looking up at skies on fire

"Lucky for all of us," Anna chimed in, practically vibrating with excitement and enthusiasm. She couldn't wait to get Jack sat down so she could start learning all about him. She was going to be the envy of historians the world over.

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Jack peered ahead into the distance and made a slight humming noise to himself--it was a remarkable-looking piece of architecture. Actually, he could say that for most of the buildings around them.

"Lead the way, then," he repeated.

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The small group made their way (to Gwen's relief, uneventfully) to the Millennium Centre. Gwen spent the time torn between amusement and admiration for Anna's enthusiasm for the whole situation. Gwen still had her reservations about Jack, but if nothing else, it was a relief to see Anna out of vaults, on a mission, and coming out of her shell.

Gwen steered away from the tourist office, and gave Anna a playful look.

"You think we should show our guest in through the back door?" she asked, gesturing towards the invisible lift.

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Anna's face lit up and she nodded enthusiastically, bobbing on her feet again, and replying cheerfully, "If he's going to get the grand tour..."

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"Oh, go on then!" Gwen winked. She ushered Anna and Jack onto the step and jumped up after them.

She wrapped her arm around Jack's and smiled at him. "Hang on, this might feel a bit strange." Of course, having just been swallowed by a rift in time and space and plunked into a Cardiff alleyway was strange, but it's all about perspective.

The step gave a small shutter and began its decent.

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Jack managed to keep his balance as the invisible lift began to lower itself, mostly by tightening his newfound grip on Gwen's arm for a second, but instead of developing dinner plates for eyes a smile slowly spread its way across his face as he looked down.

"Incredible," he said approvingly. "Are all secret hideouts like this these days?"

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Impressed by his ease at accepting his new surroundings, Gwen smiled.

He seemed clever, and friendly, and regardless of where he came from that was welcome. They didn't get enough friendly visitors at the Hub.

"No, just us," she said, and shot him a flirty smile. "I think you'll find Torchwood does things a bit... differently than anyone else."

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Jack lifted an eyebrow at her in a way only a man from the turn of the previous century could do.

"Certainly different from the New Victorians," he replied, musingly. "It seems home has left me behind. I suppose I should not be surprised. Science and technology were making such great leaps forward when I left, after all."

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The lift came to a stop in the Hub, and Gwen stepped down, offering Jack her hand.

"You're going to have to clarify a bit, I think," Gwen said. She considered taking him down to the interrogation room, but decided against it. It was so sterile and uninviting, and with Jack gone she didn't feel obligated to treat him like a prisoner.

"Why don't you show him to a seat, Anna," Gwen said. "I'll go get us some coffees. And then you can fill us in a bit on exactly where you come from," she said to Jack.

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Anna would have been a bit horrified by taking their new guest to the interrogation room anyway. He clearly wasn't presenting any kind of threat, and didn't appear to have done anything wrong--besides come back to Earth, but that hadn't been of his own will, anyway--so why should they act as jailers? It wouldn't be fair. Or nice.

So she took Jack to their conference room and settled herself across the table from him, then just as quickly bounced back up. "Oh! I'll want to take notes, I guess. I'll be right back." And she ran for her desk.

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Gwen laughed as Anna popped out of the room, and grinned at Jack.

"She's new. And a bit... eager," she said cheerfully.

She leaned back in the chair. "Would you like something to drink?" she asked. "Tea or coffee? Or perhaps something to eat." She sighed. "You're sort of a guest here. We're used to aliens trying to kill us, we're not exactly used to friendly chats."

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"Tea would be lovely," Jack replied. "I am not an alien, you know."

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Gwen got up to prepare him a cuppa, and laughed.

"Oh, I imagine you're not. You look human enough to me."

Human, and really, really cute. But she wouldn't mention that quite yet.

"But I have to ask, where is it, exactly, that you are from? Are you really Victorian? We haven't got time travellers through the Rift yet," she added, as she waited for the kettle to boil. "At least, none that I know of."

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"Not Victorian, no," he said, folding his hands on the table and watching Gwen as she went about her business. "Your friend was just a little off her mark. I believe your historians would refer to me as an Edwardian. I left Earth in 1912."

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Anna, coming back in, blurted, "I knew it!" She dropped her notepad and pen on the conference table with a clatter and clutched at the back of a chair in excitement. "I knew there was something familiar about you! You're Jack Phillips, aren't you?"

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Gwen jumped as Anna burst back into the room. She had no idea where the girl got her energy from. Gwen had been a Torchwood only a few months longer, and every day she felt more exhausted.

She prepared Jack's tea and set it down in front of him, and cast a confused look between Anna and Jack.

"You know him?"

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"Of course I do!" Anna exclaimed, before a shadow of doubt cast itself over her face and she added, a little uncertainly, "I am right, aren't I?"

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A startled expression had flitted briefly across Jack's face, but once the initial surprise had passed, he looked merely... resigned.

"You're quite right, Miss... Anna, was it?" he replied, a little heavily. "I am indeed Jack Phillips. I take it you're a scholar, then? If the date is what you say it is, I would not expect my name to be quite as well known as it once was."

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Gwen cleared her throat.

"Sorry to kill any ideas of celebrity, but I still don't have any idea who you are." She turned to Anna with a questioning look. "Either one of you care to fill me in?"

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[*beats the ever-loving shit out of LJ*]

Anna gave Gwen a semi-exasperated look; clearly, she had expected her friend to already know who Jack was, too. "Gwen!" she exclaimed. "What happened in 1912 that people still talk about today?"

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"What is this, a history course?" Gwen frowned. History had never been a strong point in her schooling, but she could at least narrow down it down to British history. She ticked through events in her mind, and finally shot Anna an ironic look.

"Why do I have a feeling, whatever this is about, Jack here's related to the Titanic somehow?"

Her voice didn't hold the same excitement as Anna's. Unfortunately, she didn't find this as interesting so much as possibly buggering of history and timelines. Which, kind of gave her a headache.

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