Considering the number of times Jack had been shot in the head, you'd think he'd have become use to the pain. He should have built up some kind of immunity. Sadly it hurt as much as it had the first time.

"Do you people ever get use to watching him do that? I find it really creepy myself." The optic center of his brain seemed to be repairing itself. The blurry figures were coming into sharper focus by the second. He could finally distinguish it was Max was hovering over him. Beyond the face he could make up the grey ceiling of the Hub. It must have taken him a while to regenerate. Jacquelyn's handiwork was probably responsible. Jacquelyn! The last thing he remember was Gwen and the rogue agent in a potentially deadly stand off.

"Gwen?! Where's Gwen?"! Jack sat up, a little too quickly for someone who'd had as "serious" a head injury as he'd just had.

"Easy there Captain, she's down in medical, patching up the damage she did to our ex. Apparently she didn't want Jacquelyn dying before rotting a long, long time in lock-up." Jack couldn't understand that. Gwen did what she had to in the line of duty, but the watching her enemies suffer wasn't really her thing.

"That doesn't sound like Gwen." Who it sounded like was Jack, on one of his darker days.

"Apparently you were in pretty bad shape even before she put a bullet in your head. She took offence. How does that work anyway?" Max was nothing if not curious.

"How does what work?"

"Non-life-threatening injuries. Do they heal fast too?" Jack considered all the split lips and bruises he'd gotten in the scuffles with dangerous aliens, and on occasion, his team.

"Not unless they are accompanied by a fatal wound. When my body reboots, it puts everything back the way it should be. That why the skin on my forehead doesn't have any scars." How many times had he been shot in the head anyway? It may have been a neat trick to other people, and most recently a good distraction, but Jack hoped it was a long time before he had to do that again.

"No, just a few wrinkles."

"Shut up."

"Hey, I'm not criticizing. Gwen seem to prefer the more mature look." Jack didn't have a chance to respond before Gwen and Ianto came up the stairs dragging what appeared to be a heavily sedated Jacquelyn. One of her wrist had been cuffed with the restraints Captain John had left behind Ianto clamped the other on to Max's wrist. He dropped the key into the clear plastic bag he was carrying.

"One key to impermeable cuffs, on time agency top-secret prototype, one rogue agent's wrist strap. I hope you enjoy your flight, sir." Ianto stuck out a hand to Max. Max grabbed it and pulled Ianto in for a one-armed hug/ass-grab. Jack shook his head. Some things just never changed.

"Thanks Ianto. Well this is it." Max flashed Jack his cheekiest smile. "Just one thing left to do." Max spun quickly took Gwen by the arm and pulled her in for the most passionate grand finale kiss Jack had ever seen. Before Jack could decide if hitting Max would be worth the end of the world, they had broken apart. Both were very red-faced. Max turned to Jack, his face accusatory.

"You can't honestly tell me I don't remember that."

Jack paused a moment, considering Max's words. Impossible. It is impossible to remember anything after being wiped by the Agency. Jack's own personal Retcon had nothing on the stuff the Agency uses to strip memory. And yet…hadn't Jack always felt he'd known Gwen? Hadn't he always trusted from the being with his biggest secrets. And the first time she'd kissed him, hadn't it felt like a sweet echo, a memory that he'd touched his lips in order to recall?

"You'll never truly forget it." Max smiled broadly at Jack's response.

"You hear that Gwen? One day I'll be back for you." And with a wink and a push of his wrist strap, Max and his prisoner were gone.

"What will happen to him?" Gwen had come to stand beside him. Jack looked down at her.

"Time Agency protocol for a mistake like this. They'll take his statement, the prototype and his prisoner, then remove any evidence that it ever happened."

"So when Max's wakes up tomorrow…" Jack's memory provided him with images of that crucial moment in his life. The confusion, the disbelief

"Everything that's happened to him from the time Jacquelyn became his partner until now will be gone. Two years of nothing. And they'll never tell him why." Jack saw himself going toe to toe with his superiors, demanding answers.

"Won't he be angry?" Angry doesn't begin to cover it.

"He'll be furious. He'll also be suddenly unsatisfied with his life. He'll have this sudden sense that something's waiting for him, something bigger, something more." It was Gwen. He had been missing Gwen. The woman he couldn't even remember. "Of course he'll have no clue what that something is, so he'll do a lot of stupid, selfish things trying to figure it out." Resigning, committing a number of dangerous, hugely lucrative, highly criminal acts. It was never enough. Something within him was never truly satisfied. He was looking for something he could not name and looking in all the wrong places. Until he found the Doctor. Helping others, saving the world, that was the road to finding her. "Eventually he'll find his way back here, like he promised."

"So what happens now?"

"Up to you. Are you heading home?" By Jack's count Gwen only had about four hours left. He held his breath as Gwen stared long and hard at the Hub's exit. Then she looked back at Jack, her eyes a little sad, but mostly hopeful.

"I am home."