I don't own them. I own Apanie Bara.

This is my first Torchwood fic. We've only seen about 4 eps here in Australia. Anyway, classification is:

Adventure/Drama/Romance Jack/Ianto Jack/OC (Apanie Bara).

Spoilers: 1x07 - Greeks Bearing Gifts. Loved this ep! Poor Tosh!

Blurb: When an Australian anthropologist from Jack's past finds an alien artefact in the Australian outback, Jack is forced to let her work with the Torchwood team in an effort to discover more about it. The team are bemused to find that their new acquaintance knows Jack very well...but not as well as Jack would have liked her to! Jack/Ianto, Jack/OC (will probably end up Jack/Ianto).

Feedback: Feedback is always welcome. This story is incomplete so if you'd like to read more, please leave feedback so that I know I should continue.

AN ETERNITY

Toshiko Sato sat staring blankly at her computer monitor. She'd stayed late into the night to run diagnostics on the Torchwood system in a vain attempt to occupy her mind and take her thoughts away from the horrors she'd witnessed over the last few days. But her thoughts kept drifting back to Mary and the way she'd made her feel like…more than just Toshiko Sato, more than a Torchwood agent…administrator. More than the sad, lonely woman that the other Torchwood members apparently pitied and thought so little of.

She heard footsteps fall behind her but didn't bother to turn around; she really didn't care anymore.

"Tosh?" Jack's voice broke through the gentle humming of the computers around her. She didn't answer, didn't give any indication that she'd heard him. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him

"Tosh, are you ok?" his blue eyes were filled with concern. Tosh tried to give him a smile, but it was a soggy tear-filled gesture that only served to convince Jack that she was far from being alright. She found herself gathered up into her boss's arms as he dropped fatherly kisses upon her head. Wrapping her arms around him she let out a frustrated sob and then dissolved into tears.

"I think you need a new member of the team" Tosh told Jack softly after she'd finished crying. They were sitting in his office drinking brandy. Leaning forward slightly, Jack's eyes hardened

"You're not quitting Tosh" he told her in a gentle, but stern voice. Tosh shook her head, no.

"I think…I've been thinking, Mary was right. We're just invaders Jack. That's all we do. We take technology, and capture aliens and sort out everything we need to and yet we still don't know anything. We don't even attempt to learn anything from the life-forms we capture; not about them, their worlds, their lives, their beliefs. I decoded a letter once Jack, did you know that? A real letter! An alien letter to an alien family. They're just like us, but we don't see that. We don't look for it! I think…" Tosh took a deep breath "I think we need an anthropologist on the team"

Jack remained silent for a long moment, staring at Toshiko like he was trying to pry open her mind to find out what was going on. He fell back into his chair and regarded her over the rim of his brandy glass as he took another sip.

"The 21st century is when it all changes Tosh. And I can guarantee you that anthropologists have absolutely nothing to do with that"

"Jack –"

"Tosh, anthropologists…they're….they're not even scientists! Their entire life involves asking intelligent people stupid questions!"

"You're really only interested in the technology" Toshiko stated in a glum acceptance of the reality she was living in "it was only a suggestion Jack. I just thought…well I just thought it would've been nice to know more" she stood up and headed for the door "I'll see you tomorrow Jack".

"Tosh? If an anthropologist literally falls into my lap tomorrow, I'll think about hiring them ok?" he made a small attempt to adhere to her suggestion. Toshiko gave him a small smile

"Thanks Jack"

"Hi, I'm looking for Jack Harkness"

Ianto looked up from the administration desk to find himself looking at a woman with dark brunette ringlets, piercing green eyes and an arm-load of books.

"I'll see if he's in ma-am" he told her, trying to size her up before picking up the phone

"Sir, there's a woman here to see you…by the name of…"he paused, nodding to the woman who filled in the blank

"Apanie Bara"

"An Apanie Bara" he clarified to the man on the phone. He heard the other end click down firmly.

"I'm sorry Miss Bara, but Mr Harkness is currently –"

"Apanie!" Jack stood in the doorway staring down at the woman who stood nearly a foot shorter than him. She gave him a wry grin and attempted to wave around her books. Jack strode over to her quickly and relieved her of her burdens, then took a step back. Ianto noted with an almost jealous curiosity that his boss, and lover, seemed almost scared to even touch the visitor.

"Hello Jack" Apanie greeted him, touching his arm briefly and giving him a half-smile when he visibly flinched. She seemed to take some sort of perverse pleasure in making him noticeably uncomfortable "I'm sorry, I forgot." She told him softly, and then added "I thought you'd be over it by now"

Ianto watched the encounter closely, noticing the way Jack swallowed heavily and then gruffly muttered

"I'll never be over it. I told you"

"I should go then" Apanie told him with a sad smile, picking up her books "It was good to see you again Jack…no matter how briefly" She turned and headed for the door, and Ianto watched Jack's face betray his internal struggle.

"Don't! Don't go" he finally told her, his shoulders sagging in defeat.

"Come in and meet my team. See the facility. It'll be good to…to catch up" Jack told her. Ianto opened his mouth to protest, but shut it again as Jack gave him a look that he couldn't quite understand. Jack was an enigmatic man who seemed to draw others to him, Ianto knew the lure of his boss's charms all too well. As long as Jack took an interest in him, he was content to let his boss keep himself to himself. This woman, however, unsettled him. Her eyes were intense and appealing, and more disturbingly, Jack's charms didn't seem to affect her at all.

"Apanie, this is Torchwood. Gwen, Toshiko, Owen, and Ianto was at the front desk"

Gwen and Owen looked up from their game of cards, Gwen waved and sent her a warm smile, Owen looked her over unabashedly; Toshiko turned from her computer monitor to send a friendly smile her way. Apanie smiled back at the women and met Owen's gaze steadily after his eyes finally found hers. She gave him a slow, easy grin and a small wink. He blushed and ducked his head, and Apanie rolled her eyes as she heard Jack smother a small chuckle beside her. Looking up at him, she asked

"Where's my office?"

"This way" he muttered, leading her up to his office overlooking the Torchwood base.

Once they'd left the room, Owen voiced the question on everyone's mind

"Who, was that?"

"Someone he worked with before Torchwood?" Toshiko wondered aloud

"Ex-lover perhaps" Gwen mused thoughtfully as her eyes wandered up to the large glass windows of their leaders' office.

Inside she could see Jack and Apanie deep in conversation. Jack's charming smile seemed to have little effect on the woman, unlike Gwen who went weak at the knees at his mere presence. She blushed furiously at her own thoughts, and ducked her head back down and continued to play her card game with Owen.

"One of my students found some interesting artefacts on a recent dig" Apanie informed her oldest friend. He seemed happy enough to see her, despite their last heated parting almost 60 years prior.

"A dig? What are you working as?" Jack asked with a sinking heart, his thoughts flashing back 60 years to when he'd watched her walk off into the sandy Sahara Desert with only a bottle of water and a sad smile on her face.

"I'm an anthropologist. I work at the Australian National University" Apanie informed him "I always said I had an interest in cultures and…old things" she winked playfully at him and he bit back the flirtatious remark that came immediately to mind.

His heart sank fully into his stomach as he realised that an anthropologist had just fallen into his lap. He'd promised Toshiko he'd hire one if it happened…he just hadn't bargained on it happening, let alone the anthropologist turning out to be one of the very people whose mere presence unsettled him.

His strong attraction to Apanie Bara had been apparent from the very moment the two of them had met over 6 decades earlier. She hadn't changed at all in 60 years. Her secret, unlike his, was not immortality, but rather an unusual alien artefact that had been given to her upon the death of her mother. A small, metal bracelet that once placed on the wrist of a person would merge with their skin and DNA making them seemingly immortal until it was removed, usually forcibly. The bracelet had been in the family for generations, and it was only Apanie's unluckiness in having been left orphaned that allowed her to make the mistake of placing the bracelet on her arm when she uncovered it amongst her parents belongings years after their deaths. Jack knew of the bracelet and its powers. He new this woman very well, almost better than he knew himself, and yet she intrigued him. He loved her desperately, and whilst he was certain of her love for him, he was unsure of her attraction to him.. He'd tried for years to get her attention; he'd ached for her and dreamed of her. When she'd left, he'd cried for her; for his closest friend and his almost-lover. She'd never even let him kiss her…

Jack picked up the old leather bag she'd brought with her and started to unpack its contents onto his desk, only to receive a hard smack on the back of his hand on its second trip back in. He whipped his hand away and stared at Apanie with amusement and affection

"You know you're the only one who would ever get away with that" he told her in a soft, intimate voice. Apanie chuckled and shook her head

"That's just sad Jack. Very sad. You need a good ass-kicking every now and then I should imagine"

"Are you offering?" Jack's comment slipped out before he could sensor it. He expected a deluge of insults to be aimed at him, but to his surprise, Apanie cocked her head to one side and gave him a small, sentimental smile

"Jack, the only ass-kicking I'll be giving you is a proper one. Not the type that, say…Ianto the house-boy would give you?"

"He's not a house-boy" Jack said quickly, and Apanie let out a quiet laugh

"Oh dear, see now, that was just a guess. I actually thought it might have been Gwen for a moment. How big your ego must be now, with at least two team members fawning all over you"

"They do not fawn all over me" Jack grinned, knowing he didn't sound in the least sincere.

"Everyone fawns all over you Jack. Men, women and aliens alike." She told him with another smile.

"You never did" Jack's voice changed, became serious. He shifted closer to her and she held her ground, turning bright green eyes up to gaze at him thoughtfully

"No, I never did"

"I wanted you to" he told her, shifting his head closer

"That was the problem Jack" she told him quietly, turning her head and shifting so that she could start unpacking her bag. Jack let out a soft sigh and ran a hand through his hair; he turned his attention back to the contents of her bag.

"What have you got?"

"I'm not sure. There are engravings on the artefacts but of course, I couldn't make them out because I don't have access to other similar artefacts that might help me compile some sort of written language database, or a catalogue of symbols or…anything. I don't like finding this stuff Jack. I don't like it being on my planet, and I don't like the fact that it just 'slips through'"

"Where?"

"Where what?"

"Where did you find it? Where did it 'slip through'?"

"Outback Australia" she admitted softly, knowing he wouldn't like her answer

"You went back to Australia?" he enquired in a surprised murmur.

"It's where I belong Jack…you always knew that"

"And the artefact's, they were buried…or just found at a dig site?"

"Buried. We unearthed them near a midden in North-West Queensland. There were a number of Aboriginal tribes in the area around 40,000 years ago, but obviously we're just taking a guess at the age of the artefact. It's most likely much older than that…Jack I haven't notified the university about this…and I slipped some retcon into the grad student's drink soon after he handed it over to me."

"Ok, well…thanks for bringing it to us. We'll try and figure out what it does" Jack told her in his most professional voice, pulling himself out of her personal space.

"Jack…I want in on this" Apanie told him as she placed a hand on his arm to stop him from walking away "You can't shut me out of this. The retcon won't work on me, you know that"

"Apanie –"

"No Jack. I'm in on this, or you're out. I'm not fussed on your current position one way or another. I don't care about Torchwood, but I do care about my artefacts, and I do care about you…your opinion I mean" Apanie met his eyes and forced herself to contain her blush to a minimum. She and Jack had an almost-history and she wouldn't allow her slip-up to let him jib her out of being a part of the team on this one. It was her artefact. She met his eyes with a steady gaze and saw the moment he admitted defeat. She grinned and threw her arms around him, standing on tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek

"Thanks Jack…you won't regret having me around" she told him, gathering up the artefact and heading for the ground floor of the Hub.

Jack slumped into his chair and let his chin drop to his chest

"Somehow I doubt that very much" he muttered to himself, quashing the memory of a night spent lying next to her in a tent in the middle of a forest, the dim lamplight flickering over her features as he watched her sleep.

"Toshiko?" Apanie quietly took a seat next to the petite Japanese woman, placing a couple of sheets of paper in front of her. Tosh turned to the new woman with a questioning gaze. Apanie smiled her friendliest smile

"I'm an anthropologist –" she started, but got no further because Toshiko had jumped up from her seat and stood staring up at Jack as he watched over them from the balcony above, her eyes were wide with surprise as she stared at him, her mouth slightly open. Jack grinned down at her and nodded once

"I hope you like your present Tosh" he smirked, turning and heading back into his office. Toshiko spun back to face Apanie

"You're really an anthropologist?"

"Yes, I'm a professor with the Australian National University" Apanie told her in a formal Australian accent

"And Jack…Jack asked you to work with Torchwood?" Tosh asked eagerly

"Well…" Apanie hesitated "Let's just say that Jack and I came to a mutual understanding" she told Tosh, giving her a small conspiratorial grin. Toshiko certainly didn't care how this newest addition had come to be working with her, but she felt validated. Jack had listened to her, had stuck by his word. Tosh sat back down and faced Apanie

"I once found an alien letter" she told her in a hushed voice, leaning closer to the woman with the bright green eyes that sparkled with interest and amusement

"Why are you whispering?" Apanie whispered her question and Toshiko looked over at Owen and Gwen, then at Ianto serving coffee

"The others…it's all about the technology. I accept that, but I want to know more about what we're dealing with; I want to know more about the alien life-forms that keep slipping through the rift. They write letters, so they are intelligent and have cultures and beliefs and families and…so much more than just their technology" Tosh's small speech was rushed and breathless as she searched Apanie's eyes for the acceptance that she knew she'd find from an anthropologist. She wasn't let down

"You know…all higher life-forms have some form of culture and society" Apanie informed her with a smile "I'm glad to find someone outside the discipline who can understand the attraction of studying these types of things" Apanie pointed to the papers she'd set on the desk

"These are some of the markings I recently copied from an alien artefact found in North-West Queensland, in Australia. Do they look at all familiar to you? I figure that they're some form of alien hieroglyph system, but without anything else to compare it to I really can't come up with anything that might help us translate it."

"Do you know what the artefact does?" Tosh asked with interest, but Apanie shook her head

"That's why I came to see Jack. I'm not used to digging up alien artfacts. Middens, burial sites, old human artefacts yes, but not alien'

"How long have you known Jack" the question was out before she could sensor it and Tosh blushed "I'm sorry" she said "that's not really any of my business I suppose"

"No worries" Apanie laughed "I've known him for…oh…60 years now"

"What?!" spluttered the little Japanese woman "60 years?"

"What's 60 years?" Gwen asked, and Owen also looked up with interest

"Uh" Apanie looked between the three of them, unsure of what to say next. An arm wrapped itself around her shoulder and she breathed a small sigh of relief as she heard Jack's voice

"Apanie and I met around 60 years ago. But we really don't need to be concentrating on that, do we?" his intention to avoid the topic completely was clear in his tone, and the Torchwood team nodded and ummed their affirmations.

"I guess you two will be pulling an all-nighter then" Jack turned his back to Tosh and Apani. The two women looked at each other and grinned. Apanie gave Jack a soft shove to send him on his way as she laid her sketches in front of Tosh so they could get a start on deciphering their puzzle.