A/N: rather random, I apologise. Not sure how to explain so it's probably best if you just read it! I was also trying ever so hard to be sober when I wrote this right of the top of my head so let me know if any of it doesn't make any sense, ta.

This IS linked to my other story A Companionable Diary which is the diary of my original companion Ella Marlowe but you don't need to read that to understand this, it gives a bit more of an understanding of her and the Doctor's relationship and history – and it might be interesting?!?

Slight Confusion

As the buzzer above the door announced someone entering the messy office Ianto Jones looked up, ready to take the food that had been ordered without his knowledge, give out a years-old tourism brochure or some very precise instructions that would lead whoever it was as far away from the hub as was possible.

He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the sparkling laughter held in the hazel eyes looking down on him.

"Hello!" the girl smiled, running a hand through her long brown curls, her natural good humour showing through the secret joke she held in her eyes. "I was wondering if you could tell me where I am."

There was no blush accompanying this strange request and she gave the air of having asked the same question so many times before that she was now impervious to the image it created for her. Ianto was forced to blink before he could answer; there was a mesmerising quality to her eyes, that they had seen more than could ever be imagined, strange in a face so young.

"Cardiff." He managed this one word only after clearing his throat several times. Annoyed by his reaction he tried to tear his gaze from hers but was unable to break the spell before her next words caught him again.

"Really?" she sounded delighted, like something had just been revealed to her. "And what's the year?"

Ianto was definitely thoroughly confused by now but she didn't seem to notice as she waited with politely enquiring eyebrows for his answer.

He managed a bemused and questioning "Er-2007?" before her phone rang. Laughing at his answer but blatantly not at him she answered it, not even bothering with a conventional greeting.

"Guess when we are!"

Even her style of conversation was strange, but also enticing and mysterious, hinting at a whole other way of living a life.

"Yeah, right" she was talking again and with a generous lacing of scorn. "4768 you wish. Its 2007, and Cardiff. No points this round, mate."

To the obvious but silent accompaniment of talking at the other end of the line she rolled her eyes and grinned at Ianto again, as if inviting him to share a joke he was far from understanding.

"But it doesn't – can you just – hang on a minute – stop –" she sighed and raised her eyes to the heavens or the dingy ceiling of the fake and intentionally dirty tourism office Ianto presided over. "Just stop moaning! It's not the first time you've been wrong and it won't be the last so let's move on." She raised her voice over the other's protestations. "Look on the bright side, we can go and visit Jack!"

There was happiness and glee clear in her voice now and Ianto began to feel some suspicions, there was only one Jack he'd met in Cardiff that could fuel these sort of reactions. But the strange girl was frowning again.

"Yes! That is a bright side!" she admonished down the phone. Ianto felt a surety that the other half of this conversation was in the possession of a man that had some interest in the buoyant, fascinating girl standing in front of him. "Well, fine, but I'm leaving a message."

She hung up as abruptly as she had started the conversation, seemingly secure in the knowledge that she would soon see the man on the other end of the phone.

"Can you do me a favour?"

With the full force of her smile turned upon him Ianto could do nothing more than nod. Without bothering to live up to his usual meticulous standards of noting all messages down on carefully categorized notepaper, Ianto Jones memorised the brief message delivered to him. With a ghost of a wink that she had unknowingly learned from someone else, the girl turned and was soon lost to the night.

When, mere minutes later, Captain Jack Harkness, followed closely by his team, entered Ianto's office he found the Welshman still in some sort of daze. With a few snaps of Jack's fingers in front of his eyes Ianto was brought back to earth and acknowledged his leader.

"I've got a message for you. She said that if I ever met a Captain Jack Harkness I was to tell him that Ella Marlowe says hello and sends her love and that she would have visited but the old man was being really moody about not landing in the right place or time zone."

To everyone else's complete surprise Jack burst out laughing. When he recovered he seemed to suddenly understand Ianto's state when they had entered. He put his hand on the younger man's shoulder, looked into his eyes and smiled.

"She's something, no?"

Ianto could only nod, bereft of speech once again at the mere memory of those few moments he had shared with the time travelling girl. Jack chuckled again and led the way outside, happier than ever before to defend the earth with everything he had, even though at that point he was actually going out drinking with the others.

A/N: this wasn't how I meant to start this series of one shots but I suddenly had the idea when I was bored at work and it seemed a good way to begin – also it has Jack and Ianto and Torchwood and mystery and the Doctor being moody in it so its all good!

Please review, it makes me feel happy! xxxx