Title: Ianto Jones and the Last Crusade
By: Jessie Blackwood
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Warnings: AU, ongoing series, WIP, usual smut warning, swearing, adult issues, etc…
Series: 1) Calling Dr Jones, 2) The Doctor Is In, 3) The Doctor In Action, 4) Blood Is Thicker Than Water
Disclaimer: Don't own Torchwood or the characters, they are the BBCs domain. I just own the plotline. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. (seriously, would you want to admit to resembling any of this lot anyway?)
Summary: AU where everyone is alive, (including Suzie), and Ianto is a doctor.

***

"Torchwood, comin' through," Jack said as they ducked under the scene of crime tape and flashed an ID card at a harassed-looking police constable. "Sorry, people, this is now our jurisdiction. Everybody out please, or do I have to drag you through that Official Secrets shit again?" Detective Kathy Swanson regarded Jack with thinly disguised annoyance and faced him down across the dining table in the modest terrace house in Splott.

"Care to explain what is going on this time, Harkness?" She demanded.

"Aw, come on, Gloria, you know I can't do that. Now, please move your people out of here, as fast as possible. This is a dangerous situation and we need to get a move on. Tosh, scan the body please. Doctor Jones…what have we got here?" Ianto moved politely around Swanson, who eyed him with a mix of hostility and undisguised curiosity, to crouch beside the sprawled body on the carpet and inspect the corpse.

"Victim is male, early thirties, rigor has set in… Time of death somewhere between—," he checked his watch, "—four and seven I would say, given the warmth of the room and the pooling of the body fluids." He inspected the matted head injury. "Blunt force trauma to the back of the head—," Ianto rolled the body slightly, "—and rather unusual wounds to his back. One seems to have pierced the left side on a level with his heart. As to which injury killed him, I'd have to do a post mortem to be sure but I don't have to be a forensic medic to suggest he was stabbed through the heart. I can make an educated guess as to what caused the injuries but I might not be correct." Jack squeezed his shoulder.

"Do what you can, that's what you're here for," he said reassuringly. "We'll get the body back to the Hub and you can do a full autopsy there. Owen, was anything revealing on his hard drive?" Owen sat back from trying to access the computer and shook his head.

"Sorry, Jack, I'm going to need more time to crack this one. Whoever this guy was, it looks like he, or one of his mates, encrypted this thing so thoroughly my usual programs won't touch it."

"And that fact alone tells us a great deal," Jack commented. "He needed that level of security for a reason and I don't think it was because he was worried about identity theft."

"Well, I'm going to need Mainframe for this one. Have to say, I am moderately impressed."

"Load it up then, we'll take it back with us." He turned to Tosh and Suzie. "You find anything?"

"Nothing," Tosh said emerging from the bedroom. "Seems as if he hardly uses…used this place, there were very few personal possessions apart from a few photos and his clothes. All business suits, ties, average off-the-peg stuff. He has a few pairs of jeans and beach wear, nothing out of the ordinary.

"Can't find anything in the kitchen, the utility room, the loo…" Suzie confirmed. Her manner was somewhat tense and a little offhand as she strode into the living room. "What do you expect to find, Jack?" She covered her nose and sneezed inelegantly.

"Bless you," Jack said automatically. "I don't know what I'm expecting. Anything, anything at all. Just keep looking. UNIT reports suggest this guy was working illegal alien artifacts for the last month right under our noses and I want to know how he did it." Jack was angry. He didn't like UNIT at the best of times and they loved rubbing Torchwood's noses in it when they knew something Jack didn't, especially if it was close to home and under Torchwood's, and thus Jack's, nose. "Whoever killed him is probably mixed up in this shit too. We need to find them and quickly."

"Well, there's nothing here, Jack. He must have kept the stuff somewhere else." Toshiko offered.

TWTWTW

"He was killed with a knife, rather unusual shape." Ianto held up a cast of the wound. "It's the best I can manage with my limited experience. I'm an A&E doctor, not a SOCO. I had to google how to do this, for God's sake, so if this is lacking a professional edge, don't blame me, okay?" Jack grinned.

"Okay," he agreed. "Look, so far as I'm concerned, you're doin' fine." He examined the cast, a blade with three edges like a Y shape. "Better than your predecessor did anyway. Better than me, too, I have no idea where to start with this stuff."

"You're lucky I've always been interested in forensics then."

"Oh ho. You a closet CSI fanboy, hah?"

"Jack, I got that report you wanted from the archives…" Suzie's voice floated down to them. She sneezed dramatically.

"Thanks, Gorgeous. Put it on my desk, would you?"

"Will do." She sounded tired and stuffed up. Another sneeze reached their ears.

"And after that, go home, okay?" Jack ordered.

"Okay, but I'm not that bad…."

"Suzie, this is Dr. Jones telling you to go home, okay?" Ianto called out to her. "You've got flu and you might as well not infect the rest of us. Stay home, keep warm, drink plenty of fluids and call me if you're no better in a couple of days. Alright?"

"Alright, Ianto…" her footsteps died away.

"Is it me, or is she more than a little tense these days?" Jack asked into the silence. The doctor blinked, the question having come a little out of left field.

"PMT?" he suggested. "I confess, I haven't noticed but then, I don't know her as well as you do. All I can see at the moment is she has a bad cold, maybe influenza."

"Well, she's been acting a little weird, even before the flu. She's been spending far too much time down in the archives and on top of that, she's been messing with that armor-plated glove thingy…"

"Armor-plated glove thingy? Is that a technical description, Jack? I think I've missed something here." Jack rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"It's a resurrection gauntlet. It fetches people back from the dead." Jack smiled a little mirthlessly as Ianto shuddered. "They only come back for a couple of minutes, hopefully to tell us what they saw, but usually they spend the time panicking or disbelieving you."

"Well, it could be your approach. What do you say exactly? Hi there," Ianto affected a bad American accent, "I'm Jack Harkness and by the way, you're dead?"

"That's Captain Jack Harkness, if you please." Jack smirked. "Hey, do you fancy dinner tonight?"

"Jack, we have dinner almost every night."

"I mean a proper date. Let's go out to a restaurant. Tosh seems to have perfected her Rift Predictor program and it's showing nothing for a whole two days."

"Then she hasn't perfected it. It has to be wrong. Two days? That's unheard of." Jack laughed and clapped Ianto on the shoulder.

"Oscar's Bar? 7:30?"

"Are you paying?" Ianto asked and Jack nodded enthusiastically. "Okay then, Oscar's it is but make it eight. I happen to have this post mortem to finish, you see, and the boss will want to report on his desk by tomorrow, won't he?"

TWTWTW

"Ianto, all you've done for the last half hour is talk shop." Jack was sitting across the table from the doctor and watching him intently as he forked mouthfuls of pasta into his mouth and chewed appreciatively. Oscar's was quiet, an intimate little place with low lighting and gentle music.

"Sorry, Jack." Ianto stared at him as he ate, watching the flickering candle light catching Jack's grey eyes. "You pick something to talk about then."

"Last time I did that with a dinner date, I had to retcon him afterwards." Ianto laughed and Jack chuckled at the sound.

"Good job we work together then."

"I wish we didn't sometimes… Sometimes I fantasize that I'm a normal guy and that I work in an office somewhere…"

"Oo, careful, exotic things, offices," Ianto remarked.

"Yeah, I know. Office romances, photocopying your…"

"Quite," Ianto agreed, one eyebrow arching upwards, eloquently. Jack grinned. "It must be hard," Ianto was looking at him with sympathy. "Not leading a normal life, I mean."

"Sometimes," Jack agreed, studying the tablecloth for a moment.

"You're amazing, you know…" the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Jack's head snapped up and his gaze met Ianto's in surprise. "Well, you are… I mean, you're immortal. You've lived through so much history. You saw the Victorian age first hand." Ianto stopped, and Jack could almost hear the cogs going round as he thought. "Do the bad points really outweigh the good ones? Or did you hate it too much to see the positive stuff?"

"I'm not sure there was any 'positive stuff'. I'm from the 51st Century, Ianto, I was never able to alter timelines by telling anyone anything, I watched people die because I couldn't hasten technology and change anything by telling people about the stuff I knew. The only people I did that for was Torchwood. I taught them all CPR, because I knew they wouldn't share what they knew with anyone else. I could trust them with that, at least. I was an alien, after all, and as far as Torchwood is concerned, if it's alien, it's ours. Arming the human race against the future and all that. They used my knowledge if it could help them survive or do their jobs better and I was able to give them that much. The only thing I refused to do was let them use anything of me because I have no idea what it might do. I wonder sometimes if you could clone me? I mean…" he chuckled. "What would happen if I got dismembered? Would a separate Jack Harkness grow back from every part? Too risky. It's the reason I don't want to fall out with you over using my blood."

"I see now. I'm sorry I got so frustrated. I could see a potential resource going to waste."

"I know, but it really is too unknown to risk, Yan. Really, no detriment to you as a medic but you can't know everything."

"I know. I just…I want to do my job to the best of my ability, that's all. You hired me, I don't want to disappoint you."

"You won't." Jack's warm smile held promise. "You wanna blow this place and go home?" Ianto swallowed, nodded and drained his beer while Jack got up to pay.

They walked home through busy streets, Ianto's feet taking them unerringly to his flat. He knew what was going to happen now. He would invite Jack inside, they may or may not get around to having coffee—that depended on how horny Jack was—and then they would go to bed and spend the night, as they usually did, making mad passionate love to each other. Ianto had to admit to himself, he was as much to blame as Jack on that score. They had become a couple in so many ways over the last few weeks. Jack was still resisting it in some ways, but he seemed to be heeding Ianto's warning that he didn't do casual. He was trying, at any rate.

As Ianto unlocked the door, his phone buzzed. Unable to reach it, it went to voice mail and stopped. Jack's began to ring almost as soon as Ianto's stopped. He studied caller display and muttered "Owen," before thumbing it open and answering with a curt "Yeah?"

Ianto went inside and left Jack to it, heading into the kitchen and switching the coffee machine on but in no time at all, it seemed, Jack was calling him.

"Ianto, emergency! That was Owen at the Hub, they need us."

With a resigned sigh, Ianto turned off the coffee machine and left quickly, pausing only to grab his car keys—they had walked to the restaurant from his flat—before following Jack at a run. The evening was, so far as Ianto was concerned, not going to follow its predicted course. As far as Torchwood went, however, a disrupted evening was entirely typical.

"I thought you said Tosh's predictor program said it was going to be quiet?"

"I did, and I have complete faith in that. This might very well not be Rift related."

"True enough, it might not be."

"I wonder if the darling of Cardiff CID has anything more for us?"

Owen phoned again with a rendezvous address in Lisvane. Another murder had taken place and the Police were already there. Ianto drove a little faster than was safe but the traffic light converter that Tosh had rigged changed the sequence of lights to allow them smooth sailing all the way to Lisvane.

This time the house was in a more salubrious part of the city, set in half an acre of grounds surrounded by trees. It was screened from the road by a high hedge and a long drive lead to the front door.

"Nice place," Jack commented, seeing the black SUV parked ahead of them on the gravel. Owen stood there waiting, Tosh scanning the area from inside the car. Jack looked at Owen and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you waiting?"

"DI Swanson," Owen scowled. "She wanted to speak to you before any of the rest of us started disrupting her crime scene. I said we couldn't wait but she was adamant."

Jack shrugged. "Any luck with our first victim's computer?"

"I left the program running on it. I hope to have something for you by tomorrow morning…"

"Captain Harkness…!" the scathing voice reached him from the door to the mansion. "So, you claiming this one as well?"

"I am, Gloria, I am. Why wouldn't you let my team in ahead of me? We're losing valuable time here."

"Because I'm a little sick of this cloak-and-dagger need-to-know crap. I am a law enforcement officer, appointed by Her Majesty's Government to protect its citizens. I've worked hard to get where I am and I've earned my rank." Her implication was clear that he had not. "You seem to think you can ride rough-shod over that. This is the second murder in 24 hours. Now I want to know if I need to be worried about a serial killer and what I need to do about it?"

Jack paused and looked at her carefully. "Gloria…"

"And you can start by treating me with a little more respect. My name is Kathy. Use it or fuck off!" and she turned tail and walked inside. Ianto smiled. Owen looked at the floor. Jack looked surprised.

"Was it something I said?"

"Way to go, Jack," Ianto said, trying to suppress his laughter. "I thought she was very restrained."

Inside, the walls and floor and ceiling were liberally coated in arterial spray. Someone had attacked in a frenzy. The body of a young woman lay sprawled on the mat before the fireplace and Ianto checked her over finding similar wounds in her back to the young man from earlier in the day."

"So what do these two have in common?" Kathy asked. Jack had allowed Kathy to stay this time. She was prowling round the house restlessly, thoughtful and quiet. "No ideas, Captain? I thought these were your cases?"

"We're working on them. The first one was stabbed with a knife of rather unusual origin. This one seemingly has the same injuries. So that suggests the same assailant. Or does it? We have no idea if there are two knives or if there is some hidden connection. Okay, Kathy, you want to work with us on this? What does your database say on injuries like this? Anyone else been attacked with knives like this in the past?"

"I can find out for you. Anything else? Like motive?"

"We need to establish a connection between these two. Clubs, membership to anything, seen together, and if they knew each other, how did they know each other? We have to find out what she's been doing for the last few weeks." Jack had modified his behavior toward the policewoman somewhat and seemed to be getting more out of her. "I could do with a liaison from your department. What about it, Kathy, someone who can work with me?"

She paused. "So now you want to poach someone from me, is that it?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of a liaison. We could work together better then."

"I'll think about it," was all she said.

TWTWTW

"Mellissa Wright, Caucasian female, late twenties, hazel eyes, long straight black hair, most probably dyed. Wearing false eyelashes, makeup, glitter dust on skin of face and throat. Ligature marks on the neck, fractured hyoid bone. Suggests strangulation, bruising present on back of neck consistent with garroting." Ianto paused the recorder and frowned at Jack. "She was going out for the evening? Maybe meeting someone, or maybe she'd just come back from being out with someone."

"Possibly. Kathy is tracing the woman's last movements."

"I find it odd that in each case they've been attacked twice, you know? I'm thinking that the knife injury was done first, in both cases." Ianto frowned. "Why the second injury and why was it different in each case?"

"Like an experiment maybe? Not sure, but I've a horrible feeling there are going to be more before this is done. The only thing we can say is, the more there are the more information we will glean from them. Kathy's picked someone to come on board with the liaison thing, by-the-way."

"Oh? Who's the poor sap who pulled the short straw then?"

"Apparently its a she. She's a young copper who is very keen. Kathy thinks we'll hit it off immediately. She said she daren't send me a man…" Ianto laughed.

"Wise woman. Besides, you're mine and I don't share."

"Oh really, doctor, is that so?"

"Yes it is. You'd better take note. If I find you with anyone else, I can be very vindictive."

"Oh, really? You can, can you?"

"Oh yes…" Ianto's eyes lost their focus for a moment, and then one of those incredibly sexy smiles lit his face. "Let's just say, I know a lot of ways to use a lot of my equipment in a very uncomfortable way…"

"Top that off by wearing a UNIT cap and I'm your man…" Jack's face split in a megawatt grin and he almost danced up the steps from the autopsy room. "Besides," his voice floated back down to Ianto's ears. "I love your equipment…."

TWTWTW

Ianto recognized the dark-haired Valley Girl with a gap-toothed smile and an innocent demeanor, who stood at the cog door entrance when it opened on Monday morning. "Good God, Gwen Cooper?" Ianto smiled.

"Ianto? Dr Jones? Jesus on a moped, who'd have thought it? I wondered where you'd gone. They said at the hospital you'd left."

"You asked about me?" Ianto smiled at her as she stepped into the Hub, eyes wide at the expanse of underground cavern.

"So this is the underground lair then?" she asked. "Well, when I didn't see you, I just enquired. They said you'd moved away. Nothing about working for this lot."

She was one of those wide-eyed rookies who was amazed by everything she saw. "I've heard of you, sure," she said to Jack, trailing after him as he took her on The Tour, as Owen liked to call it. She seemed a lot like an eager puppy to Ianto. Jack showed her a Weevil, her first alien. "You never forget your first Alien..." Owen quipped, drawing an un-ladylike snort from Tosh. They had watched as Jack had taken her to his office and sat her down and given her the rules and regulations to follow. She was seemingly lapping it up.

They all ate Chinese together later, round the board room table. Jack laughed and joked and Gwen looked suitably impressed, then he got up and excused himself.

"Need a pee, sorry. Talk amongst yourselves..." Gwen watched him go, eyes on the back view.

"He's...um...very good looking, isn't he? So, I'm dying to know... Is he married?" Gwen asked. Owen smirked and Ianto coughed and Tosh grinned. "What?" Gwen said. "Come on..."

"Jack isn't... like other men," Owen said.

"Aw, damn, you mean he's gay?"

"Not...exactly. He's... well, it doesn't matter to him what you are."

"No," Gwen looked suitably horrified. "You mean, he's done it with aliens?"

"Stop winding her up, Owen..." Tosh looked exasperated. "Gwen, Jack is taken. He and Ianto..."

"You? You and he are..." Gwen's eyebrows rose. "No, really though?" Ianto nodded, chewing his crispy chicken thoughtfully. "Well, I never."

"I'm back, kids, did ya miss me?" Jack bounded back and sat down, then looked from one to the other while everyone carefully avoided his eyes. "What? What did I miss?"

"Nothing, Jack, we were just telling Gwen how varied the job is," Tosh said with a smile.

"That has to be the understatement of the year," Jack grinned. " So, anyway, I was telling you about our last visitors, that alien sight seeing party from Proxima Venturus..."

TWTWTW

"Well, she's as nice and innocent as I remembered her," Ianto commented. "We'll soon knock that out of her."

"She's a nice kid. Not sure she'd cut out for this place though, liaison or no Liaison." Jack poured them both a whisky and sat back in his chair. Ianto took the offered glass and sat opposite.

"Give her time. I think she'll adjust."

"So, anyway, any more you can tell me about of bodies?" Jack asked.

"Not much. I've written the report. I'm really not a forensic scientist though, Jack, I might be missing things. You ought to let the SOCOs deal with this. You might have more information to work on if you did."

"Cannot take that chance. You just gotta do the best you can. You're doing fine from where I'm standing."

"You said yourself, you have no experience of this, though. So forgive me if I suggest you're not best placed to judge."

"Look, Ianto, you are a doctor. You are the only one we have right now. Do your best."

"I think you might be better giving this over to UNIT, they have the facilities and more experienced staff..."

"No, I don't trust UNIT. There's only one UNIT man I know who I would trust and he retired ages ago. The Brigadier is the only one with any integrity." Jack was adamant. "That's my last word on it, Ianto, don't ask me again, please."

TWTWTW

"Ow! Oh, careful...ow...Ianto..."

"Owen, stop moving..."

"I can't! Ow! that hurts!"

"It's going to, especially if you don't stay still for me. You got shot, what do you expect it to feel like? Now, will you hold still? This needs dressing..."

"But it hurts, a lot. I'm only a computer tech, I never signed up for this field work, I'm bollocks at it."

"Owen..."

"Owen, take it easy." Tosh stepped close and put her arm round his shoulders. "I know it's a tough one but hang in there and let Ianto do his stuff. Don't fall apart on me. After Adam..."

"Adam?" Ianto queried.

"Yeah, Adam," Owen replied. "Nice bloke, we used to have a laugh."

"What happened?"

"He died," Tosh said unnecessarily and then blushed. "Sorry, that was obvious."

Ianto smiled. "How?"

"He was attacked by weevils one evening as we were all heading home," Owen explained. "They were being organised and controlled by some alien that dropped through the Rift. Three of them waited while we split up, then they followed him. By the time we got to him, he was bleeding out. It was less than a month since our doctor had been killed. We had no one who could do anything for him, he was dying." Tosh was near to tears. Ianto wondered how close she and this Adam had been. "Jack is a rough and ready field medic at best. He tried, but it was too late." Owen looked at Ianto and sighed. "We've been... ow... muddling through..."

"Adam was an alien," Tosh went on. "He was a friendly one, he dropped through the Rift a couple of years back and Jack helped to rehabilitate him and gave him a job with us. We miss him, its been hard. First Chad, then him..."

Ianto reached for an anesthetic spray and misted it along the bullet graze on Owen's ribs. The bullet had ricocheted, so it didn't have the force of a head-on shot, but the injury had the appearance of a whip lash, raw and bloody. The spray took effect almost immediately, much to Owen's relief. He leaned on Tosh and closed his eyes. Ianto finished dressing the wound and finished up by giving Owen a dose of antibiotics followed by a tetanus shot, then ordered him home.

"But we're already a man down, Suzie..."

"She'll be better soon, but until then, we'll deal. You need painkillers and rest now, so go. Tosh, go with him, see him into bed and then come back to the Hub. I'll clear it with Jack. Owen, you're off fieldwork until further notice, you got that?" The man nodded and eased himself gingerly to the floor. Tosh helped him dress and then they both left.

TWTWTW

"Jack?"

"Yes, Ianto, what can I do for you?"

"My, you're cheery considering we nearly got wiped out this afternoon by an alien pimp."

"I'm fine."

"You died."

"So? Not permanent, not important. Next?"

Ianto sighed. "I've sent Owen home. He needs rest and time to heal. Tosh has gone too, I told her to come on back, though, once she had seen him settled."

"Tell her not to bother. The predictor program is working fine, there's nothing on the cards until tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay, about that..."

"What?"

"Staffing levels. You'll be watching the Rift on your own again. We're seriously undermanned, Jack."

"Always been this way. Haven't we had this convo before? We manage."

"Precisely. Ever wondered if that's why we lose people so often?"

"Small team, moves faster."

"Jack, we're not a terrorist cell."

"Some aliens wouldn't agree with you there."

"Okay, but the small team is currently made up of your doctor, your computer tech and your scientist."

"Your point being?"

"Specialists, Jack. Since when do you put your specialists in the field?"

"Since forever. We've always worked this way."

"Bollocks, Jack. You have the authority. Change it. Recruit more people, before its too late."

"Too late for what?"

"For the earth, Jack. Ever thought we might fail one day? Because there are not enough of us to manage?" Ianto turned and left the room, leaving Jack staring at empty air. Ianto headed for Owen's coffee machine, trying to figure it out in the man's absence.

Jack found him staring at it a short while later, nonplussed. The thing was a mystery. A hand came over his shoulder, turned a nob and flicked a switch. The machine gurgled into life as Jack leaned casually against the work top and met the doctor's eyes with a smile. "Horses for courses," he said gently. "The powers that be suggested that too many people would compromise our secrecy, make us too public."

"So we're the most public secret organisation the world has ever seen as a result? We ride around in an SUV with TORCHWOOD emblazoned on the side."

Jack laughed. "Blame Alex for that one. Look, we had to balance doing our job with keeping quiet about it for as long as we could."

"And if we don't have enough people, we'll fail. You lost a doctor, you lost Adam not too long ago. This is a dangerous job, Jack. Maybe you ought to be telling Gwen that?" Jack handed him a mug of coffee and Ianto sipped thoughtfully. "Sorry, Jack, not as good as Owen's."

Jack dug him in the ribs. "I'll remember you said that." he sipped his coffee and grimaced. "Hm, know what you mean, though..."

Ianto smiled and followed him back to his office. "I'll call Tosh," he offered.

"You do that, and I'll call the Brigadier."

"The Brigadier?"

"My UNIT contact. He's retired but he still has the smarts and the contacts. I'll take his recommendation about new people."

"Then you'll do it? Recruit more field agents?"

"I'll consider it. Even if only to cover us on a temporary basis until we're back on track."

Ianto nodded and went to give Tosh the good news. He didn't push further. He knew when it was time to back off and let Jack come to his own conclusions.

***

The morning had begun quite nicely. Bright sunshine lit the Plas and made the fountain glitter, the bay was calm and the tourists were at a minimum. He sauntered over to the Tourist Centre and let himself in, feeling a little like the Man From Uncle. He chuckled. The Man From Torchwood. Well, there was a secret underground base behind an innocuous Tourist Office façade, they all took part in covert missions to save the world—and occasionally Splott—from annihilation, among other things. Actually, Owen had voiced his opinion on more than one occasion that where Splott was concerned, it would have been kinder not to try saving it.

"That's unfair, Owen," Ianto had countered. "There's nothing wrong with Splott, or Splo' as Estate Agents like to pronounce it."

"Yeah, okay, nothing a small, strategically-placed nuclear missile wouldn't cure..." Ianto had glowered at that but Owen was un-cowed.

"Morning!" Ianto called out as he walked through the cog door. That was the moment when things began to take a turn for the worse. Nobody answered. Normally by the time Ianto arrived Owen had already been there an hour, having made the morning coffee for everyone before getting on with his work. Normally, Jack was in his office drinking said coffee and going through letters and paperwork that Owen presented to him along with the coffee. Equally normally, Tosh would also have been in place behind her desk but she had further to travel and often the traffic was bad. All their cars were fitted with GPS and GDL. Owen had called it a Global Disruptor Link, software in their cars that allowed them to alter traffic light sequences to turn green, smoothing the way through in an emergency, as well as allowing the jamming of speed cameras and police radios; although they tried not to abuse its use, however tempting, Tosh had been known to 'test' it on her way to work. Obviously she hadn't done so this morning otherwise she, too, would have been there.

A quick search on the Hub's life signs monitor showed was no sign of Owen, nor anyone else for that matter, despite Ianto seriously worrying sometimes that Owen would actually show up on a life signs monitor in the first place. The man could sometimes act as if he'd crawled out from under a rock. The Pteranodon was in her nest, but Jack wasn't in his office. Suzie was presumably still at home, suffering. He really ought to make a house call on that one if she didn't show soon. Ianto shrugged, knowing it likely the alarm had gone off before he arrived and they had probably all attended the call-out. He decided that he had better get on and prep the medical bay just in case they got back in a worse state than when they had gone out. Jack still hadn't managed to hire anyone new although he had begun the process. Getting new staff could take weeks.

Ianto tried a comms unit to check in and see where they were but there was no answer. He flipped open his mobile, curious as to why there was no message. He usually got a text from either Tosh or Jack if they were out on a mission, but there was nothing. He tried calling Tosh but all he got was her voice mail. Ianto left a short 'call me' message. He tried Jack's number and got his voicemail too so he left another message. He was unable to connect to Owen's number at all. Okay, now this is officially getting weird, he thought. He tried calling Suzie. She didn't pick up either. He left yet another message. Then he thought to ring Gwen.

"Hello?"

"Gwen? Hi, it's Ianto. Dr. Jones? Torchwood?" He tried to keep the relief out of his voice that someone was answering.

"Ianto, nice to hear from you. I tried to call Jack earlier but he isn't picking up..."

"You haven't heard from him then? I was rather hoping you might have. There's no message, nothing?"

"Nope, not a thing. Why? Is something wrong?" Ianto told her briefly and she said she would come right over. He put the phone down, thoughtful and not a little concerned. Hearing nothing from any of the team was more than unusual, it was downright worrying. Think, Jones. How do I proceed with this one? We need to establish what happened. Ianto went first to Owen's work station and brought up the cctv logs. He watched as the team were to be seen arriving that morning, time stamped a little over twenty minutes before he got there. He watched as Jack's land line rang and he answered it, expression growing darker as he listened. Moments after he had put the phone down, they went out the cog door in a hurry. His last words were "We have to go, now!" before leaving at a run. Tosh and Owen had followed obediently. Of Suzie there was no sign. That was, by now, little under three quarters of an hour ago.

Okay, think. He tried to calm down and think rationally. How to find out what's happened? CCTV again? See if I can track them. Unfortunately, Tosh had never run him through her programs or what they could do and he felt like he was wading through treacle. He managed to see the SUV leave the garage, pull away down Bute Street and disappear. Then he ran into a fog of not knowing how to pull up another camera. He was sitting like that when the alarm blared and the cog door rolled back and Gwen appeared with PC Andy in tow.

"What is he doing here?" Ianto asked bluntly.

"Charming," Andy retorted. "I've come to help. I am—or I was before you lot got your claws in her—PC Cooper's partner..."

"Sorry, Andy, no offence but this is supposed to be a secret base," Ianto replied. He felt churlish. The man had only come with Gwen to offer help and he needed all he could get right now.

"Secret, my eye." Andy Davidson's eyebrows rose expressively. "If it was so secret you wouldn't drive around in an SUV with Torchwood on the side, would you?"

"That's what I said," Ianto grinned and Andy shook his head in exasperation.

"You and your spooky-dos. What's happened then?"

"The team are missing. Usually, I get a text or a phone call to tell me they're on a mission; in case they come in damaged and need help, or need emergency care in the field. However, this morning I got here and nothing, zip, zilch, nada." He quickly filled them in on what he did know, which was pitifully little. "Can you put out a call in case anyone has seen the SUV? In fact, can you ask if anyone knows where it is already?"

"Sure, I'll call Control." Andy said, and thumbed his radio.

"Are you sure there's no mistake?" Gwen asked. "I mean, they might have run into problems with reception, if they've gone up into the mountains?"

"Believe me, our comms units work under really difficult conditions and they never go out without them on, ever." Ianto sighed.

"What exactly happened this morning? Every detail, Ianto. What do you know? Go back over it again..."

"I got here, about 0800. There was no one here; I called out as I came in the door, got no reply. I checked the CCTV and found they'd gone out... No, I tried calling them first, but all I got was Tosh's and Jack's voicemails. I left a message on each mobile. Suzie's not answering at home either and she's supposed to be off sick. I couldn't connect to Owen's number at all. It was then that I pulled up the CCTV..."

"What did you see?"

"Jack got a call...then they all left..."

"Who was the call from?"

"How should I kn...damn it! Of course. It came in on the land line." Gwen got to it marginally faster than he did and hit 1471.

"Caller withheld. Who knows this number?" she asked.

"Not many people. Your boss calls it, the PM, the Queen..."

"The Prime Minister?" Her voice was awed. "The...the Queen? Now you're taking the piss..." but one look at his face changed her mind. Ianto wasn't in the mood for joking.

"Yes, the Prime Minister, and yes, the Queen..." Ianto sighed. "We're a Crown Department, we get paid by the Crown. The Queen knows this number...as does Prince Charles and Prince William."

"Hang on." Gwen dialed a number and listened. "Hello? Bryn? It's Gwen, Gwen Cooper? Look, can you do me a trace on this number? I need all the calls made to it over the last..." she paused looking expectantly at Ianto.

"Oh, hour? Hour and a half?" he suggested.

"Hang on, Bryn. When was that CCTV time stamped?" she asked Ianto.

"Jack got the call just before they left around 7.40am." She checked her watch.

"I need the number of a call made to this phone around 0740 this morning and any calls before then for the previous twelve hours." There was a pause. "Yes, Bryn, I do have the authority. Look, tell DI Swanson it's to do with the on-going investigation into the knife murders and she can authorize it. We need this fast, Bryn. Please." She listened for a short while then put the phone down. "Sorry, he's being an ass because I'm not a DI."

"Don't worry. I'm not exactly head of Torchwood...." Ianto sighed. "Damn it, I'm a doctor, not a computer tech!" He threw his hands in the air. "I have no idea how this works. Should have thought of the phone thing myself..."

"You're not a police officer either. It's okay, Ianto, you're doing your best."

"It might not be enough. I need to see the CCTV from Bute Street and try to follow the car out of the city, to see where they went, but this is like wading through molasses." He was concentrating so hard he jumped when the phone rang. He picked it up to hear Kathy Swanson's voice down the line.

"What the hell is going on? Harkness?"

"Sorry, Detective Swanson, this is Dr. Jones, Ianto...I'm afraid the Captain isn't available right now..."

"Doctor, please tell me you've found something out. There's been another one..." Ianto frowned.

"Another one, what?"

"There's been another murder..."

"When, exactly? Did anyone telephone Jack this morning?"

"That's what I've been trying to do, but he's not answering. I presumed he knew about it, you lot always seem to be informed."

"I got here to find the team gone and no one has left me a message which frankly is against even Jack's disregard for protocol. Did you or anyone from your office call Jack at 0740 this morning?"

"I got in at 7.30am and tried to call him at eight but not before then. I'm the only one with his number so I doubt anyone else would have tried from my end, why?"

"PC Cooper requested a trace for this line from... your end," he paused, having no idea which department dealt with that kind of thing. "I wonder could you lend your authority to that request. Apparently there was some question over it because she isn't a DI..."

"I'll get on it."

"Thanks. I wondered also if any of your colleagues in Traffic have seen the SUV this morning?"

"I can ask that as well. If I hear anything, I'll call."

"Where is the murder, by the way?" She gave an address in Penarth.

"My boys are already there. Do you want me to hold off?" Kathy Swanson was asking him if she should hold off the investigation. Ianto frowned. Technically, in the absence of the others, he was Torchwood. Damn it all, he was the only one left...

0o0o0o0o0o0

"So, we have a white male, mid-sixties, overweight..."

"Diabetic to go by the contents of his medicine cabinet..." Andy supplied, coming back into the room from the bathroom.

"Thank you for that. Brown eyes, ginger hair..." Ianto looked at the blood splatter and sighed. "Stabbed, again."

"What was the time of death, can you estimate?"

"Ambient temperature... maybe a few hours ago, not much longer..." Ianto sighed. "Maybe not even that long..."

"Ianto, what is going on?" Gwen asked. "Summarize for me?"

"We've had a series of murders, you know that much, yes?" Gwen nodded. "There is no common factor in the victims, no correlation between age, sex, religion or any other bloody thing. So far as we know, none of the victims knew each other, none of them were in any way related. The only factor that links them is the weapon they were killed with. Any ideas?"

"Did they belong to any societies, same library even? A club, pub, darts team, internet site? Nothing at all?"

"I left Jack to go through that. So far as I know he didn't come up with anything significant."

"Same blood group?"

"Nope. I checked that one."

"Okay. Same color eyes?"

"Nope. Physical features came up zero. None of them are the same."

"So they are similar then. If you look at the fact that every detail is different..." Gwen paused at his blank look. "Well, it's like a logic problem. Whatever is true, the obverse must be true as well. If every detail is different, then they might have been chosen because they were all different, which makes the differences a common factor. You certain they are all completely different?"

"Yes, I am. We've had women and men, young and old, rich and poor and all points between. We've had a housewife and a Lawyer and a librarian. Blond and brown and now ginger, as well as blue, green and hazel eyes, now brown. Caucasian, Asian, West African, English, Welsh, French..."

"So maybe we can see a pattern from this. The differences might have been deliberate, like a scientific experiment." Ianto frowned and glanced at Gwen who was staring at the body intently.

"That is bloody brilliant." Ianto was appreciative. "I never considered that angle. So who would be doing experiments like that? The knife is alien-looking. This guy's wounds look very similar to the others but without making a cast of the wound I can't be sure."

"Are you saying this could be an alien attack?"

"It's possible."

"Another similarity," Gwen pointed out sagely. "So, they have more in common than you think."

"I kept telling Jack I wasn't a SOCO," Ianto sighed. "This needs someone with more experience."

"Don't beat yourself up. You've not done badly. Even the SOCOs work as a team then they transfer their information across to the detectives assigned to the case to put it all together. Seeing as you're only one man, I think you've done great."

"Thank you, I think. I'm not a medical examiner though, I'm a doctor." Ianto sighed. "And this gets us no closer to working out what's happened with the rest of the team."

"Okay, we know they left twenty minutes before you arrived. CCTV shows them leaving town down Bute Street and heading north. They didn't break any speed limits or the cameras would have picked them up, so..." She paused as Ianto cleared his throat.

"Actually, we have a piece of tech that allows us to jam them."

"Jam them?" Gwen squeaked and Ianto nodded.

"Okay, so we have no idea what happened to the team after they left Cardiff. They may or may not have been going at speed." Judging by the speed that they vacated the Hub it was being treated as an emergency by Jack.

"You get to where Suzie lives down Bute Street. I wonder if they were going to pick her up along the way?" Ianto mused.

"Suzie?" Gwen frowned.

"A colleague. She was off sick with flu when you came the first time." Ianto felt as if the answer was staring him in the face. "The first victim was a dealer in alien artefacts," he said absently.

Andy's radio crackled and they all paused as he answered it. "The SUV has been found. It's in a layby in the Brecons," he said. "The local coppers have secured the scene. I've asked for the police helicopter to overfly the area, just in case."

"Thank you, Andy. I'll gather it was empty." Andy nodded a little mournfully. "Okay, well, we have something to go on."

"There is another car at the scene too, a small 4x4, silver..."

Ianto frowned. "That sounds like Suzie's car..."

***