Inspired by black k cat. I entirely blame this on her Torchwood stories. Inspiration also came from the Greywalker Novels by Kat Richardson. The Title is a line from an Anne Bradstreet poem.

Note: the OC is more of a plot device than a character, despite having a couple parts where we're seeing her p.o.v. There is no romantic or sexual relationship between the OC and the Canon characters.

Yet love thy dead (who long lay in thy arms)

The first time is in a pub, and he sees her the moment he walks in.

Jack is alone- Owen is at another bar, Ianto is furious because Jack's latest attempt to help with the archives has not gone well (He'll figure out a way to apologize later, when Ianto doesn't look like he's going to use one of the various weapons on him the moment he pokes his head through the door) Gwen and Tosh have decided to have a ladies night (something about dealing with too much testosterone, and Jack would feel more offended if he hadn't learned Owen had moved certain objects out of the bathroom and both of them are having their periods at the same time- Owen, on the other hand, is more offended). So that leaves him with trying to find some company for tonight that won't expect more, and he's not going to spend the evening with Owen, lest Tosh and Gwen find out and convince Ianto to help them.

(With what, he doesn't know, he just knows it's a bad idea to mess with certain feminine objects at a certain time of month, and Owen is completely unaware of the fact they are most likely plotting his demise.)

The woman in question is wearing a beat up black jacket, sitting in perhaps one of the more out of the way corners of the pub, and idly sipping a half-full pint. She's not bad looking, brown hair pulled back, with pale skin that clearly hasn't seen the sun in a while, but more importantly, she looks lonely, and Jack figures she won't mind if he joins her.

He's halfway to her when she briefly turns her head to look at a beat-up grandfather clock with darts in it (the dartboard itself is about two feet to the right) and see's a bruise on her cheek. It's healing, and a ugly yellow color, but it draws him up short.

She notices, and looks at him. There's a flash of recognition, and Jack tries to remember if they've met before, but the recognition fades just as sudden as it came.

"I'm not using that chair." She offers, and gestures with a gloved hand towards the rather rickety looking chair. Her voice is rather quiet, and her accent is clearly American, he recognizes it from a movie (which one, he doesn't remember), a slow sort of drawl on her vowels, but not obnoxiously noticeable.

"Mind if I join you, then?" She just shrugs in response, and turns her head to look out the window again. "You're from the U.S.?" He tries to start a conversation (and starts to think he probably should have gone to a bar as she starts, apparently having forgotten he was there).

"Originally." She takes a sip. "Been travelling."

"Oh, so what brings you to Cardiff?"

"Here for a friend."

"You don't talk much, do you?" Jack is a little surprised when that causes her to smile. Not a big, mega-watt smile, but a wry one, with only one side of her mouth moving up.

"Depends on the subject." The wry half-smile remains. "How about you, from around here?"

"Originally, no, I work around here, though." Jack winces as the Grandfather clock decides to go off, and announce the time.

"Then I'll see you around." She drains the remainder of the pint with a gulp and stands. "Thanks for the company, Captain."

"Maybe- wait!" Jack turns around to stop her, but she's already gone- which should be impossible unless she ran, and there's no sign of the other patrons noticing her flight.

The most damning thing, though, is he never told her he was a Captain.

Things go back to normal for Torchwood Three (after Gwen and Tosh put superglue in one of Owen's condoms, it's a little harsh, but Owen has learned not to mess with the feminine hygiene products that Gwen and Tosh bring) and Jack doesn't mention the odd meeting.

The next time, he's in an old, overgrown, but still serviceable, graveyard, checking for the possibility of a 'vampire', and Gwen and Ianto are also searching while Owen is trying to find a better explanation for the entire blood-loss of their victim.

"Watch your step, Cap'n Jack." The American drawl makes him start, and a hand pulls him back from the tarp that covers a newly dug, but as yet empty, grave. He turns to see the woman in the beat up jacket standing there, looking very amused.

"What are you doing here?" Jack manages, and hears the others start to question who he's talking to.

"Exploring. You?" She takes a few steps away to skirt the tarp.

"Depends, are you a vampire?" It would fit (except she didn't drink his blood or seduce him) and she's still pale (still has the bruise, though it's faded a little more).

"Ugh, no, please note that it's noon." She gives him a look of annoyance. "And if you dare make a comment about Twilight, I will hit you."

"Then why are you here?"

"I said I'd see you again, but since you're busy this time . . ." She turns and starts walking behind a large oak tree.

"Wait!" Jack tries to follow and grab her, but once again, she's gone. "Damnit."

"Sir, tell us what's wrong!" Ianto's voice is raised over the others on the frequency, and Jack winces.

"It's not related to the case; Tosh, when we get done here, I need to talk to you."

It's only a few days later that the case is solved rather disturbingly, as it wasn't a vampire, just some psychopath who made a machine to drain blood from his victims. Gwen is comforting the near-victim they just saved, and Ianto is dealing with the local police, so Jack walks off to the side, intending to head to the car, when he sees movement next to the small church that said psychopath was living next to.

Said movement is wearing a beat up black jacket, and Jack doesn't bother making an excuse as he quickly walks over and enters behind her.

Inside the church is empty and the woman is sitting down in one of the rather quaint-looking pews.

"Are you following me?" He demands, walking up to her. "You know who I am, but I don't know you, we've never met!" She could be a real threat, he'd realized this in the graveyard, and just waiting to strike.

"Technically, we just haven't met yet." She corrects, eyes not leaving the altar. "As for following you, only a little; I actually just wanted to come here today."

"Yet?" Jack doesn't like the sound of that. "Who are you?"

" . . . I honestly have no idea." She says after a moment, a mix of confusion and frustration briefly crossing her face. "I'm still working on that."

Jack doesn't know what to say to that, and doesn't know what to say next to keep her from rushing off like before. Especially since she's actually speaking to him this time. "I suppose you believe in God." He sits on the edge of the pew just across from her. "I doubt he'll help you with that."

"Mm, that's debatable." She looks at him. "It's one of my few good memories, y'see, I'm hoping to jog something else while I'm here."

"That's . . ." Surprisingly reasonable, actually, but he can't quite bring himself to say it, "one way, I suppose."

She gives him a look that informs him whatever opinion of his intelligence she had, it just went down.

"You're very odd." Jack defends, and gets a small smile from her as Ianto's voice tells him they're ready to go.

"So I've been told." She turns her attention back to the altar, and Jack starts to leave, before he realizes he probably should bring her to the Hub- but when he turns back, she's gone. "Damn."

The next time they meet, it's been a while, some things have changed (and some haven't, and he might be more than a little in love with Ianto), and Jack is starting to feel tired, old, like he hasn't in a long time. He's delaying heading back to the Hub, and she's suddenly right next to him.

"You look awful, Cap'n." Is her greeting, and amazingly, he doesn't fall over. "Haven't you ever heard of a vacation?"

"Where have you been?" Is Jack's response, and realizes how it sounded when she tilts her head. (She still has the bruise on her cheek, and that sends up more red flags, whoever she is, wherever she's from, she's not normal.) "What are you? You still have that bruise, it's been months."

"For you, it's been months." She corrects, and absently touches the bruise on her face. "I'm human, I think, or at least I was . . . Not sure anymore."

"Why are you following me?"

Annoyingly, she doesn't answer his question, just asks one of her own. "You really love them, don't you?" At his glare, she just stares calmly back, and clarifies. "Your team. You really love them."

"Why do you care?" The question is harsh, and he pulls himself to his full height. (Because if she's going to threaten his team, he's not going to hold back.)

"I don't." She sighs, and takes a step away. "You, however, do, since you keep letting yourself get killed for them."

She's gone before Jack can retort, and he's now in a fouler mood than before she came.

After that she doesn't appear to talk to him again, but he swears he sees glimpses of her on occasion.

(But that, he eventually learns, doesn't mean she's lost whatever interest she has.)

Ianto first sees her on his walk to work. She's got a bruise on her cheek that's yellow, just starting to heal, and she's definitely watching him from the bench she's sitting on. Rather than ignore her, like a good portion of his mind is telling him, he walks over.

"Do you need help, miss?" She starts, as if not expecting him to actually speak to her.

"No, I'm fine . . . you can see me?" She looks a little worried at that, glancing down at the watch on her wrist.

"Should I not be able to?" Ianto asks, a little disturbed, and reaching for his phone. She's probably some tourist or student that lost her meds, or something, he decides.

"Well, not everyone seems to." She stands. "You're with Torchwood, right? Captain Jack Harkness?"

That makes him stop, because an she really shouldn't know either of those names, and it disturbs him even more.

"I thought so," She says (despite the fact he hasn't answered, hasn't said anything), and gives him a wry smile, "if you would, could you not tell the Captain you've seen me?"

She must be a former one night stand, Ianto decides, and agrees. It's not till she's disappeared around a corner that Ianto reminds himself that Jack never reveals anything regarding Torchwood to outsiders, but by then she's gone, and Ianto hurries so he's not late to work.

(He doesn't tell Jack, anyway, and wonders who she is.)

He sees her a lot, always watching, but she never approaches him, and he's sure she sometimes watches the others. (He gets his confirmation when Owen comes in with a black-eye and a complaint that a woman with a bruise hit him for flirting with her, despite her watching him at the bar.) She doesn't do anything, though, and catching her isn't a option.

The next time they actually talk, it's been a while, and she's sitting on the same bench as he walks home.

(Jack isn't with him, despite his best efforts, and Ianto tries not to show how hurt he is.)

"I might have made the Captain angry, earlier." Is her greeting, and Ianto joins her on the bench. "Didn't mean to, though."

"It's been stressful." Ianto is somewhat surprised when she just nods and accepts that explanation. "What did you say?"

"I called him on letting himself get killed so much." She looks annoyed. "I don't care that he can keep coming back, it's just not healthy for him."

"He doesn't let himself get killed!" Ianto objects, and gets a disgusted look in return. "He doesn't, it just-"

"Just happens an awful lot when he could probably avoid it." She interrupts, but is now less annoyed, and more tired. "He really loves you, though."

"I- are you in love with him?" Ianto figures that would make the most sense, if this woman was a stalker (not that it would make him feel less disturbed at the idea).

He doesn't expect the rather harsh laugh she gives.

"No, just, no . . ." She shakes her head, and shudders. "I'm not in love with him, wouldn't have sex with him for anything; though I suppose I do love him." She puts her hand to the not-quite-healed bruise for a moment, before shuddering again. "Ugh, did you have to say that? Now I don't remember what I wanted to talk about!"

"Sorry, you just seemed rather interested in him, and you hit Owen."

"Guy was drunk and didn't understand the word 'No'." She makes a face. "I told him no three times, and I warned him three times, so you can't say he didn't deserve that hit."

"And Jack?"

" . . . I just want to see him happy." She gets up, and suddenly kisses him on the cheek. "Thank you." And with that, she's gone, leaving an obvious lipstick mark on his cheek.

(Jack is a little annoyed when he sees it after coming over later, but Ianto just says it was a thank you, and Jack doesn't press for more information after he wipes it off.)

It's a long time later, Ianto is dead, long dead, and Jack is with the Doctor, unable to stay in Cardiff, or even Earth.

The Doctor has him help get some refugees from one planet to another, and worries over the fact that Captain Harkness is still something that shouldn't exist, but is something he can't fix.

At least, not yet, and not without some potentially serious repercussions. The Doctor doesn't ask him why he's left earth, he has a fair idea, and instead focuses on helping the refugees.

"You!" The Doctor quickly moves to stop Captain Harkness from doing- well, he doesn't know what, but that was definitely an angry exclamation. He finds him staring at human woman (definitely human, definitely from Earth, but something is wrong- similar to Captain Harkness, but not.) The woman is dirty, her jacket looks worse-for-wear, and she looks ready to bolt. "Are you following me even now?!"

"Um, I don't know you . . ." She backs up, and the Doctor moves to intervene before Captain Harkness does something he'll regret-

"No, of course not, not yet." When suddenly the Captain deflates, a lingering sadness that's been hanging over him intensifies. "This must be how it starts, then . . ."

"Oh?" The Doctor interjects, and the woman (barely, just out of girl-hood he thinks) definitely shrinks back. "What's your name?"

"I don't . . . I don't really know . . ." She is glancing back and forth between them, still wary, still exuding the sense of something wrong. "There were a lot, and the experiments, so . . . I don't really know."

"Experiments?" The Doctor asks, and he's more than a little upset at the thought- Earth is under his protection, and there are only a handful that might dare to take people from there for such a purpose. "You escaped?"

She nods, and then suddenly walks through a pillar. "Like that." She explains. "But I was the only one, others, lots of others are still there."

"Where? Do you know?"

All he gets is a shake of her head, and she wraps her arms around herself. "Ship, moved a lot." She adds after a moment, perhaps realizing that such a fact was important.

"Then you should come with us, and we'll help." The Doctor smiles. "Captain Harkness, if you would finish helping the refugees, I'll escort our guest back to TARDIS."

(Captain Harkness agrees, and the woman follows him, but warily, much like a stray cat.)

There is of course, something very wrong with the woman, and the Doctor is now very worried. For one, not even TARDIS can figure out what exactly is wrong with her, or how she's capable of becoming intangible, and for another, he now has two clearly broken birds to try and mend.

Oh, and said two broken birds? They don't talk to each other, at all.

"You can really travel through time?" She asks one day, leaning against a rail as he checks over the TARDIS systems. Captain Harkness is somewhere else, probably napping, and the Doctor doesn't mind her company for a bit.

"Yes, with the help of TARDIS." He pauses, because she's looking at something where nothing is. "Something wrong?"

"You dropped a bolt there, it rolled under there." She points, and he's more than a little disturbed to find she's right.

"How did you do that?" He asks, and she just shrugs, before trying to explain at his look.

"I see things, sometimes. Things that have happened before . . . but only when I'm intangible, it's . . . kinda odd." She tilted her head. "Sometimes, it's misty, other times more clear, and sometimes I can touch things."

And that set off alarm bells. "Well, we probably should look into that, shouldn't we?"

"No, I don't want to."

If he could have, he would have hit his head on the wall. The woman was a little over-sensitive to two things- touch (which is what usually set her against the Captain) and the idea of experimentation (this was a little more understandable, as she was experimented on, afterall, but still frustrating). "Not like that, I was talking about research." The Doctor gestured for her to follow, and after a moment she did. "TARDIS does have a wide selection of books, we might find a clue as to what was done to you that way."

"Why didn't you just say that?"

(While she looks through the section on Unique Abilities, he's going over his psychology books, and trying to figure out how to treat Post Traumatic Stress, because he's fairly certain that's what both of them are really suffering from.)

Jack is somewhat used to her presence now, but he still tries to avoid her, because she has the ability to ask questions he doesn't want to answer.

Then one night he has a nightmare (Ianto is dying, Gwen is screaming and Owen and Tosh are there, demanding him to save them, and he can't do a damn thing) and comes awake quickly, reacting to the foreign presence in his room and striking out-

Only his fist goes through the person, and his mind is halfway between remembering the Woman can walk through walls and freaking out that there's a ghost.

"What- Why, What are you doing?" He finally manages, heart-beat going back to normal speeds.

"I heard you cry out." She tilts her head, "You were having a nightmare, so I tried to wake you."

Jack mentally berates himself, despite knowing he can't really help it, before the edge of his bed dips down, and he looks back at her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asks, and Jack is too tired to lash out like he wants to.

"No."

She just nods, as if he had told her. "So it was a bad memory then, those are the worst."

Jack stares at her, stares at where he remembers the bruise was (will be) and realizes that she's being completely serious.

("There were a lot, and the experiments . . ." her words, from their meeting come back, and he realizes that she probably does understand, or at least, sympathizes. But he's too tired to care.)

"Thanks for that, mum, now if you could just give me a kiss and leave." Is what finally comes out, and he feels a little guilty as he sees her stiffen. She doesn't show anything on her face, though, as she stands up-

And suddenly there's a pair of lips brushing his cheek, a brief whisper of "G'night, Cap'n.", and she very quickly disappears.

(He tries to be nicer over the next few days, and she never brings up the nightmare.)

She disappears from the TARDIS not long after, and the Doctor is frustrated because the TARDIS doesn't know when she left, and more than a little concerned because the TARDIS doesn't seem to have recorded her stay, either.

She's being foolish, and she knows it.

She knows her memories are far too fragmented to ever be certain, and some are most definitely not hers at all, but she's pretty sure she's human, she's been to a church and lived in a place called U.S., and there might have been someone important, but that last is difficult to remember.

She doesn't know why she can do some of the things she can do, though she's sure they weren't the intended product of the experiments they (who she can't really remember as anything other than vague shapes) did to her.

She would have never gotten out, if they had.

And right now, she's certain of a few things, Captain Harkness and that Doctor were people she could trust, and Captain Harkness was a little like her, while the Doctor was only tolerating her existence. (She's not sure why she keeps thinking that, he's nice to her, but there's something off.)

She's also certain she shouldn't be seeing the colors that thread through the air, or the misty-looking people and objects she sometimes sees, because no one else does. The colors are what worry her the most, as they're constantly getting more and more noticeable to the point where even if she's not paying attention, she sees them flicker, and now she can sometimes touch and move them.

Which was why she was here, though she's sure the Doctor won't like it when he finds out.

Leaving the TARDIS wasn't easy, and she hit the ground hard, her face hitting something hard enough to know she would get a bruise, but she's pretty sure she can do what she wants quickly, before they come back.

She slips into the mist world, seeing layers of people and objects, and starts moving through it. It freaks her out, when a man notices her as she's sitting down on a bench, as normally no one in the mist world ever sees her, and she's more disturbed to realize the mist world isn't as misty as normal.

She's kind of happy, though, because now she might be able to figure out why Captain Harkness is sad in an easier way than just watching through the mist.

Jumping between layers of the mist world is hard, and imprecise, and really, really exhausting, so she has to take a break, and for once she can actually get something to drink . . . and Captain Harkness walks in.

She tries to go in the natural progression, but she's not sure she gets it right, it's tiring, and from what she understands, something bad happens to the one named Ianto (because that was the name Captain Harkness cried out in his nightmare) that she needs to know.

(Because he's a bit like her, and she wants to help him.)

She discovers her next problem not too long later, with what she starts calling the grey world. It's just as misty as the misty world, but completely gray with the brilliant streaks of color that the normal world had, and not the duller streaks the misty one has. It's all too easy to end up in the grey world by accident, and there's something there that doesn't like her, though it doesn't always attack when she slips into that world on accident.

The final problem she encounters is that the longer she follows them, the less she can interact, and the more misty things get, the less they see of her.

"Don't." It's a very awful sound, and she doesn't like it.

Just like she doesn't like the odd color that's mixing with his natural ones, and covering them up.

(Ianto stops breathing, and she ignores her common sense to go into the grey world.)

So, this is what death feels like. Ianto thinks, it's very black, and he sort of feels like something is pulling him along.

"Found you." It's an American accent he hasn't heard in a long time, and he's somewhat surprised.

"Are you dead too? Is this the afterlife?"

"Um, no, and I very much doubt it, I think it's more inbetween." There's a moment as he processes this, when she suddenly gives a huff of frustration. "You could look me in the eyes, y'know."

"It's pitch black, I can't see you."

"What are you talking about, this place is grey . . . oh." There's a pause, and then a sigh. "Well, come on, then, let's get you back."

"But that toxin was fatal." Ianto objects, and there's a moment before she finally speaks.

"I'm not entirely sure of that, didn't erase your colors, just dulled them a lot."

Which makes absolutely no sense. Neither does her sudden cursing, and suddenly, he's gasping and choking, trying to get air-

"Damn, sorry, hang on."

- And suddenly they're in a park, he's still having trouble breathing, and he's more than a little confused why he's in his best suit.

"Sorry about that, didn't think that through."

"Wha- What did you do?" He manages despite his throat protesting movement.

"Well, I just brought you back to life, though you weren't totally dead, really . . . I think, your colors are pretty much normal."

"Why?"

"Cap'n is kind of miserable. I love the version of him when's he's around you." Is the explanation, and the woman tilts her head. "So, our next trick is hoping the TARDIS lands here again, and hopping on it."

Ianto feels like he should object to something, but he feels like he's, well, been killed and brought back. So he doesn't.

(He's pretty out of it, so he doesn't remember how they get to the bed she leaves him on, just as his body starts feeling normal.)

She knew it was going to cause her trouble, and from the colors swirling around him, the Doctor is furious.

"You meddled with time deliberately to bring someone back from the dead?!"

She has a feeling answering would be a very bad idea, so she stays silent; her hands are hurting, and she feels a little lightheaded, but the Doctor hasn't blasted her (or Ianto) out of existence, and he did help her get Ianto into the TARDIS, so she doesn't dare complain.

"What were you even thinking- How could you even do such a thing!" He whirls on her, and she tries not to sway on her feet. "Answer me!"

"I, I just . . . the toxin wasn't natural, I could remove its color to see the ones underneath, so he wasn't really completely dead." She can't really explain better than that, because that's when Captain Harkness and Ianto both rush into the room, and Captain Harkness grabs her hands, which normally would do nothing, except this time, she feels something on her hands sort of pop, and she falls to her knees, or almost, because the Doctor catches her.

She blacks out.

The Doctor is more than a little disturbed when Captain Harkness pulls off her gloves to reveal burned and blistered hands, and he can tell they're all disturbed to see that the damage also goes up her arms.

Whatever she did to get Ianto Jones back, it hurt her.

Once she's bandaged up, he's back trying to figure out what she is.

He finds it in a book from his home planet, warning of dangers of time-travel that for the most part are (were) considered mere myths.

"She's a paradox," he announces to the two men who are changing the bandages on her arms, "She's part of time, but not." He explains, when all that gets him is an even blanker look, he sighs. "Whatever the experiments were, they messed her existence up, she's . . . well, half in and out of time, I suppose, existing when she's not supposed to, at the same time not existing when she has to. It's why the TARDIS doesn't always register her existence."

"And bringing me back from the dead?"

"That, I don't know, yet. However, there's a problem."

"What sort of problem?"

"Being on the TARDIS is actually detrimental to her existence." The Doctor motions as the woman suddenly fades partially. "And as I need to sort out how she got this way, she needs a place to stay, and be watched over."

(It takes a couple hours, half of which the Doctor is watching over the paradox's condition, while Ianto and Jack explore something other than the issue, before Ianto and Jack come to an agreement.)

So like I said, OC wasn't a character, so much as a plot device to drive the story and bring back Ianto. Her powers as a paradox come from the Greywalker novels, which are a pretty good read.

I did write Jack finding Ianto and their reunion, but I utterly failed at capturing the moment correctly, so much to your good fortune (trust me, it was a fail) I didn't include it.

If you want me to write more about this AU idea and the characters (including expanding on Ms. Paradox), let me know.

Otherwise, let me know what I could improve, I have no beta, and I tend to miss things even going over my stories a few times.