moment his attention left her, Jazz had moved and found the point in his neck that made him crumple silently and ungracefully to the ground.

The blonde secured him quickly and efficiently, tears now streaming down her face. She didn’t dare look around, didn’t dare see if Nick was safe and silent or just… silent.

A hand landed lightly on her shoulder and she dropped her head, heaving a huge sigh of relief and closing her eyes against the fresh flood of tears. Nick rubbed gently at her shoulder and crouched down with her, “You did the right thing.”

“Doesn’t stop me hating myself for it.” She puffed her cheeks out and dashed her tears away, then pulled Hilona up to dump him unceremoniously in the remaining chair. He wasn’t a big man, but still bigger than Jazz, and Nick realised just how deceptively strong she was.

“You were just doing your duty.” He pointed out softly as she secured the man to the chair with quick, spare, brutal movements. “And I’m still here.”

“Yeah.” The smile failed to meet her eyes, “I guess you are.” Between them they went through his pockets and pulled out keys, another gun, mobile… Everything they found really

“You looking for anything in particular?”

“Don’t know until I find it if I’m honest. Doesn’t seem to be here, whatever it is. No surprise there.” She brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face and held it on top of her head, “No PDA even, he wasn’t taking any chances on me getting hold of it.”

“What do we do now then?” Nick watched her as she sorted through the contents of his pockets and glanced out of the window, “We’re on the second floor.”

“I know.” She found a paperclip in the bottom of one of his pockets, “We’re going out the window.”

“We’re still on the second floor. Haven’t moved since I last spoke.”

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “Relax, you’re with the commander.”

Ianto noticed movement in one of the upper windows and focussed in on it through the binoculars. This got a lot easier when the window opened, removing the reflected dawn light from the equation, and revealing a familiar blonde head. Jasmine scanned the surroundings and froze, staring straight at the point where they were concealed. The Welshman hesitated only a moment before raising his head for the briefest second, just enough for Jazz to see him and recognise him. She relaxed and waved slightly, then turned away from the window. After a couple of minutes she returned and swung herself out and onto the roof. They had been held in a room close to the roof, with a dormer window, which gave her easy access to the sloping tiles. Now she was there she was easily visible, her white vest top practically glowed and her skirt kept catching in the wind (practical, not exactly), so he checked back to the window. With a smile he lowered the binoculars and passed them to a twitchy Greg, "The window she just came out of."

The Californian looked at him questioningly, and then did as he was bid. His face lit up as he saw the man watching nervously out of the window, trying to see where Jazz had disappeared to without leaning too far out. Greg bit his lip to keep quiet and looked at Ianto with his eyes shining, "He's alive."

"Yep." Ianto muttered, distracted with sending a message to Jack, "What's she up to?"

Jazz had moved around the roof to where, although Ianto couldn't see it, there was a skylight set flat into the roof. She crouched down and bent her paperclip carefully, slipping it into the lock (how many skylights had locks, really? That was just paranoid) and turning it gently. The wind picked up slightly and tugged at her skirt lightly, blowing it out behind her and pulling her slightly off balance. She swore and grabbed onto the edge of the skylight, then changed her paperclip lock pick slightly and went at the lock again. This time it caught properly and she was able to unlock the window and open it, with great difficulty as it stuck repeatedly, and slip inside. Her skirt, bane of her life at the moment, caught on the edge and flashed her knickers at a, thankfully empty, landing. Only two rooms led off this landing, and one door was already open, which left only one room as the one where Nick and Hilona were still imprisoned.

After a quick hunt, the key turned up on a shelf close to the door, and after tapping on it gently she unlocked it and opened it slightly. Her hesitance was justified when her chair leg glanced off the edge of the door and Nick’s grunt of annoyance, “It’s only me.”

Her friend was silent for a moment, so she pushed the door open fully and slid into the room, grateful but guilty at Nick’s relieved smile, “How did you manage that then?” He asked with a huff of laughter, chucking the chair leg into the corner

“Like I said, you’re with the commander.” She forced a smile, “Now let’s get you out of here.”

They went down to the first floor and hesitated there, hearing the sounds of movement from the ground floor. Jazz pulled Nick back into what appeared to be a storeroom as they heard someone coming up the stairs. They listened to the footsteps with baited breath and didn’t relax until they had gone back down the stairs, “We need to get out of here.”

The commander looked out of the window and scanned the back garden easily. With a slight frown she pushed the window up and leaned out, resting her elbows on the edge to sign vaguely towards where Ianto had been watching them. Nick watched her with interest and confusion, not recognising some of the signs, “Was that very complicated, or am I just not as good at signing as I think I am?” He asked when she’s finished and smiled at an apparent reply

She grinned and waved her hands, “British Sign Language. Some times I think it would be easier with one universal one, but at least no one watching me will be able to understand what I told Ianto.”

“I got the basic gist.” He protested, “Just not the detail.”

“Shh.” Jazz pulled the door open and listened carefully, and then led him across the landing to another room. This room was larger and appeared to have been a bedroom at once, but was now yet another storeroom, this one containing an array of weaponry. They both stopped in their tracks at the sight and stared in shock, “Wow. I just…” She shook her head and pocketed a couple of small guns, “Work with them all the time, but guns never cease to scare me. Especially when they’re in the wrong hands.”

“Same here.” Nick also picked up a gun and shoved it into his back pocket, glancing out of the window, “We’ve got a balcony.”

“Good, then that’s our way out.” She opened the window and looked down the street both ways, “Oh good, there they are.”

The girl stepped back from the window and pointed in the right direction for Nick to look. There, watching the window with an amused, concerned and relieved smile, was Jack. Ianto stood just behind him, and his hand rested on Greg’s shoulder, “They found us.”

Ianto pulled out his phone and tugged on Greg’s arm, indicating for him to stay silent and out of sight and dialling Jack’s number. They made their way around the edge of the yard to a point where the fence had been breached for the forces to get in. Hilona’s desire for secrecy had in some ways made it very easy for Liberty Towers to infiltrate.

“Jack.” As soon as they were outside the yard, Ianto was dialling, “Jazz and Nick are going to come out the front; get a force around the back of the building to attempt an entry from there, but let them know about it.” His instructions were short and concise and he knew that Jack would interpret it as well as ever. Why explain what he knew Jack would understand?

They finally reached the front of the house and went around to where Jack stood watching, eyes narrowed against the increasing light and arms folded, “How’s it getting on?” Ianto asked.

“Two squads around the back. Jazz and Nick just poked their heads out of that window. I’ve sent the signal. They should…” Right on cue, as Nick withdrew his head they heard a gunshot from the other side of the house. “They’re on their way in.”

Up above, Jasmine glanced behind her and grabbed at Nick, pushing him towards the window, “Let’s go.”

They scrambled out of the window, Nick first, and paused on the balcony. As the door burst open, presumably someone after weapons, Jazz pushed Nick back against the wall and dropped off the edge, holding on with her fingers until they’d gone. Once the shouting in the room above them had died down, she pulled herself back up just enough to reach out to Nick, “Come on, easy enough.”

“We’re still on the first floor.” He barely managed to whisper

Somehow she managed to shrug, “You know Greg’s behind me, right?”

“Bitch.” He grinned over the top of her head at his lover as she pulled herself up properly, “You’ll have to help me down.”

“Of course.” Nick swung himself off the edge of the balcony and grasped Jazz’s hand, letting her lower him, then pushed off and dropped when she reached the length of her stretch.

Greg watched with baited breath as Nick dropped to the ground, and then couldn’t hold back any longer. As the older man turned towards them he took a step forwards, then another and another. Soon he crashed into Nick’s arms and wrapped his own arms tight around his lover’s waist, feeling Nick doing the same. They held each other for a long moment, but he needed more reassurance. He pulled back slightly and cupped Nick’s cheek, stroking gently and drowning in his soft gaze. Then he leaned forwards and closed his eyes, pressing their lips together softly and tenderly, holding on to that moment. “I thought I’d lost you.” He whispered at long last, “I thought this would be it, that I’d never get to hold you again.”

Tears were flowing from the young man’s eyes, so Nick kissed him once more and tugged him close, threading his fingers through his soft hair and pressing kisses against his temple, “Shh, I’m here, we’re safe.”

“I never want to lose you.”

“You won’t, you haven’t, I’m here and I’m not letting go.” He held tighter, savouring the moment for just a little while longer, then pulled away and led Greg to where Jack and Ianto waited with Jasmine, all watching the house to give them some privacy and all with weapon drawn to give them cover.

Those three weren’t watching, however a group from the crime lab, including Grissom, Catherine and Mandy, were watching them closely. The two girls looked secretly thrilled and quite excited, Grissom looked stunned and Ecklie… Shit, Ecklie was there too. And he looked furious.

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Page generated May. 23rd, 2025 04:05 am

Satelite 5

Home of a geek

Feb. 2nd, 2009

Feb. 2nd, 2009

Character Analysis: Jasmine Donovan (nee Nox)

Omni, meaning ‘all’

Respite

Out of Place Chapter 1

Out of Place Chapter 2

Out of Place Chapter 3

Out of Place Chapter 4

Out of Place Chapter 5

Out of Place Chapter 6

Out of Place Chapter 7

Out of Place Chapter 8

Out of Place Chapter 9

Out of Place Chapter 10

Out of Place Chapter 11

Out of Place Chapter 12

Out of Place Chapter 13

Out of Place Chapter 14

Out of Place Chapter 15

Out of Place Chapter 16

Out of Place Chapter 17

Out of Place Chapter 18

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August 2023

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