A/N: This is the first fan fic I've ever wrote for Doctor Who, Torchwood or any SciFi for that matter so I'm actually quite nervous on what people are going to say. I hope you will enjoy it and I will write more soon. I still don't know weather it's going to be a Doctor/Ianto or a Jack/Ianto, but Jack will definitely come along.

Betareader: thanks to the amazing TheMacUnleashed for her amazing work.

Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood nor Doctor Who

His fingers stopped for a second before gently stroking the dark, still-warm skin of the only woman he had ever loved.

He felt tears starting to flow down his face, and angrily wiped them away with the back of his hand.

"IANTO!"

The young man turned around for a second when he heard his name being called. His gaze locked with the worried and frantic one of the only colleague with whom he had ever bonded with, outside of Lisa.

"I have to save her… I…"

The woman got closer to Ianto and took hold of his arm. "You have to get out of here, now! The building is on fire, and it's probably going to come down at any minute."

"Mary, I have to save her."

The blonde woman took Ianto's face between her hands and, in a tone that didn't allow for replies, said, "You have to leave. Now! That's not Lisa. Whatever that thing is, it's not Lisa anymore."

"Ian… Ianto?"

Time seemed to stop and stretch until the moment felt like it lasted for years.

Mary's hands stopped, still framing Ianto's face, while the young man stiffened and turned around, away from the blonde woman.

"Lisa, I will get you out." He bent down and gave her a brief kiss, before starting to find a way to pull all of the cables attached to his girlfriend's body away. "It will only take a minute."

"Ianto!" Mary tried to keep her eyes focused on Ianto while more tears started to flow down her cheeks. "We have…"

"NO!"

The young woman took a deep breath and started looking around the room; finally, she spotted a pipe lying on the floor, and she bent down to pick it up. She gripped it tightly in her right hand. "Ianto, get away from her." She tried to reason one last time, but her voice fell on deaf ears.

Bracing herself for what was to come, she hoped that the blow wouldn't be too hard and that, above all, one day Ianto would be able to forgive her. She didn't have the time to be sneaky, nor did she need to actually be subtle since Ianto was too focused on the task of freeing Lisa from the converter.

Mary's fingers tightened around the pipe and she took another deep breath. "I'm sorry," she murmured before hitting Ianto at the base of his neck.

In an instant, the man fell down to the ground.

"Mary."

The blonde woman looked towards the converter's table where Lisa was lying. "I am so sorry. I have to save him. He's the only one who never did anything wrong to anyone in this place. If someone ought to live, it's him. And you…" she shook her head and bent down to grab a hold of Ianto's hands. In that moment, she was happy for all the years of training that would provide her the strength necessary to drag Ianto out of Torchwood's building.

"Save me," Lisa pleaded.

Mary shook her head. The blonde, bloody hair fell in front of her eyes, and she tried to blow it away. "There's nothing to save, Lisa. I'm sorry." She squeezed Ianto's hands between hers and started to drag him across the alley.

They were on one of the last floors and the lifts were useless. Their only escape was through the stairs but that would be a long way down and she prayed that they could make it out alive.

While those who were still alive kept going up and down, still shocked, in search of a way to survive the fire, Mary tried to make her way through the hallway. When she finally managed to get to the door that led to the stairs, she sighed in relief for only an instant before remembering the many flights that they still had to do.

Trying not to trip, she started to drag Ianto down the stairs.

Soon enough her back started to ache and her arms started to feel numb, but she kept going. When the young woman found herself in front of the sign that announced the fifth floor, she desperately tried to find the strength to keep on moving, remembering that with each step, they were one step closer to salvation.

When she finally managed to push on the handle of the exit doors, the last floors of Torchwood's building were completely wrapped in flames.

She could still hear the screaming of those who were still trapped inside, and even if her subconscious was screaming at her to get Ianto and herself away, she still felt that sense of duty to go back inside and save as many people as she could.

When Mary was sure that Ianto would have been out of danger, she finally let him go. For an instant she stopped to look at the Welshman's face. Then she bent over, leaning her hands on her knees to get her breath back.

The sound of an explosion shook her out of her thoughts, and when she looked up towards Torchwood and saw how fast the flames were getting she started running towards the building without a second of hesitation.

She got up to the tenth floor, the last one before the flames, and sprang the metal door open. Her eyes, frenetic, glanced around the room for an instant, because an instant was all that was left of her life.

An explosion in the distance made him open his eyes for a second.

Ianto tried to sit up, but his head hurt and a sharp pain shot into his left side. He put his right hand inside his jacket and when he took it back out, his fingers, covered in blood, shined under the dim light.

For an instant, he thought he heard a feeble sound in the distance, but then, just as he realized that he was lying outside Torchwood's gates, he slipped back into unconsciousness.

"We could go to Nova 12, what do you say?" The Doctor gently stroked the TARDIS console before sighing. He threw himself down on the sofa behind it and closed his eyes for a moment.

The hurt caused from having lost Rose was still inside him, even though several months had gone by since he had been forced to depart from her. He knew that even if it was hard to move on, he needed to find a new companion for his travels, because otherwise, he was going to go mad very soon.

"Perhaps we could change genre?" he asked the TARDIS, sighing once more. "Enough with girls that break our hearts. We could fine ourselves a nice male friend, what do you think? You liked Jack…" he trailed off for a moment. "But I don't feel in the mood to have him around for long. It would be best to find someone el…"

He stopped mid-sentence when the TARDIS started to shake, as if someone had grabbed her and was tagging her back and forth.

"What the hell is happening?"

He sprang to his feet and grabbed a handle from the console to stop himself from tripping over. He looked at the computer and frowned. "Oh no, we're not going back there. Why do you want to go back there?" he asked, exasperated. "It was awful last time and…" he glanced at the time clock, "and you chose the same night."

Then, just as abruptly as it started shaking, the TARDIS stopped. "I see you've already made a choice." He took his coat and put it on before walking over to the wooden doors. "Amazing," he said sarcastically before opening one of the doors to go out.

Torchwood was burning, with little explosions from time to time.

The Doctor shoved his hands deep inside the pockets of his blue trousers and rocked back and forth on the heels of his red sneakers.

"Well, why did you bring me here?" he asked looking for an instant above his shoulder, towards the inside of his spaceship. When he glanced back at the street ahead of him, he spotted something on the concrete.

He frowned and started to walk in that direction. At each step he quickened his pace until he was running, once he understood that it was indeed a man and not a thing on the street.

Once he had reached the motionless man, he kneeled down next to him and rolled him over, so that he was lying on his back. It was a young man, dressed in a suit that was covered in blood. Burns had darkened its cuffs and left long, charred streaks down the legs.

"Damn." The Doctor started touching the man's chest, looking for the wound that was bleeding. "Will I ever finish saving you humans?" he asked in a whisper, before starting to look around in search of something that could help him transport the man back to the TARDIS.

Finally, he spotted a flat piece of metal a couple of feet away from them, likely debris thrown from the ruined building during an explosion. He quickly extracted his sonic screwdriver from his coat and pointed it in that direction. It vibrated and slid closer to the man's body, cooled, with the screwdriver's assistance.

The Doctor lifted the body on the improvised stretcher and once again pointed his screwdriver in its direction. The metal lifted a couple of inches from the ground and, vibrating, started to make its way towards the TARDIS, following closely alongside the Time Lord.

"I'll take you to a hospital, and then I will leave. I don't want to have anything to do with Torchwood nor with its employees for the rest of my life," he murmured, looking at the young man.

The Doctor walked over to the console and put in the coordinates of the closest hospital. His eyes glanced back at the man's face and he sighed. "I wonder what I'm changing, saving you now."

The sound of steps echoing made its way through Ianto's clouded mind. Flash after flash of Cybermen, people being killed, screams, fire, images of the Doctor and his friends from photographs and newspaper clippings that Torchwood had gotten their hands on, and Lisa and Mary kept going around and around in the darkness that was surrounding him.

"Can you hear me?" a gentle voice, and the touch of an equally gentle hand, finally made Ianto open his eyes. The light coming from the lamps on the ceiling made him squeeze them back shut.

"Good, you're finally awake," the same kind voice said.

Finally, Ianto was able to keep his eyes open long enough to notice the nurse bent over him, just in time to see the door of his room slightly open, and a brown coat thrown on the sofa next to his bed.

"Hospital?" Ianto finally asked, trying to sit up. He felt a sharp pain shoot through his side.

"Can you tell me what your name is? The man that brought you in said that you were lying in the street, and you didn't have any ID on you."

Ianto shoved his hand through his hair, trying to remember what had happened after Mary had dragged him out of Torchwood. Finally, he looked back at the nurse. "Jones, Ianto Jones."

The nurse nodded before walking over the end of the bed and picking up the chart. She quickly wrote down Ianto's name on it.

"Excuse me?"

The woman looked up, smiling at Ianto. "Yes, sir?"

"You said that it was a man that brought me in, but…"

"Yes, it was indeed a man."

Ianto frowned. "Are you sure it wasn't a girl? Very cute, blond hair, in her twenties…" he trailed off when the woman shook her head, turning a sympathetic smile his way.

The young Welshman was stopped from asking anymore questions about his hero, when a man stopped on the threshold of his room.

"Doctor?" he asked, confused.

The thin lips of the man curved into a smile. He shoved his hands in his pockets and started swinging on his heels.

The nurse looked confused between Ianto and the Doctor. "You're a doctor?" she asked.

Ianto preceded his saviour's answer. "I must be still a bit out of it. What happened?"

"It would be best if the doctor came to explain your situation to you, but I believe that in the meantime Mr. Smith can fill in the gaps." The nurse turned around towards the Doctor, "We finally have a name for the man that owes you his life. Ianto Jones." She then put the charter back in its place and gave each man a final smile before leaving the room, closing the door behind her.

The Doctor sat down on the sofa and looked straight at Ianto. "So, if you know who I am, then you must be from Torchwood. I hoped I was wrong. I really can't stand you people."

"Well, you're not a welcomed visit either, Doctor." With his tone Ianto underlined that name with all the anger and the hurt repressed inside him.

"Of course you're going to blame me."

"I…" frustrated, Ianto squeezed the sheet in his hands trying to regain control over his emotions. "What are you doing here?" he chose to ask.

"I keep saving you human people and I never get a thank you." He sighed, and crossed his hands over his lap. "Lucky for me that I don't do it for the recognition," he added sarcastically. "But to answer your question, Jones, Ianto Jones, what I'm doing here is assuring myself that you wouldn't end up being one of the names in that list of deaths. The TARDIS was very keen to save you, after all."

Ianto seemed to consider the Time Lord's words for a few minutes. Finally, he looked up and met his gaze with the alien's. "I thought you had left."

"Yeah, well, I did, but the TARDIS decided to bring me back. Now," he sprang to his feet and got closer to Ianto, invading his personal space and studying him attentively. "I wonder why she was so determined to get here, to get to you, Ianto Jones. We didn't even know you until two days ago."

"Days?" Of everything the Doctor had said, that part got the Welshman's attention. "What the hell happened? One moment I was trying to save my girlfriend and now I'm here with you."

"I believe someone else saved you before my arrival," the Time Lord replied, still studying the younger man. "And I'm sorry to say this, but I think whoever that person was is dead now. You were alone, on the street just outside Torchwood."

"I…" Ianto closed his eyes for a brief instant trying to remember what had happened. When he opened his eyes again, the Doctor's face was even closer to his than before. "Personal space, Doctor," he said exasperatedly before pulling the sheets away and getting off the bed.

"I don't remember a lot but I think Mary hit me in order to drag me out of there."

The alien arched an eyebrow. "Why would anyone need to be dragged out of that place? It was on fire and…"

"I was trying to save someone."

"One of Torchwood's employees ready to sacrifice himself in order to save someone else's life?" the Doctor asked sarcastically. "You must be something different, then."

Ianto gave him a hard look before walking over to the small closet. He opened one of the doors, hoping against all reason to find his suit in it. He was still disappointed when he found it empty.

"Your suit was ruined. Covered in blood. You had a wound in your side, but they said it wasn't something serious and you didn't need stitches. And your friend gave you a concussion."

To Ianto, it sounded like the Doctor was enjoying the whole situation. He looked at him for instant before walking over to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to get out of here. I hate hospitals and I am fine. And," he closed his hands in tight fists. "I suppose I have to hurry up if I don't want to miss the funerals and…"

"There weren't funerals," the Doctor cut him off. "From what I understand, in the case of Torchwood's fall, Torchwood 2 gains the control. They cremated the bodies and retconned the ones that survived. Except for you, Ianto Jones." He looked at the young man with interest once again. "I think they believe you're dead."

"They can't wipe off so many people's memories. And whoever was on this planet saw what happened."

"Sure, but people are going to move on and forget. On the other hand, employees knew so much more, lots of things that cannot be divulged. Anyway," the Doctor walked over to the sofa and grabbed his coat, putting it on. "Now that I'm sure you're not going to die, it's time for me to say goodbye."

"Hold on." Ianto grabbed his arm and made him turn away. "How can you know what Torchwood's plans are?"

The Doctor smiled, amused, reminding Ianto of a little child. "I know everything, Ianto Jones. Now…"

"You can't leave me here," the Welshman cut him off.

"I don't travel with people from Torchwood." For a moment the Doctor thought back to Jack, but he shook his head to clear his thoughts. Not everybody at Torchwood was like his friend. "I am sorry, but our ways…"

"Before you start your big speech about having to go off saving cultures and worlds, hear me out. I'm not asking you to take me with you as a companion; I just want to go a couple of months forwards. I don't want to lose my memories." Hate inflamed Ianto's eyes when he thought back about the place that took away everything. "Just take me a bit forwards, that's all."

"I can't. I have the feeling that I've changed something important by taking you away. I can't take you forward. Maybe you're going to meet someone tomorrow that will change something for you, something important." The Doctor took a step back, freeing himself from Ianto's grasp, and walked over to the door. He stopped for a second when he felt a bad feeling spreading inside him.

Ianto made a move to grab the Doctor again, but the door sprang open. Both men looked towards the doctor standing in the doorway.

The man gave them a smile. "A Time Lord here," he said.

"Why is it that every time I try to save someone, things go like this?" the Doctor murmured before starting to go through the pockets of his coat in search of his sonic screwdriver. "Who are you?" he asked, trying to buy some time.

"You have already met my species before. I am a Valachian."

"What…" Ianto looked exasperatedly at the Doctor before sighing, "Where are you from?" he asked at the alien.

"Valachian 7. It's a planet of ninth level from the Axtrigh galaxy. Low forms of life with scarce intelligence," explained the Doctor, sighing, resigned, when he finally realized that his sonic screwdriver wasn't on him. "So," he shoved his hands in the pockets of his trousers, "is there anything we could do for you?"

"We've been looking for you," the Valachian said, before extending his arms towards them. The skins started to turn green while big red stingers started to come out of his forearms. The white gown began to tear apart. "We knew that sooner or later you would come on this planet. We've been waiting long for the chance to capture you."

The Doctor looked around the room. "Capture?" he asked amused. "I just see me and Mr. Jones in a room with our only way of escape blocked -if we don't count the window, of course."

"No ways of escape. This means…" the alien started.

"Hello!" he said out of the blue. Both the Valachian and Ianto looked at him as if he had just lost his mind. "I'm the Doctor." He arched an eyebrow. "Run!" For a few seconds there was silence in the room.

Ianto wondered if the Doctor really thought that that phrase would be enough to scare off the alien. When the Time Lord didn't do anything else, he realized that he actually believed it. "That's your plan?" he asked, "striking phrases?"

"Hey!" the Doctor said, frowning, "I was on my way off when he decided to show up threatening us. I'm improvising in order to save our lives."

Ianto looked completely unconvinced. "Where's that screwdriver of yours?"

The Doctor looked away, clucking his lips. "Yeah, about that… I forgot it on the TARDIS. I didn't think I'd need it in a hospital."

"I can't believe it. Torchwood has been looking for you for centuries, and you forget the only weapon you use on your spaceship!"

A green light passed between the men's heads. "Can we go on?" the Valachian asked, as his right arm continued to smoke. A membrane closed back on the hollow where his hand should have been.

"Can you run, Ianto Jones?" asked the Doctor in a whisper, so that only Ianto could hear him.

The Welshman nodded. "We have to run, don't we?"

The Time Lord laughed, amused. "There's always so much running. It's the best part. So, you ready?"

"He's in front of the door and…"

"What is your plan?" the Doctor asked the alien, cutting Ianto off. He always hoped that sooner or later that would have worked, and that was a good time as any to try it. He stopped for a second, frowning, as if he had only noticed something in that moment. "Why isn't anyone running around screaming?"

The Valachian smiled. "Because when you came here with your young friend, we recognized you and we put him on a fake floor."

"Fake?" asked Ianto.

"Every room on this floor is empty. There's a perception filter that made you see people in the rooms, nurses and doctors, but there's no one here. Except for your nurse, Mr. Jones. She had to make sure that you wouldn't leave the hospital."

The Doctor moved a couple of steps on the left and Ianto did the same. The alien followed their moves without realizing that he was freeing the door.

Ianto smiled. The Doctor was clever. By distracting the alien and making him talk, he was creating an escapeway for them.

"Why wait for me to recover?" Ianto asked, taking another couple of feet towards his left, and making the Doctor and the alien move with him. "Why didn't you just kill the Doctor?"

The Time Lord smiled, amused. "Oh you're good Ianto Jones," he murmured, so that just Torchwood's agent could hear him.

"Because we decided that we wanted to capture you both and take you back to our planet so we can torture you there," the green alien explained.

Ianto took another step towards the door, and finally the escapeway was clear. The Welshman grabbed the Doctor's arm and started running towards the stairs.

"Aren't we taking the lift?"

"No, he could decide to tamper with them and kill us," Ianto answered, before opening the door at the end of the alley, dragging the Time Lord down the stairs.

"They're alien nurses," explained the Doctor. "If we get among people, he won't shoot us."

Ianto nodded before reaching the door that led to the ward under the one from where they had escaped. There were nurses and doctors, and other types of people all around, and even a couple of security agents.

"What did you do to them?" Ianto asked.

"I can't remember everything I've ever done to an alien species," the Doctor answered. "I've been going around the universe for centuries. You know, worlds to visit, things to prod at to have fun…" he shrugged before glancing above his shoulder, when he heard the metal door at the end of the alley being shut. "He's here."

"You said he wouldn't fire on us and…" Ianto was cut off by a green light passing between their heads. "At least he can't aim," he said starting to run again and keeping on dragging the Doctor with him. His side started to hurt again, and Ianto tried to push the pain out of his mind.

"Sometimes I'm wrong," the Time Lord said, before lowering his head to avoid another green light that hit one of the security guards.

Ianto let go of the Doctor's arm and kneeled down next to the unconscious man. "He's still alive," he said quickly. Taking the gun from the holster, he got up and took hold of the Doctor's hand again. "Come on."

He glanced back, realizing in an instant that the alien had completed his mutation. Now, along with the two tentacles that once had been arms, his legs had turned into the body of a snail.

"Let's get to the lift," said the Doctor, "he won't stop to tamper with them now. Let's get to the roof."

Ianto looked at him for a second, perplexed. "We would be trapped."

"No, the TARDIS is there," the Time Lord said, before pushing the calling-button of the lifts.

"We can't just leave. That thing…"

"It's not a thing."

"We don't have time for your Club of the Alien Friend!" the Welshman said, exasperated.

The lift doors opened and they quickly got inside, just a second before another green light passed among their heads.

As soon as the doors were closed, the Doctor pushed the button for the roof.

"How come I have the feeling that saving my life the other night wasn't exactly the best you could have done for me?" Ianto asked, still trying to get his breath under control.

The Doctor looked at him amused. "Yeah, that's a common question. Never a thank you," he deadpanned.

In that moment, they both became aware of something.

Ianto, of the old woman standing behind a trolley full of cleaning products and brooms, and the Doctor of the gun still firmly held in the Welshman's hand.

The woman looked at them stunned and Ianto tried to gave her a small smile but it was everything useless when the Doctor shouted, "you're not going to use that thing!"

Ianto jumped, startled at the yelling. "And with what are we supposed to defend ourselves?"

The Doctor looked around the lift, and then took a broom from the woman's trolley and gave it to Ianto.

"A broom? Are you insane?"

"I've been called that once or twice before," the Doctor answered seriously. Ianto couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

Ianto opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the sound of the lift doors opening. He threw the gun and the broom on the woman's trolley before stepping outside, following the Doctor.

"He can't have taken the stairs," the Time Lord said.

A sound came from the other lift, and they both turned around just as the doors were opening.

"Two lifts," said Ianto, "of course. Do you ever happen to have luck?" he asked the Doctor, who laughed.

"That wouldn't be very exciting now, would it?" he said, and then he began to run towards the TARDIS, "Come on, Ianto Jones!" The Doctor had just put the key in the TARDIS' door where a shout made both he and Ianto stop.

"You can't take us," the Time Lord said, turning around, "The Shadow Proclamation says-"

"You dishonoured our queen and-"

"What?" Ianto asked, turning around to face the Doctor. "Ewww," he murmured disgusted. "They're green and-"

"She was probably wearing her human-suit," the Time Lord cut him off shrugging. "I'm very attractive," he added, smiling and arching an eyebrow. Then he put his hands in the pockets of his trousers and the Welshman had the feeling that he did that a lot.

The Doctor turned his attention back towards the alien. "That's all I have done? I'm sure she enjoyed it."

"How dare you!"

"Did she send you here?" the Time Lord cut him off. He extracted something long and cylindrical from his right pockets and pointed it towards the Valachian. "Because if that's the case, she sent you with hostile intents to a protected planet and that would be against the Shadow Proclamation. In which case, I would be forced to put you and your Queen under arrest. You're going to be prosecuted, and who do you think will win?"

The Valachian lowered his arms-weapons. "We have the right to avenge our Queen's honour."

"This planet," the Doctor took a step forward, the playful expression long gone from his face, "Has just been attacked by aliens far stronger than you, and I won. You can ask to Mr. Jones here," he pointed just above his shoulder towards Ianto, "He saw how things went."

"There were Daleks and Cybermen," the Valachian said before starting to emit a sound from his mouth that reminded of the noise of nails scratching on a blackboard.

Both the Doctor and Ianto covered their ears while the sound increased in its volume. Finally the alien stopped and the door that led to the stairs sprang open.

The nurse that had been taking care of Ianto came to stand next to the Valachian still wearing her human-form. "Are we ready to leave, Boss?" she asked quickly, before glancing towards the Doctor and Ianto. "Aren't we going to capture them, Sir?"

"No," the alien shook his head. "We've been threatened," he answered, "By someone much more powerful than us. We're going to leave this planet, to never come back, Time Lord," he said, looking at the Doctor. "But our species is still against you. The Shadow Proclamation doesn't cover every planet and every galaxy, and sooner or later we will meet again."

The Doctor looked at him, smirking. "That's not the first threat I've ever received, and it won't be the last one. But no one has ever been able to achieve that plan and lots of the ones that tried were far more powerful and clever than you. If I were you, I'd leave and forget everything."

Ianto noticed how the tone that the Time Lord was using was far from the expression he was wearing. While on his face was a tiny smile, his tone was one that held a serious warning in it. Almost scary.

After several moments of silence, the nurse took a control from her pocket and pointed up towards the sky. Just a few seconds after, a blue light wrapped around them and they started to fly upwards, into the clear sky that stretched above.

"Their spaceship is just outside the Earth's orbit." The Doctor answered Ianto's question before he could ask it. "Well…" he turned around, locking his gaze with the Welshman's. "Now that that's out of the way and we're safe and sound…"

"You said that your sonic screwdriver was on the TARDIS," Ianto cut him off arching an eyebrow. "That was just a pen, wasn't it?"

The Doctor just laughed before throwing the pen over his shoulder. It landed a couple of feet away with a soft thud that was lost in the wind. "The best trick is being able to pretend. I could use a biscuit and make it pass for a detonator," he said, completely amused by himself.

Ianto glared at him. "We could have gotten killed."

"You worked for Torchwood up until a week ago. You should be used to it," was the Time Lord's answer before he started walking towards the TARDIS once again. "So, are you coming Ianto Jones?"

The boy glanced briefly towards the lift behind him and then, apparently having made a decision that he didn't even know was considering, he followed the Doctor inside the blue box.

He closed the wooden door behind him and then turned around. He felt his breath being knocked out of him at the sight in front of his eyes. He looked up and noticed that you couldn't even see the ceiling, and that all around them there were doors, a sofa, and that under the floor, made of what looked like plastic, there was some kind of a living room and even more rooms.

"It's…"

"Yes?"

"It's bigger on the inside."

"Exactly, Ianto Jones. So…" the Time Lord walked up in front of him, once more invading his personal space, "where do you want to go?"

Ianto seemed taken aback by that question. "You said you didn't travel with people from Torchwood."

The Doctor smiled. "But you don't work for Torchwood anymore and you're far different from the others."

The mortal took a step forward. "You also said that you couldn't just take me a bit forward."

"Indeed," the Doctor nodded quickly, "but the question is, do you still want to just go a bit forward?"

Ianto found himself smiling. That man was completely insane but he had realized in the brief time that he had spent with the alien that he hadn't thought of Torchwood or Lisa or Mary even once. He realized that he hadn't followed the Doctor in the TARDIS because he wanted to just go a bit forward, but because he had made the decision - without actually knowing that he wanted to - to follow the Doctor in his travels.

"Any place will do," he found himself saying. "You choose, but it has to be amazing."

The Doctor smirked triumphantly before running back to the console. "Good choice, Ianto Jones!" He pulled a lever down with a zealous yank, and the TARDIS started to shake. "And off we go!"