"Tosh, have you got those reports yet?" Asked Jack, as he strode into the room and tossed his coat over a chair.
"Yep. Three known sightings in Cardiff, all right before incidents." She replied, staring intently at the page that was scrolling on her screen.
"Incidents?" Asked Gwen, stepping forward for a closer look. "What does that mean?"
Owen joined the conversation, "Stuff that was covered up - Aliens and the like."
"By us?" Gwen wondered.
Owen snorted. "Definitely not. We're much better at covering stuff up than this."
"So you think this guy is connected to the incidents then?" Asked Ianto, passing coffees around to everyone.
"I reckon so, yeah."
"But what happened? If these were Aliens, and it wasn't us that stopped it, then who was it?" Asked Gwen.
"Gwen Cooper, asking the right questions." Said Jack, grinning at her. "Who is this guy, and how is he connected. We need to launch a full scale investigation. Ianto, look his face up on the data base - name, adress, anything you can find." Ianto nodded, and turned to a computer. "Tosh, Gwen, I want you to find out more about these 'incidents'. Gwen, go to the Police if you have to, but stay connected." He was interrupted by a ping - an alert. "Owen, we're going into the community - door to door asks, that sort of thing." Owen nodded, and they left, Jack scooping up his coat and gun on the way out.
"Right, I'll go to the Police Station then, see what I can find out." Said Gwen, and the other two nodded, engrossed in their computer work.
There was a silence, with only the sound of hurriedly typing fingers, until, "Tosh, is this database broken?" Asked Ianto, and she leaned over to look.
"It shouldn't be. Why?"
"It's not getting a match - not one. There's no files on this guy anywhere."
"There's absolutely nothing. At all? That shouldn't be possible." She flicked open a new tab, and searched the database again. The same message flashed on the screen 'No Match'.
"It's almost like he doesn't exist." Ianto mused. "I hope the others are getting on better."
*****
They weren't.
"Are you sure there's nothing?" Sighed Gwen, still looking hopefully at her former colleague. The woman was tall, wearing an immaculate police uniform, and looking slightly bored and frustrated.
"One hundred percent sure." She replied. "We had no reports of strange sightings there on the 21st, 10th or 11th."
"Doesn't mean there weren't any." Muttered Gwen, to herself.
"What was that?" Asked the woman.
"Nothing." She shook her head. "So you definitely weren't called to that area on any of those dates?"
"No."
"And what about this man? Any interactions with him over the last few months?"
The woman looked down at the picture Gwen had placed on the table.
"Surely if they own the place, Torchwood should be able to do this kind of thing for themselves." She muttered to herself, just loud enough for Gwen to hear. Gwen would never have admitted it, but it kind of stung.
"Nothing." Said the woman. "The force hasn't arrested him, or met him on a call out." She said this with some degree of finality. "Now, I've got other things to be doing than Torchwood's admin, so..." She clicked the compter off and brushed past Gwen, who was hurt by the rudeness.
"Right," she said, feeling obligated to speak, though the woman had left. "Thanks anyway."
******
"Nothing." Said Gwen, slamming the photo on the desk and slumping into her chair. "No strange reports from the days he was seen, and they haven't had any contact with him. What did you lot find out?"
Ianto swivelled round to face her. "Nothing. No birth cirtificates, photos, family members...It's like he's not a real person."
"Everyone leaves a digital trail - even the smallest and seemingly insignificant actions leave footprints - but not this guy. There's absolutely nothing - apart from the three occasions when he was seen. April 21st, May 10th, and June 11th. I can't understand it." Tosh added.
"Tricky..." Mused Gwen, and she was about to open her mouth to say something, when Jack's voice crackled over the earpiece. She could tell by the looks on the other's faces that they'd heard it too.
"We've seen him, and we're following. Tosh, track his location. Gwen, Ianto, take the SUV."
They leapt into action at once, and within two minutes the black car was roaring down the road, Ianto at the wheel, receiving directions from Tosh.
"Left, left again, right....." They careened around a corner, far exceeding the speed limit, and Gwen gripped onto the sides of her seat, her knuckles white.
"There. You've got them." Came Tosh's voice over the intercom.
Gwen and Ianto leapt out to see a black man, of average height, wearing a long brown leather coat.
"What on earth are you doing?!" He asked, staring at Jack and Owen, who both had their guns cocked and pointed at him.
"You're gonna have to come with us. We need to ask you a few questions." Said Jack, keeping calm, but not lowering his weapon.
"Jack? Seriously, what are you doing?" He asked.
"How do you know his name?" Asked Owen, looking to Jack for the next instruction. But Jack wasn't listening, he had lowered his gun slightly, and was looking at the man, as if something was slowly dawning on him.
"Hold on....are you?"
The Doctor grinned widely, throwing his arms out.
"Doctor!"
Jack dropped his gun altogether, rushing forward to hug the Doctor.
Ianto, Owen and Gwen watched on incredulously, as the scene unfolded.
"What's going on?" Asked Tosh.
"Erm....we're just trying to work that out.." Replied Ianto slowly, his eyes, like the rest of them, glued on the unfolding reunion.
"I like the new face..and the outfit!" Said Jack, as the Doctor laughed.
"And you, of course, haven't changed a bit! Especially the guns."
Jack looked sheepish. "Yeah, sorry about that. We thought you were a threat that had come through the rift."
"Jack, sorry, but who is this?" Interrupted Gwen, finally voicing the question they'd all been thinking.
"This is the Doctor."
"Hi, I'm the Doctor." He grinned and leaned forward, shaking Gwen's hand. "You must be Gwen. And Ianto. And Owen." He shook each of their hands in turn. "And Toshiko, you can probably hear me, Hi!" Ignoring the startled faces, he continued. "It's nice to meet you! Well, I've met you before, of course, but you haven't met me..." This bizarre statement did nothing to quell the confusion, so Jack stepped forward, laying a hand on the Doctor's shoulder.
"Everything's a bit wibbley-wobbley for them. They're a time-traveler, you see - events happen a bit out of order."
"Right." Said Gwen, nodding, but still looking like she was wrapping her brain around something huge - which she was.
"And you two...know each other well?" Asked Ianto, sharing the same look as Gwen.
"Yeah, we've been friends for a while." Jack smiled. "But it's been ages..when was the last time we saw each other?"
"The end of the world." Said the Doctor, knowing fine well that this cleared nothing up.
"Yeah, you're gonna need to be a bit more specific than that"
"Different face, Daleks - you broke me out of prison."
"Did I? Well, well-done me!"
"Not got there yet, have you? Well, I won't tell you anymore, spoilers and all that. I actually do need to be off, there's someone I need to check on."
"There always is with you, isn't there?"
The Doctor shrugged.
"What have you been doing in 2005 Cardiff recently anyway?" Asked Jack, "Don't you run the risk of bumping into past you, causing a paradox, or whatever you call it?"
"Well, yeah, but there's always that risk. I've just had a couple of alerts about non-rift related alien incidents. I was wondering if they were connected. But now I've really, really got to go."
"So, to be clear," Said Owen, because it was the only thing he could understand about this bamboozling situation. "We've been tracking you, and you've been tracking aliens?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Right, at least that's cleared up then."
"Do you have to shoot off so soon?" Asked Jack.
"D'you wanna come?" Asked the Doctor, grinning at him.
Jack looked around at his team. "No, I was right the last time."
"So that's where we are. Just after the year-that-never-was. Gotcha."
"Well, bye then. See you soon."
They hugged.
"You will."
"You know, in any other context, that would sound really ominous."
The Doctor only laughed, waving as he rounded the corner, presumably heading in the direction of his Tardis.
Jack turned to the gang, who were standing, dumstruck, behind him. "Well, come on."
He climbed into the SUV, obviously expecting them to follow. And they did. Slowly.
"You know," said Gwen, to no one in particular, "I've seen some bizarre things on this job, but that was by far the strangest."
I'm watching Torchwood at the moment, and I keep getting ideas!
I promise this book won't be all Torchwood fan fictions from now on, but I hope you enjoyed this one! Thanks so much for reading, please vote and comment if you liked, or if you have a suggestion, and I hope your year's going well!