To earn her keep Carly often helped Alice with the housework or assist Owen with his medical work.

"I had a protégé once" Owen said watching Carly thread a needle to sew a cut up that Jack stupidly got when he was showing off in front of his friends. "She was a lot like you, young, spunky and cheeky as hell. Constantly bickering and teasing one another"

"Sounds like me and my brother" Carly said sadly not wanting to think about Deano at this point in time. "So...you come from the 21st century as well"

"Hmm...Yeah, I was a doctor working for a paranormal group" Owen said distractedly ignoring Jack's hisses of pain as he began to sew the cut up.

"Not Torchwood I hope" Carly muttered.

"Hey there's nothing wrong with Torchwood!" Owen exclaimed. "Sure Captain Shags-a-lot is too flirty and can't keep his hands of a beautiful person no matter what species and yeah he keeps a lot of secrets and manipulates but he's not an overall bad guy. Sure Ianto Jones is too quiet and weird, Gwen Cooper is too motherly and Tosh never does anything sociable and then you got the twins-"

"Twins?" Carly blinked.

Ianto Jones she had met, she knew he work for Torchwood but he looked more like an enslaved person than a willing worker. She hadn't met any of the others Owen had mentioned and for some reason she's got this feeling he was talking about whole different company made of a small team since the Torchwood she knew was large, business-like, made of millions of people and so very cold.

"Yeah Alex Rose and JJ. Alex Rose was my protégé" Owen said finished stitching the cut and now putting his medical kit away. "Off you go now Jack and please try not to act stupid" Owen said dismissively, Carly swore she heard him mutter "you're not immortal yet" but dismissed it as her imagination.

She was a doctor? This Alex Rose that she was supposed to be...was a doctor? Well it explained how she understood what Owen was saying and how she instantly knew what was best for each patient even though she was a mechanic...

But she refused to be this Alex Rose. She was and always will be Carly Wicks, daughter of Kevin Wicks, sister of Deano and Jimbo Wicks.

"But Owen I was practising to be a hero" Jack protested. "I wanna grow up to be just like you!"

"No wonder we're so screwed up" Owen grumbled as he ruffled Jack's hair. "I'm no hero Jack, now go back and play with your brother; I believe your father is taking you out for a gathering"

Jack nodded and ran to the door. "Bye Owen, bye beautiful" he said waving a hand before running out.

"That boy will be the death of me" Owen muttered. "Literally"

"I think he's sweet" Carly murmured.

"Yeah well you won't find him sweet when he grows up, trust me on that, I met adult Jack and he's bedded more people than the whole of Cardiff put together"

"How did you end up here?" Carly asked.

"Same way as you"

"You have a dimension cannon as well?"

"Dimension cannon, what's that? I was speaking about the rift you stupid girl!"

"Rift?"

"Yes a rift in time and space" Owen said impatiently. "I'm no good at explaining that junk that's Tosh's specialty I just cut up the bodies"

Carly wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Nice" she muttered sarcastically. "So what this rift thing just magically teleported you to here?" she asked louder.

"Well yeah. You see what happened was the Captain's ex-wife and baby brother went nuts and tried to destroy the whole of Cardiff with bombs and manipulating the rift to go crazy-"

"Oh I heard about that!" Carly interrupted. "It was on the news when I was still on the cruise boat"

"Yeah, whatever" Owen said dismissively. "I was trying to stop the power plant from blowing up when I got locked in. Was all ready to face my death when just at the same time the radiation was going to turn me to dust the rift pulled me through"

"So you're fine then? Since the radiation never hit you?" Carly asked nervously.

Owen let out a bitter laugh. "Oh, no the radiation got me all right. Was coughing up all sorts when I landed here. Luckily Ben found me and got me to the satellite hospital that orbits up here. they haven't cured me but...well they added a lot more than a handful months to my life, I reckon I have fifteen maybe twenty years of natural life before I drop down dead"

Owen Harper will die. Whether it is now or twenty years time. You. Can't. Change. That.

It was part of the memory that she can barely remember...as usual. The words just sprung out to haunt her, to remind her. She tried to shake it off, trying to remind herself that she was not this Alex Rose but Carly Wicks but it was starting to become a losing battle.

The silence must have become unbearable because Owen turned round and asked her about the dimension cannon. Carly suddenly lunged into long scientific babble about how it worked causing Owen to roll his eyes and sigh.

"And in English?" he asked.

"We could go home" Carly said. "But I want to check it out again, just in case it broke or the circuits' fritzed out when I arrived"

So in the end they sat there as she took it apart and examined it carefully. By early afternoon she had fixed it up together and was certain it's working.

"So we can go back?" Owen asked, she nodded and he clapped his hands together. "Hallelujah!"

At the same time Jack burst in crying. "Owen, Owen! Gray and Dad are gone! They took them!"

"What? What do you mean Jack?"

"They invaded, didn't you hear them? everyone was screaming and running and I was holding Gray's hand I promise I was but he's not here, he's gone and I left him" Carly's heart went out as the young boy began to cry, she reached out and pulled him into a hug. "A-a-and Dad is...i found...a bullet...he's...and Mum...she's...so...so"

"Shh I know sweetheart I know" Carly murmured rubbing the boy's back.

"It's all my fault; I'm never going to be a hero! I'm useless!"

"Aw shit" Owen muttered he pulled Jack out of Carly's embrace and turned him to face him. "Listen here kid, you're a pain in the backside and cocky little know it all but deep down you're a good kid. None of this is your fault and you will become a hero just not now, got it?" Jack nodded silently. "I'm so sorry Jack, I don't want to leave you but you got to be strong-"

"Why? Where are you going?"

"Home, kid over there has got away back and I'm taking it"

"What about me?"

"You...you got to handle this on your own because it's what makes you strong, it's what makes you the man that I admire" Owen admitted blushing slightly. Jack's eyes widened. "I'm sorry Jack but I can't stay, I got to get this kid back to her parents and I've got someone special myself"

"Am i...am I not a good enough person?" Jack asked hesitantly not understanding exactly what Owen had said. His mind still on mostly his father and brother.

"Am I not a good enough person?" she demanded, arms crossed and glare full on blast. "Not a good enough mother for you to come back home?"

"Mum...please..."

"They're my grandchildren Rose! I deserved to know about them!"

"I was stuck in a time period where you were bringing me up! I couldn't exactly walk in and claim I was your daughter, you would have had me locked up!"

"That's besides the point; I had a right to know!"

"Gran just give it up"

Carly let out a gasp causing Jack and Owen to look at her. Her face had turned a greyish white as her breathing got uneven. Owen ran to her side and put a hand on her forehead, he swore as he felt a temperature growing.

At that moment Carly's fingers pressed down on the yellow button and Jack let out a cry of anguish as Owen Harper and the mysterious blonde vanished into a blue white light. Tears fell down his cheeks as he curled his hands up into fists.

"I will definitely become a Time Agent" Jack promised. "I will find Gray and Owen. I will become a person for Owen to admire!"