So, this is the first part of the Unseen verse's version of Greeks Bering Gifts. In the timeline, the first chapter of Interludes takes place just before this. I own nothing, an my only payment is in the form of your kind words.

Tosh sometimes wondered just what she had done in a previous life to warrant the utter shit that seemed to be determined to drown her at times. While the actions she had undertaken to save her mother should held no regret for, the best part of it all was the work she did now. Jack rescuing her, believing in her, and giving her this vast new world of possibilities and impossibilities made the whole ordeal worthwhile. The fact that she was allowed contact with her family - even if her mother didn't remember exactly what had happened to her - was an added bonus. However, there was the downside to this and that manifested in the completely unrealistic feelings she had for Owen Harper. She really had no delusions about the kind of person he was and her chances with him yet there was a part of her that refused to give up the fantasy. He was rude, cruel, filled with animosity and self-pity - and those were his good points.

Since the cannibals he had seemed to be slightly more caring in general but now, listening to the whispering and giggling from the autopsy bay she figured out it had far more to do with Gwen than it did with anyone else. They thought they were clever, they thought they were discrete, they thought that the fact they came and left separately was hiding the reality of their affair. What irritated Tosh most of all was Gwen's constant berating of them all about how wonderful her boyfriend was, how much he took care of her, how much he loved her - and she repaid all of that by falling into bed with Owen. Tosh sighed and adjusted her glasses, focusing her eyes on the translation program she was working on. She wished Ianto and Jack were here but the two of them had gone Weevil hunting which she thought was just an excuse to get out of the Hub and spend time together.

That was another thing that bothered her. It was obvious that Ianto and Jack had formed a bond and were together but Gwen continued her flirting with their leader, often ignoring or almost shoving Ianto aside to gain his attention. Jack treated her differently - he had toned down the flirting and made it clear he was not interested - but she wouldn't give up and several times Tosh had seen Ianto's lips thin in anger and how he had to bite back the remarks that threatened to spring forth. More giggling and a soft moan came from the autopsy bay and Tosh had enough. Leaving her computers running, she got up and headed down to the archives to retrieve several more files of examples of alien language that needed to be input.

She was only gone about fifteen minutes but when she came back everything had gone to shit.

As usual.

Stunned, she could only stare at the blank screen of the monitors on her desk. "What happened?"

"Well," Owen said, laughing, "Gwen said I was rubbish at sport so I threw the basketball at her and she threw it back and somehow it hit your desk and I think some things came unplugged. Just duck under there and stick them back in and everything should be good."

Gwen snickered at Owen's "stick them back in" comment and then flashed a smirk at Tosh. "No harm meant, sweetheart, just a bit of..."

"Do you have any idea of the problems you might have just caused?" Tosh hurried to her desk and set the files down before turning to glare at Gwen. "No harm done? Well fine, Gwen, when we don't know if an alien is saying 'hello' or 'this bomb will wipe out your planet' then right, of course, we can have a good laugh and remember because of your carelessness there was no harm done. We're supposed to be working. Do you remember working? What you get paid for. You do not get paid to throw basketballs back and forth around sensitive equipment. You do not get paid to play solitaire," and here she turned to look at a rather surprised Owen, "or to watch porn. You do not get paid to spend your time in the autopsy bay giggling and carrying on like a couple of horny teenagers with spots!" Breathing hard, Tosh opened the bottom draw of her desk and pulled out her handbag. "You know what, I need a drink. You explain this to Jack." She started for the cog door but stopped when Owen called her name.

"Tosh! You know what?" He stalked toward her, his face twisted into a scowl. "You need to get shagged or something or at least find some way to remove that stick up your arse which in fact has a stick up its arse! Just because you're unable to find anyone interested in sticking anything up that dried out..!" That was as far as he made it. Unnoticed, Jack and Ianto had come in from the garage and whatever Owen had been about to say was lost when Ianto grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, his other hand balled into a fist and landing squarely on Owen's mouth. The medic hit the floor and stared up at the enraged man above him.

"Get up!" Ianto was furious, both hands now clenched into fists. "Get up! She's got more class in her little finger than you will ever have or deserve!" He spun to face Gwen. "And you! Always telling us how we don't understand and how wonderful Rhys is! He's a bloody imbecile if he thinks you actually give a damn about him! You think we all don't know you're fucking Owen? How stupid do you think we are? You stink of it!" He was shaking so hard that Jack had trouble getting hold of him. "Either one of you ever open your mouths to her like that again and I will kill you!" He let Jack guide him towards his office, reaching out and catching Tosh's arm to take her along.

"Hey! You...!" Owen was stopped when Jack turned and pointed at him.

"Not a word." Jack ushered Tosh and Ianto to the bottom of the stairs that lead to his office, giving them a gentle shove to keep them going before taking several deep breaths. He remained at the bottom of the stairs until they were inside his office with the door closed before turning back to face the other two members of his team. "What happened?"

"It was an accident," Gwen said, widening her eyes at Jack. "We were playing, tossing the basketball, and somehow it hit Tosh's station and unplugged some of her computers."

Jack tipped his head back and tried to hold on to his temper. "And I suppose her translation program was running?"

"Whatever," Owen snapped, getting to his feet. "You best tell your shag that if he..."

"Owen, you are in enough trouble. Watch your mouth. Now why is it the two of you have so much time to be playing basketball? Gwen, you have two stacks of folders on your desk of uncompleted paperwork and Owen, I seem to recall a skeleton you are supposed to be figuring out the cause of death on and if you are finished that I see a good amount of paperwork on your desk as well. And then shall we address what you said to Tosh that actually got Ianto so pissed he punched you? For the record, if he hadn't I would have. If you ever talk to her like that again, in fact if you ever talk to anyone on this team like that again, you can expect me to come down on you a thousand times harder than Ianto just did. I don't want to hear a word out of either of you. Gwen, get to work. That paperwork is to be completed before you leave. Owen, you can get the Weevil out of the SUV and clean it out. You have so much time on your hands let me give you something to do. After that, you also will finish every bit of that paperwork before you leave here tonight. Now get to work." He left them both standing there, mouths hanging open, and went up the steps to his office to find out how the other two were faring.

He might have been a bit more concerned if he hadn't found them sitting on his couch, tumblers of scotch in hand and laughing. Arching an eyebrow he picked up the glass Ianto indicated before going to drop beside the archivist and throwing an arm over his shoulders. Tosh peered round Ianto and raised her drink at him. "You have excellent taste in scotch, Captain Harkness. And in men."

Ianto rolled his eyes. "I bought the scotch. And come to think of it I propositioned him. It's all my taste."

"And you taste wonderful," Jack purred. He grunted when Ianto elbowed him but the smile remained on his face. "I take it you heard me?"

"Nope. We decided we are going to go get drunk and when we get back we are going to ignore them. Not worth our time." Ianto leaned his head on Jack's shoulder. "I lost my temper, and I know I shouldn't have. I won't apologize though, what he said was..."

"What he said was immature, thoughtless and incredibly wrong."

"Well, if I had any remaining illusions I don't now," Tosh said with a sigh. "In a way I'm glad though because I think it was that dream of having something with him that kept me from actually seeing anything else. now I feel a need to go out, find something gorgeous, and screw them through my mattress." She burst out laughing at the expression on both men's faces. "Oh come on, did you think I was a virgin? I know everyone thinks I only care about the tech and such but woman does not live by devices alone! Although, some devices can be a lot of fun."

Jack literally fell off the couch. "Toshiko Sato! Where have you been hiding this side of you?"

Ianto leered at her. "I don't know but I like it."

"If you like it that much then you can buy me a drink." Tosh tossed back the last of her scotch and got up. "Come on, Mister Jones. You and I are going out and you are going to help me find something fun to do. Or someone. We'll leave Jack here to keep an eye on the children."

Ianto leaned down and gave Jack a light kiss. "We're off then. I'll phone you when I'm back at mine and you can come over?"

Still trying to wrap his head round this new and rather erotic side of Tosh, Jack nodded. "Right." He sat there, still on the floor with glass in hand, and watched them leave. It was only after he heard the alarms that he snorted and got to his feet. "Still waters indeed," he muttered before going to his desk and dropping into his chair. He eyed the pile of work in his inbox and sighed. Apparently he needed to have a good bit done before he left for the night as well. With the thought of what his night might entail, Jack grabbed the first file and opened it, picking up his pen and beginning to read.

-TW-

Two hours later they were in their second club with drinks in hand. Ianto was torn between laughing so hard he thought his jaw was going to break and being so shocked at how absolutely filthy Tosh could be that he wanted to take her back to the Hub and scan for alien influence. She was telling him what she thought was going on between a slightly balding, rather rotund man and the leggy ginger that was with him when a gorgeous blonde woman slide onto the bench seat next to Tosh. "I've been watching you from over there," she purred, curling her leg up and half turning to get as close to Tosh as she could without touching. "Has anyone ever told you that you are so beautiful you take their breath?"

"At least twice a night," Ianto dead panned.

Tosh, slightly tipsy and quite giggly, blushed and smiled. "No, not really. I'm Tosh."

"Mary," the blonde said with a smile. "So, am I wasting my time?

"Nope," Ianto said, popping the "p", "she's not with me. She's my best friend though so don't do anything that might hurt her." He looked at Tosh and winked. "I think it is time for me to head off and see if Jack has managed to finish any of his paperwork or plan a suitable punishment if he hasn't. Then again, any punishment I come up with he seems to regard as less of a punishment and more in the lines of..." He stopped talking and snickered. "And that's enough of that. Have a wonderful night ladies and Tosh, if you're late to work tomorrow I will be more than happy to tell Jack why." Ianto leaned over and kissed her cheek before waving a hand and getting up, leaving the two women laughing as he headed for the door.

Tosh took a long swallow of her wine and then turned to be able to better see Mary. "So, what brings you here tonight? And that is a lovely pendent." Tosh touched it, letting her fingers linger on the cool stone. "It's beautiful. Where is it from? I don't think I've seen the stone before."

"It's from my home...country. Would you like to try it on? It has some very special abilities."

Tosh frowned, suddenly wishing Ianto hadn't left so quickly. "Abilities?"

Mary reached behind her neck and unfastened the chain. "Yes. Try it, and I'll explain." She carefully fastened it around Tosh's neck, settling the stone against her chest and then sitting back.

They hit Tosh like a multitude of slaps. Voices, coming at her from everywhere, some louder than others but all of them talking over and round one another, disjointed sentences and ramblings, some sweet, some crude, some out and out vicious and then through them all she heard Mary's voice, drawing her attention and forcing the others into the background.

Focus on me, Tosh. Hear me and let the rest fade away. Look at me, beautiful. Look at me and let my words fill your mind.

Tosh felt her head turn, her eyes drawn to Mary. The other voices did fade, somehow being pushed behind a sort of curtain that allowed her to know they were there but let her "hear" Mary over them all. "Who are you?" she gasped.

Don't speak, just think to me. I'm just a woman who sees someone so beautiful and so lonely, somehow who should be worshiped and loved and treasured. All the words that you hear with your ears are such a small part of the people themselves, it is their thoughts that allow you to know how they truly feel. When you hear my thoughts what do you feel, Toshiko?

How do you know my full name? And I feel desire and lust and that you want to know what my lips feel like against yours, how my mouth will taste on your tongue and how...oh! Tosh ripped the pendant off her neck and stared at Mary. "That was just a bit personal!" she stammered. "And how do you know my name?"

"I belong to a group called The Scavengers. We seek out information and proof that there is life on other planets. it would be hard not to know who the computer genius of Torchwood is." Mary held up her hands when Tosh reached for her bag. "I mean you no harm! I really do find you attractive, and I do want to kiss you, to find out how your mouth tastes on my tongue." She leaned closer and lowered her voice. "And it might be personal but I do want to watch your face when you come screaming from my hands and my mouth." She sat back and smiled. "You can keep the pendant. I just want you."

It was not the smartest thing to do, it was certainly not what protocol demanded she do but after the day she had, the final nail in the coffin that was any potential relationship between her and Owen, and the shivers that ran through her body at the images Mary had given her, Tosh downed the rest of her wine and grabbed Mary's hand, dragging her from the club and already planning just how she was going to explain taking the night to shag whoever she was through the mattress before bringing her in to find out just how much she knew.