Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Torchwood .

Summary: A year ago an 18 year old Anastasia Nixon caught the attention of Torchwood when she helped save her school from being overrun with aliens. Now, a year later, she is second-in-command and loving her life. There's just one problem... Captain Jack Harkness. Will Anna be able to cope with the fact she may never fully hold Jack's heart? After all she thinks that to Jack she might always be ... just a weapon.

This is for all the Jack fan girls out there who thinks Janto is HOT. But still wishes for a story that won't remind them that no matter how hard we try Captian Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) will never be ours *cry*... besides there's too much Janto on this site anyway.

The cool breeze whipped across my face, blowing my hair back behind my left shoulder. I was standing at the top of my high school in Cardiff, looking out over the town. In the distance I could see the water tower that signalled where the Torchwood base was situated.

Suddenly I felt a pair of warm, strong arms encircle my waist.

"You're gonna get cold," the American accent whispered in my ear. His breath was warming the back of my neck and gently moving the strands of my hair.

"You gonna keep me warm then?" I asked playfully.

I gasped as my captor lowered his head and began kissing the curve of my neck.

"Something wrong, Anna?" he asked innocently when he stopped.

"Like you don't know," I panted, trying to calm my racing heart.

Suddenly I was spun around and was looking up into the handsome face of Captain Jack Harkness. His ice-blue eyes were sparkling mischievously and his lips were curved into that gorgeous smirk that I loved. He bent his head towards me slowly and I tilted mine up to meet him.

"ANNA WAKE UP!!!"

I jolted awake and looked around. I was lying on the couch in the Torchwood hub.

"Well you must have been having a good dream," a voice to my left remarked.

I looked and saw Jack leaning against the doorframe to his office. I glanced at my watch. It was only five thirty in the morning but he was dressed in his usual military uniform. I agreed with Gwen and Tosh. The classic look suited him.

"How would you know I was having a good dream?" I asked him and he shrugged innocently, saying with a suggestive smirk, "Well if the erratic breathing and red cheeks have anything to do with it, then it must have been good." I ducked my head muttering 'shut up' and blushed, which was quite understandable, considering what I had been dreaming about and who I was currently talking to. He let out a laugh, then came over to sit next to me, concern etched on his handsome features as he asked, "Anna, what are you doing here? You left late last night and today's your day off."

"Well I ... I mean ... there was a..." I stammered as I desperately tried to wrack my sleepy head for a plausible excuse. Why hadn't I thought up my cover story beforehand? Jack wasn't buying any of it.

"Anna," he said, the warning clear in his voice.

"I had another fight with my parents," I finally admitted quietly and in a rush, hoping he wouldn't hear me if I kept my head lowered. No such luck.

"What about?" he asked.

"Oh you know – the usual argument," I tried to brush it off but Jack grabbed my chin, forcing me to look into his sceptical ice-blue eyes.

"It's nothing to worry about. I'll go back tonight, I promise," I reassured him, covering his hand with my own. We were so close to each other that I could smell the addictive scent of spices and sandalwood that I had come to associate with him and I felt my stomach tighten with butterflies.

In truth, this wasn't the first time Jack had found me early in the morning sleeping on the hub's sofa after an argument with my parents.

I was still living with my parents. There was no point in me getting a flat, as I was never there anyway. Still, lately I had been falling out with my parents a lot more than usual and it was usually over one thing... my work.

If they weren't complaining about the hours, they were complaining about how they didn't really know what I was doing, or if they weren't complaining about that, they were complaining about how I was too young to have a job like this. True, I was still at school and it was also true that I was about to take my A-levels but I had a steady well-paid job that I loved and I had been doing for a year. Personally, I believed they were jealous of the fact that I was earning almost as much as both of them put together.

At the age of nineteen, I was the youngest member of Torchwood. But Jack saw some potential in me when he met me and hired me after I had helped them when my school had been overrun with aliens. I was good with weapons and was already skilled with bows and knives and fairly proficient at hand-to-hand combat. Now that I was with Torchwood, Jack had also taught me how to use a gun. When Jack had offered me the job I had been a bit surprised that he would take me on while allowing me to still go to school. So I came up with a routine. I would spend my days at school then go straight to work and after that I would usually be back home around midnight. Occasionally I would get lucky and I would even be pulled out of school for a mission. Needless to say... I loved my job.

A year later I was named second-in-command after Suzie died. I was confused about that too but, according to Jack, Gwen was the new girl, Tosh didn't have the right attitude for a leader and Owen would let the power go to his head, so that left just me as an option. Right now (apart from my parents) I thought my life was pretty great.

"Anna, are you sure you don't want to take a break for a few weeks? Your A-Levels are coming up soon and you need to sort out this thing with your parents."

I sighed in exasperation.

"Jack, I don't wanna go over this again. They're just worried because they almost lost me once and don't want it to happen again. Only, now they're taking it to the point of obsession and they need to back off."

Jack held up his hands in surrender. He didn't want to have an argument again anymore than I did. He had been trying to get me to take some time off for a while. I knew he wanted me to hold onto my life the same way he was urging Gwen to, but it seemed with me he was more adamant that I hold onto as much normalcy as possible. It was probably because I was younger than everyone else, but I was actually very mature for my age, and that was what I loved about working at Torchwood – they treated me like an adult. When I was with them I might as well have been in my late twenties or early thirties the way they treated me. They didn't have a problem with me being second-in-command or with taking orders from someone younger than them. I think it was that fact which made Jack want me to keep my life outside Torchwood so badly. He wanted me to act like the teenager I should be. But I didn't want him to see me as a teenager... I wanted him to see me as the woman I was.

My computer beeped from across the room, jolting me out of my thoughts. Moving over to the monitor I brought up the alert and frowned at what I was reading.

"That's strange," I muttered as I hit the print button.

"What is it?" Jack asked, still sitting on the couch.

"It's this case I'm working on. People have been going missing along this same stretch of country – seventeen of them within the last five months. They just disappear and no one can find any trace of them. The last one was reported missing yesterday. The police are spending less and less time looking into the disappearances, as the number of people increases and none of the bodies have ever been found. I wasn't sure if there was anything to it but I kept an eye on the case, and now it looks like the police are giving up," I told him as I gathered up all the work I had collected and walked over to Jack, handing him the files. I sat next to him in silence, watching him scan over the contents. He looked up and grinned his Cheshire cat grin.

"Pack your bags and round up Gwen and Tosh. I'll get Owen and Ianto. We're going on a trip to the countryside."

It looked like I wasn't going home tonight.

"I hate the countryside."

I half-heartedly listened to Owen's rant as he sat in the passenger's seat. Jack was driving and Gwen, Tosh and Ianto were squashed into the backseat. Meanwhile, I was happily perched on one of the equipment boxes behind the back seat, watching the grassy fields roll by the window.

"It's dirty, it's unhygienic. And what is that smell?" Owen continued.

"That would be grass," a bored-sounding Gwen said.

"It's disgusting," Owen twisted to look at her.

"Owen, if you're not going to sit back and enjoy this beautiful landscape, then on the way back I'll take the shotgun and you can sit in the back," I told him. Needless to say, that shut him up pretty quickly. Gwen, Tosh and Ianto all turned to me and mouthed 'thank you.' I settled back down to watch the countryside with a satisfied smirk.

About half an hour later Jack pulled in next to one of those burger trailers. We all got out and while Ianto went to get everyone (bar me and Tosh) a burger, the rest of us got out the map and laid it out on the hood of the SUV. Jack, Gwen and Tosh bent over it while I hopped up onto the hood, sitting next to Jack.

"Right, Jack, do you mind telling us what we're doing out here?" Owen asked, looking around the landscape as if it was the last place on earth he would rather be. Which, in all fairness, it probably was.

"Seventeen disappearances within the last five months. Police are clueless," Jack came quickly to the point, as always.

"Now there's a surprise," Owen interjected, adding with a teasing smile at Gwen, "No offence, PC Cooper."

"The last known whereabouts of each of them is somewhere around here," Jack continued, ignoring Owen's interruption, and pointed at the map.

"All within a twenty-mile radius," I added.

"Hold on! How did she get to know about the case first?" Owen asked with a definite whine detectable in his voice.

"'Cause I was the one who found the case, you idiot," I said with an innocent smile. Owen and I were always acting like quarrelsome siblings.

"Might have known that you were the reason we're out here, freezing to death."

"It'll do you some good, city boy. Get some colour in your cheeks," I retorted.

"Anything else linking them?" Gwen asked, trying to get our minds back on the case.

"None of the bodies have ever been found," Jack told her, shaking his head. "These people just fell off the radar. No patterns in age, sex, race. One minute they're here, the next ... poof. Gone."

"The rift doesn't spread out this far, does it?" Gwen asked.

"We don't know that much about it to be certain. And it's increasing in activity all the time," Jack said.

"Come on, aliens aren't gonna bother hanging around out here. Probably some sort of weird suicide club with people choosing the same spot to end it all. God knows, if I had to spend too long up here, I'd want to top myself," Owen gestured to the miles of uninterrupted landscape.

"That can be arranged," I glared at him.

"Here you go. Careful, they're hot," Ianto said, handing the others their burgers and sparing me a retort from Owen. "Sure you don't want anything, Tosh? Anna?"

"Really sure," Tosh said as I shook my head.

"A friend of mine caught hepatitis off a burger from one of these places," Tosh added and I had to stifle a laugh as everyone holding a burger froze. Jack gingerly put his burger down on the hood.

"We'll start with the most recent victim, Ellie Johnson," he said.

"The last record we have is her making a phone call. Her signal cut off mid-call. The coverage map has placed her... somewhere about here," I pointed at a stretch of road.

"Looks as good a place as any to set up camp," Jack said, looking at us.

"Sorry, did you say 'camp'?" a disbelieving Owen asked incredulously, his burger frozen halfway to his mouth.

"Honestly, Owen, what did you think we meant when we said 'Pack your bags'?" I asked.

"You two are serious?" he looked at us, his eyes flicking from me to Jack and back again.

We just smiled.

"What's the matter with a hotel?" Owen moaned as he and Jack grabbed the last of the tents out of the SUV. The other two tents were finished, so I was practising my archery against a nearby tree.

"People are going missing round here. D'you really wanna stay in a place run by strangers?" Jack asked him.

"'Cause sleeping outside is a lot safer," Owen retorted.

"No other race in the universe goes camping. Celebrate your own uniqueness," I heard Jack say as they dropped the tent onto the grass. I always wondered how he knew that stuff, but he kept his past a secret from the rest of us. I felt privileged that Gwen and I were the ones he trusted with the secret that he couldn't die.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" I turned to see Owen shouting and looking helplessly at the gear on the ground.

"Shouting at it is not going to make it magically put itself together, Owen," I said and he glared at me.

"Need a hand getting it up, Owen?" Tosh asked, eager to help him.

"If I did, I wouldn't ask you," he told her before turning back to the tent. I wanted to hit him as I saw Tosh wilt before my eyes at his blatant dismissal. When she turned and walked away I noticed Gwen watching her too with a suspicious look. Was everyone else completely blind to Tosh's attraction to Owen? Owen kicked the tent gear in frustration and I couldn't help but want to get some payback for Tosh. Drawing one of my arrows I nocked it and fired it towards the ground next to Owen's shoe. It hit its mark with just enough impact to make Owen jump in surprise.

"Jesus Christ, Anna!!! What was that for?" he shouted.

"Sorry, it was a muscle spasm," I said, turning back to my target so he wouldn't see my grin. I could hear him muttering about how he'd show me the muscles spasm in his arm if I fired at him again and I couldn't help but grin wider.

I felt a presence behind me as I nocked another arrow and didn't have to turn around to know who it was.

"You wanna tell me why you shot at him?" Jack asked, but I could tell he wasn't angry.

"I didn't shoot at him... I shot near him. He was being rude to Tosh. Actually, come to think of it, he's been purposefully obnoxious all day," I said, drawing back the string and anchoring it to my jaw.

"Well, just make sure you don't misjudge the target. I don't need the doctor of the team limping around because he pissed off the second in command," he warned me but I could tell by his voice he was smirking. I took a deep, cleansing breath and released the arrow. It flew through the air and landed next to the other one, right in the middle of the makeshift target. I turned to look at him with a smile and asked sweetly, "Since when do I misjudge a target?" before turning back, nocking the last arrow and pulling the string again.

"True but you might want to..." he began, then I felt his warm hands applying light pressure on my shoulders, forcing me to relax a little, "...relax your muscles a bit. If you keep them tense constantly you'll tire out quicker. If you keep them relaxed, you'll be able to shoot for longer."

I forced myself to concentrate on the target rather than Jack's close proximity to me. My heart was already speeding up in reaction to his nearness. He was as close to me as he had been in my dream. I forced myself to breathe and released the arrow... and again it hit dead centre. I turned around to face him and tried to say something, hoping he would put the redness of my cheeks down to the cold air, when I heard Owen shouting again.

"Some pieces are missing!"

"Nothing's missing. I checked," Ianto said, going over to help the idiot put up the bloody tent.

Grateful for the distraction, I went to pick up my arrows as Jack headed to help Ianto and Owen. As I pulled out the last one and put it in the quiver on my back, another feeling crept up my spine. The hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood up. It was like that feeling you get when someone's watching you. I looked around the camp, but no one else seemed affected by it, so I just shook it off.

"Oh, come on! It's just a bit of fun! Who was the last person you snogged?" Gwen asked Owen as she and Tosh went through the camp gear on one of the tables set up in the centre of the tents.

"See? You even sound like an eight-year-old! Who the hell says "snog"?" Owen snapped, still frustrated over the tent. Jack and Ianto had decided to leave him to his own devices, since he was acting like a complete jerk when anyone tried to help him.

"Mine was ... Rhys!" Gwen declared.

"Yeah, well, there's a surprise," Owen muttered. To be fair it was a bit of a no-brainer.

"Anna?" Gwen asked me and I looked up from my seat on one of the benches where I was polishing my bow.

"What?" I asked feigning stupidity.

"Who was the last person you snogged?" Gwen insisted.

"And she doesn't mean in your dreams," I heard Jack call from his perch in the front seat of the SUV.

"Shut up Jack!!!" I shouted blushing furiously and a look from Gwen told me she was going to interrogate me later.

"So who was it?" she asked. I sighed and gave in to her, hoping that if I answered she would leave me alone.

"Harry, a boy at school who has a crush on me. I don't want to go into detail," I said concentrating on my bow. In truth he wasn't that good a kisser but he was a sweet guy so I had decided to give him a shot. Never again.

"Okay, Tosh, your go," Gwen chriped, thankfully getting the message that I didn't want to talk about it. Unfortunately she turned to the one person who no doubt wanted to answer even less than I did. I mean, what's more embarrassing than talking about your last snog in front of the guy you like?

"It's easy for you!" muttered Tosh with a self-conscious laugh.

"Oh, come on! Spill the beans!" Gwen urged. I considered the police woman my best friend in Torchwood, but sometimes I wanted to hit her. Didn't she know that this was the very situation that Tosh would hate? Right now she seemed a bit oblivious to other people's feelings. The game was rapidly losing what little appeal it had in the first place.

"Owen." Tosh finally answered. I looked up from my bow in surprise. That was the answer I least expected.

"What?" asked Owen, clearly not believing his ears.

"Really?" breathed Gwen. Couldn't help but wonder at her reaction. She looked like she had just been told Rhys was cheating on her. Did she have a crush on Owen too? That didn't seem likely. She was with Rhys and she constantly defended him against any comments the team (i.e. Owen) would make.

"Tosh, in your dreams," Owen said. If he only knew. Tosh felt as strongly for Owen as I felt for Jack.

"Three in the morning, Christmas Eve, in front of the Millennium Centre. Waiting for a cab. I had mistletoe." I looked at Gwen as she sat down in shock. Surely she must have guessed by now – she was trained to read people and ask questions. You don't remember that much information about a kiss unless it meant something to you.

"Christmas?! You've not had a snog since?" Owen apparently was still trying to get his head round the fact.

"No," Tosh said curtly, turning to sit down on one of the benches.

"Well. Lucky me, eh?" said Owen in a tone that increased my desire to hit him. By this time everyone apart from Jack was sitting around the table.

"So who was yours?" Tosh asked Owen. His flipped water bottle a few times with a smile on his face that I really didn't like. He was about to do some serious shit stirring.

"Gwen, actually," he said. This time everyone looked at Gwen in surprise.

"When was this?" asked Tosh, sounding exactly like Gwen had a few minutes ago when she had learned that Owen was Tosh's last kiss. It seemed there was a bit of a love triangle going on there. Owen raised his eyebrows suggestively at Gwen.

"It was complicated," Gwen said, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone.

"Didn't take you long to get your feet under the table," Tosh muttered. The claws were beginning to show now.

"What?" snapped Gwen, even though she evidently heard her, but Tosh ignored her and turned her attention to Owen.

"So was it just a kiss, or ..." she began, trying to sound casual.

"Tosh, leave it." It was clear Gwen wasn't happy that her own game was turning on her.

I was relieved when I saw Jack put his clipboard down on the SUV seat and head over to join us. He would probably find some way of relieving the tension that was quickly settling over the group.

"Jack?" Owen asked, clearly thinking along the same lines as me. Jack settled himself down next to me on the bench before answering, "Are we including non-human life forms?" and sure enough the atmosphere felt instantly lighter. I even saw Tosh crack a smile.

"Jack!!!" I exclaimed just as Gwen cried, "Oh, you haven't!"

"You're a sick man, Harkness! That is disgusting!" Owen shook his head disapprovingly.

"I never know when he's joking," Gwen said, looking at me.

"Join the club," I shrugged, still trying to work out for myself if he was joking or not. Jack just laughed but didn't answer the question.

"It's my turn, is it?" Ianto spoke up. This wasn't going to be good.

"It was Lisa."

Yep, definitely not good. I watched Jack's smile fall and felt the sombre mood settle over us so thickly you could cut it with a knife.

"Ianto, I'm sorry ..." Gwen said quietly.

"Sorry she's dead? Or sorry you mentioned it?" he asked.

"I...I ... just didn't think..."

"You forgot," Ianto stated matter-of-factly, but it was enough to allow the awkward silence and guilt between us to thicken even more. I genuinely felt sorry for Ianto, but did he have to bring it up when the tension was running so high? The awkward silence was definitely getting even more so with each passing moment. The game had definitely lost all of its appeal.

"We should get some firewood," Owen broke the silence, clearly eager to get away.

"I'll give you a hand," Gwen got up and followed him. As they left, something told me that Owen was about to get an earful from Gwen for telling everyone about their kiss.

I couldn't stand the silence anymore and got up. I wasn't going to make an excuse... I just wanted to get away.

I walked over to the tree I had left my weapons against and began to arm myself. I liked cases like this because there was always a posibility that I could use my bow. In the city there were very few occasions where I got that chance but I always made sure it was in the SUV in case I needed it. It was more of a comfort thing really.

I had been practising archery since I was eight and my bow was my prized possession. As I grew older I began to practice throwing knives at my target as well as shooting arrows and taught myself hand to hand combat. It had been these skills that had prompted Jack to hire me in the first place.

I couldn't help but smile as I remembered Gwen's expression when she witnessed my skills with so many different types of weaponry. When I had first joined it had taken a lot of prompting from the others before I finally admitted why I wanted to be so efficient with weapons. The simple answer was that I didn't want to feel weak.

For the first nine years of my life my family and I had lived in Scotland and even though I was now nineteen I still spoke with a Scottish accent. But when I was seven I came down with a bad case of ammonia that had me bed-ridden for months. I had been held back a year in school because I had missed so much, which was why I was taking my A-levels now instead of last year. I don't remember much from the time I was ill. The one thing that stuck with me was the feeling of weakness and complete helplessness. There had been a point where I had gotten so ill they were almost one hundred percent sure that I wasn't going to make it, but eventually I pulled through. So when I was released from the hospital and got my strength back I made a vow to myself that I would do anything I could to prevent me from feeling that helplessness again. That was when I took up archery and I tried taking martial arts classes but I couldn't be bothered listening to the instructors yelling at everyone constantly. We moved to Cardiff just before I turned ten and, as a result, for my tenth birthday my parents had set up my own little gym in the garage of our new house complete with a punch bag so I could develop my own fighting style. My skill with knives developed after I turned thirteen, when I began throwing them against my archery target to see if I could hit it. They were still the only thing about my fighting that my parents didn't know about... and I intended to keep it that way.

I strapped my belt around me so it sat low on my hips. The belt was very useful as it held three knives along my back, one at my left hip and my gun on my right hip. I then slipped an extra knife in my boot and strapped my quiver onto my back. This quiver was custom made so my arrows wouldn't fall out or rattle about when I ran and it had a quick release clip that I could secure my bow onto. That way I didn't have to take the quiver off in order to attach the bow and it kept it out of the way if I was fighting or running.

Once I was armed I took my position facing the tree and whipped out the three knives at my back throwing them at the bark.

Thud. Thud. Thud. They all it their mark in a very close grouping.

"Frustrated?" I heard a voice behind me.

"Hey Tosh," I greeted then nodded in answer to her question. "Yeah a bit. Fun game huh?"

"Tell me about it," she said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "It's easy for Gwen, she's got a steady boyfriend. Do you think Owen was telling the truth about their kiss?"

"With the way Gwen reacted? Definitely," I answered, walking up to my target and prising the knives out of the wood. Gwen may have been my best friend in Torchwood but Tosh was more like my older sister. I could tell her things that I wouldn't dream of telling anyone else. I could tell Gwen things too, but she always liked a good gossip. Still, the three of us were closer than we had ever been with Suzie who had never liked me very much anyway.

"By the way I wanted to thank you."

"For what?" I asked

"For shooting at Owen for being such an..." she trailed off searching for the right word.

"Obnoxious jerk?" I offered and she smiled.

"Yeah. By the way what was Jack talking about when he said "she doesn't mean in your dreams"?" asked Tosh.

"Oh come on Tosh. I was expecting the third degree from Gwen but not you," I whined and started throwing the knives again, each one hitting its mark with a thud.

"Come on, tell me what he was talking about?" she persisted. I sighed and turned to concentrate on shooting again so I wouldn't have to look at her while speaking.

"He found me sleeping in the Hub this morning -" I began.

"Again?" Tosh interjected.

"Look do you wanna hear the story or not?" I asked, then continued as she kept silent. "Anyway, according to him my cheeks were flushed and my breathing was erratic while I was sleeping."

"What were you dreaming about?" she asked. I bit my lip wondering if I should tell her. But I didn't want anyone to know just yet. I wasn't ready to tell anyone.

"I don't remember," I muttered.

"Liar," Tosh said behind me. "Well when you're ready to tell someone I'm here."

"Thanks Tosh," I said, turning to look at her.

Just then Gwen and Owen burst into the clearing.

"What is it?" I asked, running up with the others behind me.

"Body... In the ... woods," panted Owen. All of us followed Gwen and Owen through the trees.

I leant by a tree next to Gwen as Owen, Tosh and Jack examined the larvae-covered carcass while Ianto was putting up yellow tape around the scene.

"Well, it's not Ellie Johnson, that's for sure," Owen concluded. "This is a male, late 40s, 50s. Wasn't killed here. No blood spatter or signs of a struggle. Must have been brought here after he died."

"Why do that? It's not like they've tried to bury him here," Gwen asked.

"Maybe you disturbed them and they ran away," Tosh suggested.

"Maybe it's a warning. Whoever's responsible is marking out their territory," Ianto offered.

"Something about this is bothering me. It doesn't make any sense to leave the body like this and something that finishes of their victim in that way doesn't strike me as the type to scare easy," I said, talking more to myself than anyone else.

"Cause of death?" Jack asked, kneeling down beside the body.

"Impossible to say. The body's been stripped of the flesh and bodily organs. So, all that's left is a carcass," Owen told him.

"Could the Weevils have come out this far?"

"No, Weevils don't finish off their victims like this," Jack shook his head.

"Guys, listen," I hissed, as my ears caught a noise in the distance. It sounded like an engine. The SUV's engine.

"Is that ours?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah," Jack exclaimed, springing to his feet and sprinting in the direction of the camp with the rest of us close on his heels.

We burst into the camp site in time to see the SUV flatten the tents as it drove over them. We all ran after the SUV and I heard Jack swear in frustration. Eventually we were forced to stop as the car headed towards the road, leaving everyone in the dust.

"All right! I've said I'm sorry!" I heard Owen shout as Tosh berated him for leaving some of the gear in the SUV. While the two of them bickered, Ianto was playing about with a piece of equipment, Gwen was looking at a map and Jack was pacing around as he tried to come up with a plan. Meanwhile I was trying to restrain myself from hitting myself for being so stupid. In this job I knew one of the most important things was to follow your instincts. I should have told Jack the minute I felt that someone could be watching us. No matter how stupid I felt about telling him, he'd trusted me on instincts like that before. He would have listened to me. Eventually Jack broke his silence as he looked around the ruined camp.

"Looks like that body wasn't a warning. More of a decoy."

"That would mean we've been watched since we've arrived," Gwen pointed out and this time I actually slammed my forehead with the palm of my hand.

"Tosh, can you get a tracking signal?" Jack asked.

"Already done. I took the liberty," Ianto interjected, waving the PDA in his hand. "It's currently 3.4 miles west from here."

"Gunning at ninety, no doubt. You steal a piece of equipment like that you drive straight on till morning," Owen said, ever the optimist.

"Actually, no. It's been stationary for the past four minutes. I'd go so far as to say it was parked," Ianto answered in that ever-present dry humour of his.

"There's a small village in that area. Other than that, nothing for thirty miles," Gwen held out the map to show us.

"Call me suspicious, but this has all the hallmarks of a trap," Tosh said, looking wary and Jack nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing." He paused for a beat before asking, "Anyone fancy a walk?"

"Mind telling me what you're beating yourself up about?" Jack asked as we followed the others.

"I felt it, Jack," I murmured, shaking my head in frustration. "I felt that prickling on the back of my neck that told me we were being watched. And I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything because I thought I was being paranoid. If I'd just told you then..."

"Hey I'm not having any of that "what if" talk, you got that?" Jack said sternly.

"But, Jack, one of the first things you told me when I joined Torchwood was that it was good to follow my instincts. It was one of the reasons you hired me in the first place," I argued.

"Anna, you're human. You're allowed to make mistakes. Anyway, even if we had known about it, we probably wouldn't have been able to do anything to stop the SUV being stolen. Whoever we're up against are pros. They've done this before."

"I guess you're right," I mumbled.

"Of course I'm right," he said smugly.

"Still no good with the modesty, Jack?" I asked dryly and he laughed.

"That's better. I like you more when you've got a bit of humour around you."

"Looks like we're there," I said as the others stopped and we looked out at a small row of buildings in the distance.

"Why would anyone want to live out here?"I heard Owen ask as Jack and I drew level with the rest of them.

"Because, believe or not, when people aren't going missing the countryside can be a very peaceful place," I said.

"Whatever," Owen grumbled in response.

"Has the SUV moved?" Jack asked Ianto.

"Not for an hour now," Ianto answered, checking his watch.

"Well, as much as I love countryside views, I think we should get moving. Being out in the open like this is making us easy targets." With that I jumped down from the grassy banks we were standing on and strode towards the buildings. I tried not to, but the only thing I could think about was that dead body in the forest. I wasn't really religious but at that moment I prayed that wouldn't happen to any of us.

We drew level with the small row of buildings when I felt something that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and I stiffened.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"It's that feeling again, like we're being watched," I told him. He nodded and spun around to face the others, giving his orders.

"Tosh, Ianto – follow the signal, find the SUV. Anna, Owen, Gwen ... Let's see if there's any room at the inn." He turned back and looked at the gloomy stone structure of what appeared to be the local pub.

Jack opened a door which led into the main seating area. The place was completely deserted. Jack signalled to us to look around. Gwen moved behind the bar and I heard Owen quietly teasing her, "Pint of best, please, love? And erm, yeah, get one for yourself."

Gwen levelled a look at him as Jack and I scoffed and continued searching. I turned at the sound of the cash register bell echoing loudly in the otherwise silent room. Gwen peered in the cash tray frowning slightly.

"Full?" I asked and she nodded, pulling out a roll of notes and inspecting them before placing them back down and looking around.

"Where is everybody?"she asked no one in particular.

Jack said nothing but motioned for Gwen and me to follow and headed to the back of the pub. The three of us made our way down a hallway with our guns pointed steadily ahead. Jack moved to investigate another set of rooms while Gwen and I moved toward what turned out to be the kitchens.

The room was a mess. Dirty plates, cups and pans littered the counter tops and the smell of rotting food saturated the air, and there was another smell that I couldn't quite place but knew I had smelt before. A small buzzing sound behind us made us spin around, guns at the ready. There was a bug light hanging on the wall. I felt the bile rise up in my throat as I began to piece together the pattern that emerged. The light attracted the flies which were attracted to the kitchens by the presence of food. But there was something else that attracted flies and also explained the smell that I couldn't quite place. I slowly looked down and saw what I was expecting laying in the pool of torchlight.

Another skinless, meatless corpse. About a foot away from where we were standing. I stared at the corpse in shock while Gwen ran out of the room. I heard her retching as she threw up on the floor. I heard someone else in the kitchen.

"You okay?"Jack asked a still retching Gwen

"In there," Gwen chocked out.

A second later Jack was beside me, Wembley raised, freezing as he saw the body. Owen passed Gwen in the kitchen with a cheeky, "That burger coming back to haunt you?" and stopped dead next to Jack as he caught sight of the body as well.

"Oh, my God ..." I heard him breathe out. I was still staring at the corpse in shock, only vaguely aware of what was going on around me – Gwen's retching, Owen and Jack's heavy breathing, my own heart pounding in my ears and the slam of a door somewhere in the distance.

"ANNA!" Jack's commanding shout pulled me from my trance and I followed him as he ran past Gwen and out the door.

"Gwen, come on!" I shouted as I ran past her.

The three of us burst into the courtyard. I holstered my gun and drew out my bow, fitting an arrow in case a long distance shot was needed. Gwen, still looking rather green, murmured, "Jack please ... something's going on here."

She was spooked and, I had to admit, so was I. It wouldn't be long before they noticed it. Generally the quieter I became the more scared I was.

"Let's take a look in here. Come on." Jack headed over to one of the houses.

"I'm going back to Owen!" I shouted, not giving him a chance to argue as I bolted back into the pub.

I made my way back to the kitchen and watched silently as Owen took samples from the body. He had turned on the lights and the body didn't look half as scary now that it was bathed in artificial light rather than the weak beam of the torch. Owen sighed and stood up looking regretfully down at the body.

"Whatever they were, I hope you put up a good fight."

"Is it bad?" I asked. At that Owen whirled around, startled and snapped, "Seriously Anna, you're as bad as Jack when it comes to that!"

"Comes to what?"

"Sneaking up on people," he answered tersely, then gestured to my bow. "You know that won't do you much good in here."

"It's more of a comfort thing right now, if I'm honest," I said, clutching the bow tighter.

"Getting spooked?" he asked sympathetically and I nodded.

"I remember the first time I saw you with that bow. A school full of aliens was a first for me. We thought it would be a pretty straight-forward case, you know – get in, deal with the aliens, do a few retcons and back out. But what do we find? Us at a stalemate with aliens who have hostages, and one eighteen-year-old girl determined to get her friend out safely, who also happens to have a weapon at hand." I smiled as I appreciated his attempts to distract me from my fear. "Thanks Owen."

"So what do you think?" he asked, gesturing towards the body.

"I think I wish I had never found this case," I muttered. "I would be at home studying right now."

"Studying what?" he asked curiously.

"Human Biology." I smiled at the irony.

"Well, here you go then," he said, gesturing towards the body. "This is a corpse and right here is the..."

"Owen, shut up," I giggled, then grew more serious. "Will you be okay while I go and find the others?" He nodded.

I met up with Jack and Gwen outside.

"What is it?" I asked, noticing Gwen was shaking slightly.

"We found a few more bodies," Jack answered, then looked at me with concern. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, muttering that I was as okay as I could be under the circumstances, then clipped my bow back onto my quiver and declared, "I'm going to find Tosh and Ianto."

"Not on your own," Jack said firmly as Gwen squeaked a protest.

"Jack, come on. They need to know more bodies have been found and that whatever did that to the body in the forest is probably in the village."

"And along the way you could end up as the next corpse," Jack growled.

"Jack, I know where they're going and I'm the fastest one here, plus how else are we going to get a message to them without our earpieces? I'll be careful, I promise," I pleaded. I had to know Tosh and Ianto were all right.

Jack scrutinised me for a minute before nodding.

"If anything happens to you..." he began.

"... I promise you can yell at me in the afterlife. If you ever get there," I said, then added in an attempt to lighten up the mood, "and, besides, if I died here I wouldn't need to worry about passing my A-Levels."

"Just hurry up, Anna," he said, ignoring Gwen squawks of objection. "Be careful."

"I will be," I promised as I sprinted away from him.

I had been running for about ten minutes when I felt that sensation again. The sensation of being watched. I stopped and pulled one of my knives out of my belt. It was my favourite knife, silver with a black handle imprinted with the Torchwood logo. But what made it really personal was the Opal set in the handle. Opal was special to me because it was my birthstone. The knife was also special because it was Jack's gift for being promoted to second-in-command.

I stood still, trying to calm my racing breath and pounding heart that had nothing to do with the fact I had been running for ten minutes. All of a sudden I felt very vulnerable and wished I had stayed at Jack's side.

A movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention and I span around defensively, dagger raised and ready. I barely had time to register a dark hooded figure, when a blow to the side of my head knocked me down.

My only saving grace as unconsciousness took hold of me was the feeling of my knife driving into the soft flesh of my attacker's stomach. If I was going down, at least I was taking one of them with me.