Author's Note: Comments always appreciated, hope you all had a good holiday/New Year!

Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood or any of the characters, they are property of the BBC and RTD

Spoilers: None

It was drizzling on the Plass. Jack pulled his coat tighter around his body, but Ianto had only the jumper he'd pulled on as they'd left, so he stood with his arms crossed, frowning and shivering and generally amusing Jack.
'Why can't we go through the Tourist Information?' Ianto asked miserably.
'Tosh said to take the lift.' Jack answered, shaking his damp hair.
'Then why aren't they letting us in?'
Jack shrugged, and Ianto huffed impatiently. 'Can't you let us down with that wristband thingy?'
'Vortex manipulator, and, no. Tosh put some kind of deadlock on the lift.'
'I didn't know she could do that.'
'Neither did I. I'll have to take a look at how she did it, actually.'
'To figure out a way around it?'
'Exactly.'
Jack grinned, but Ianto wasn't able to make his freezing lips mirror it. Another shiver ran through his body and he kicked the ground.
'Do they know it's raining? Because it's decaf for all of them if they do.'
Just as Jack began to laugh, the lift lurched, and Ianto's hand flew out in surprise. It caught hold of Jack's wrist, and the Captain smirked as they lowered below the pavement.
'Shut up.' Ianto muttered, hurriedly pocketing his hand again. Jack began to chuckle, but was cut off by a sneeze.
Ianto managed a small smile.

'Hello.' Gwen greeted from the Hub floor. She smiled at them as they reached her level. 'You two ok?'
They nodded, and Jack narrowed his eyes at her appearance.
There were dark circles under her eyes and her hair had knotted in several places on the side of her head. From experience he knew this was from her repeated tucking of it behind her ears without much care. He wondered if she'd also gotten sick, but when they reached the rest of the team, he realized that it wasn't illness making her looking so weary.
It didn't matter if two of the team were out of commission. The Rift was going to keep spitting things out, Weevils were still going to run rampant around Cardiff and paperwork was still going to need filling out, all with only three people now.
They weren't sick, just exhausted.

Beside him, Jack felt Ianto stiffen. He turned to him worriedly, Ianto's eyes fixed on a device in Gwen's ear.
'What is that?' Ianto asked, standing unusually still. Gwen's hand flew to her ear.
'Short term barrier.' Tosh answered from her station. 'Look.'
She dipped her fingers into her glass of water and flicked the droplets towards her face. The light caught the drops as they were suspended in the air just in front of her nose, then slid downwards like raindrops on a car window. Jack cocked his head curiously. Tosh tapped her own metal earbud. 'It forms something like a semi permeable membrane around the head of the wearer. Hopefully it will keep us from catching anything, but it won't protect against stronger physical attacks, like-'
She broke off as Owen's well timed paper ball hit the back of her head. She turned to glare at him, giving Gwen and Jack time to hide their laughter.
'It won't last long.' She reminded Owen frostily. 'So you'd better hurry.'

'Where did you get it?' Ianto interrupted in a strained voice. The team looked at him quizzically. 'Did you get the earpieces from other technology?'
'No, I've been working on it for a few weeks. It was meant to be an atmosphere modulator, so one could survive in other planets and atmospheres. Didn't take long to repurpose it. Why?'
'But you definitely made it from scratch?' Ianto persisted, ignoring her question for now. 'I mean, you didn't get the ear pieces from the Archives or anything?'
'No. Why?'
'Because they had them at Canary Wharf.' Jack answered as he realized. 'Well, they had metallic earpieces, anyway.'
'Oh. ' Tosh said in surprise. 'Right, of course.' She picked an unfinished one up from her desk and tossed it to him. 'Made it myself.' She assured. 'It's nothing like those, Ianto, I promise.'
On closer inspection, Ianto noticed the difference in design and shape to the standard issue Cyber earpieces from Torchwood One. He put it back on the desk and relaxed.

Jack cleared his throat, drawing the team's attention back to him.
'What do you need?' He asked, pushing them all past the moment. It didn't take long for Owen to catch up.
'Well, I need you.' He said, waving Jack towards the med bay. 'And yes, we all heard the innuendo, so you can let it pass.'
Jack had opened his mouth to comment, but a bought of coughing beat him to it.
Owen smirked.

'What can I do?' Ianto asked, and Tosh bit her lip.
'Well…nothing, really…' She hedged, and Ianto frowned.
'What?'
'Oh, just ask him.' Gwen interrupted.
'Ask me what?'
Tosh continued to hesitate, so Owen answered for her.
'We're all gagging for a coffee, Ianto.' He called. 'Could you?'
Ianto laughed.
'Fine.' He told the hopeful faces of Gwen and Tosh, taking one last glance at Jack before heading towards the coffee machine.

The sight of the machine made him smile. His home coffee maker was far inferior to this beauty of design. Jack had bought it when he'd arrived back from his travels with the Doctor- an unofficial apology present for the team.
Ianto stepped closer, then frowned. Something wasn't right.
'Ok.' He shouted back down to the team. 'Who touched it?'
There was a guilty silence. Then,
'Gwen!'

'Owen!' Gwen protested. 'I'm sorry, Ianto.' She continued hurriedly. 'But I've seen you do it and I thought I could figure it out. Owen told me to try!'
'Children, enough!' Came Jack's voice, followed by a series of sneezes that echoed through the Hub. Even Myfanwy looked shocked and returned to the sanctuary of her nest.

'Decaf.' Ianto thought to himself, thinking this ample punishment. Of course, if the machine was broken, there would have to be far more serious consequences. He could let it go unfixed for a few weeks and leave Gwen at the mercy of the team, and Jack. That would probably do it.
He reached for the decaf, but then remembered the team's haggard appearance. He sighed and took up the full caffeine one instead, deciding that while he'd been at home with Jack, they'd probably earned it.

Luckily for Gwen, the machine wasn't damaged. All Ianto needed to do was readjust the handle and filter before measuring the beans.

The process of coffee making was something Ianto had always found relaxing, and today especially he was happy to let his mind go blank as he watched the machine grind up the beans. He closed his eyes and tuned out the arguing and the coughing, focusing on the sound of the liquid as it trickled into the first cup.

The calm allowed him time to realize the cold's effect on him. His head was feeling heavy and groggy, and he could sense the beginnings of a headache. His nose was blocked and his legs were starting to ache, simply from the trial of standing. A shiver ran through him and he sneezed three times in quick succession.

'That you, Ianto?' Came Owen's voice.
'Yeah, sorry.' He called back. 'I turned away from the coffee, I promise.'
'I'd better take a look at you too, mate.' Was the doctor's response, and Ianto sighed. He didn't like the idea of being poked and prodded by any doctor, let alone a sleep deprived Owen, but he wasn't up to resisting.

His exam yielded the expected results- it was just a normal cold, he had to drink plenty of fluids and let it pass. Jack's was worse, but not much. There wasn't much to do about it.

'Any luck on where this came from?' Jack asked, blowing his nose. Ianto hopped off the examination table and rejoined Jack on the main platform. Gwen shrugged.
'Nothing in the Archives so far, but we'll keep looking. Did you bring the list of species you've interacted with?'
Jack shook his head. 'No time. I can give it to you now, though.' He and Gwen went over to her computer, while Tosh continued with Ianto.

'Once I get the list I can start looking at the known technology from those species.' She said. 'Maybe we'll get lucky and be able to rule a few out. Too primitive, extinct. Until then, you'll just have to be sick.'
'It might not be as simple as that.' Owen said from behind Ianto. He rounded him and sat on his chair, his eyes watching Jack carefully. 'Say this attack isn't on Jack's immortality, but his immune system from the future. If that's what they're targeting, we have another problem altogether.'
'What do you mean?' Tosh asked.
'Well, they've weakened it already. There's nothing stopping them from continually weakening it, opening Jack up to any and every disease. We might be looking at something similar to the HIV virus.'
The Hub fell quiet, Gwen and Jack having overheard this, too. Jack returned to the group.
'And then what would we do?' He asked seriously, crossing his arms.
Owen shrugged.
'There's medication, several treatments we could try. No way of knowing if they'll work, though.'
'And if they don't?'
Owen shrugged again, looking down.
'I don't know. It's probably a good thing you're immortal, though.'
Ianto's mouth ran dry.

'Will that happen to Ianto?' Jack continued.
'Shouldn't do. His immune system should be able to fight it off while it's still a cold. And you wouldn't get HIV exactly, but the effect would be the same, so he wouldn't contract it sexually, either.'

The clinical and offhand way that Owen was talking about their sex life had the rest of the team worried. Owen had assumed his doctor persona, something he only did in very serious circumstances. They shifted uncomfortably.

'Well.' Jack started awkwardly. 'No use worrying about that until it happens. If it happens.' The team nodded, not entirely soothed. They moved quietly back to their stations, each one lost in thought. Ianto risked Owen's disapproval and took Jack's hand.
Jack squeezed it.
'Ok?' He asked, and Ianto nodded, even managing to smile. Jack returned it.
'Is that all?' He directed to the team.
'We've got the list to finish.' Gwen reminded, but then each of the earbuds lit up red.
'Oh. Only twenty minutes until they wear off.' Tosh explained.
'Plenty of time.' Jack said, but Tosh shook her head.
'No, we have to disinfect the area you've been in, too.' Jack raised his arms tiredly.
'You're kidding. C'mon, it's just a cold for you guys. Ianto's fine.'
'I can't risk that.' Owen said. 'Besides, five of us sick aren't going to be that much more effective than three of us well.'
Jack sighed.
'Fine. But at least let us take some Archive files home.'
To this Owen agreed, and Tosh handed them one of the piles on her desk.
'Email the rest of the list.' Gwen added, and they were ushered back onto the lift.
'I'm not overly fond of being kicked out of my base.' Jack muttered, and Ianto smiled until Jack started sneezing again.