Jack was here early again. Lately Jack had been coming in around the same time as Ianto. Well, when Ianto thought about it, Jack practically lived here so he wasn't so much as 'coming in' as he was 'waking up and emerging from his bunk earlier than usual'. But it was a change, Ianto had noticed that, even if he couldn't figure out exactly what the change was; it was like Jack was bored or something. He was always trying to find things for them to talk about before the others came into work, he would come and ask Ianto what he did at home the night before or over the weekend, he would play with things Ianto would be using and asking what they were even as Ianto was taking them off of Jack and putting them back. Ianto didn't mind, it wasn't annoying which surprised Ianto because he liked to be left to do his work but Jack didn't annoy him, even as he was doing everything two or three times since Jack was bored he couldn't help but smile a little at Jack's boredom. He was like a child sometimes but Ianto knew that Jack was older than any of them, possibly combined, and that's what made Ianto smile. Sometimes Jack looked so old, when he had to do the things that no one else wanted to do, when he had to make the decisions that he would be verbally spat at for, he looked so tired and so old. Sometimes too old. But in that moment when he came down the stairs to Ianto, trying not to be too eager and obvious, even though he was practically bouncing on the spot, he looked younger than he ever could be, not just physically but behind his eyes too. Like a star that had started to fade out finding a new lease of life. Burning that little bit brighter. Ianto had seen it before, close up... Very close. But he tried not to think about that, having Jack that close to him having just said something dripping with innuendo and smiling Ianto had only just managed to find the strength to make his excuses and walk away. He definitely tried not to think about that. Tried.

"Morning, Ianto!" He stood beside the desk looking at the two cups Ianto had just put down on the desk, usually Ianto would take the cup up his office but he didn't bother because he knew Jack would just bring it down with him.

Ianto cleared his throat and cleared his mind. "Morning, sir. It's the one nearest you." He smiled and continued moving things around carefully. The mail for the week had been building up and now they had parcels to deal with, there was no point in cleaning until that was done.

"Thank you, you have to tell me where you learned to make such a great cup of coffee, Ianto."

"If I did that then you would have no use for me, sir."

"That's not true." Jack sounded a little hurt.

Ianto didn't answer and Jack took a chance to take in more coffee. Ianto sorted through the mail hoping Jack would leave it at that. But not leave altogether. "For a top secret organisation that doesn't answer to anyone, we sure do get a lot of mail, sir. Shit!" Ianto dropped a pile of mail on the floor and Jack bent down to help him.

"Yeah we do, I should look into that."

"I wonder what the postman thinks when he delivers this lot to the tourist office." Jack just laughed as he helped Ianto and put his pile of letters on the desk. "Thank you, sir."

"Let me help you with this lot."

"I can manage."

"I never said you couldn't but I've finished my work and it'll be at least half an hour before the others come in so unless you've got something else I can do...?" He smiled at Ianto who just shook his head after failing to think of anything that he would trust Jack with around here. Certainly not his coffee maker. "Then, why don't you do the paper stuff and I'll do the parcels."

"But, sir-"

"Ianto come on, I'm good at handling the big stuff." He winked and Ianto just rolled his eyes defeated. They started sorting through the mail and the coffee.

"Funny, this one is addressed to 'Torchwood'." Ianto handed the letter to Jack.

"What? Well, how did they even know we were here?" He turned it over and over looking at it, for what Ianto didn't think even Jack knew.

"How did the postman even know to deliver it here?" As Jack turned it again he saw. "No stamp. This was hand de- Jack what are you doing?"

"Opening it?" Jack put his thumb in and started ripping it open.

"But it could be dangerous?"

"It's a letter, how dangerous can it be? Besides, it's to Torchwood and no stamp. How can I not?"

"You can't be that bored?"

"Who said I was bor…" His voice trailed off as he realised that Ianto may have had a point. The alarms went off all over.

"What is that, sir?" They both stood and looked around before they turned to the computers and hooked into the system.

PRESENCE OF TYFIL-FIVE DETECTED. QUARANTINE IN EFFECT. REPEAT. PRESENCE OF TYFIL-FIVE DETECTED. QUARANTINE IN EFFECT.

"Shit, Ianto?" Jack looked to Ianto with a look that he'd only seen a couple of times. Shame.

"It's alright." Ianto hit his comms. "Tosh. It's Ianto, listen we have a situation here at the hub. Sir, get Owen on."

Jack did as he was told. "Owen, we need your help."

Ianto: "We opened a letter addressed to 'Torchwood'." Jack looked at Ianto as he took the lead and half of the blame.

Tosh: "Not to the tourist office?"

Ianto: "No and it didn't have a stamp so, it was hand delivered."

Owen: "So, what did you open it for, are you stupid?"

Jack: "We weren't thinking." Jack looked at the table wondering why he was letting Ianto take the flack for his mistake and he tried to explain. "I was just-"

Ianto cut him off. "It doesn't matter why just now, all that matters is that we opened it and the hub shut down.

Owen: "What does that mean?"

Jack: "The hub detected something and went into immediate quarantine."

Owen: "What did it detect?"

Tosh: "It should be on the screen."

Ianto: "It says Tyfil-Five?"

Owen starts to laugh down the phone and Tosh joins in.

Jack: "What? Is that good?"

Owen: "Tyfil- Five is a mixture of Tyfiline and Roffive, separately they are deadly but mix them together and you mimic the presence of Weevil sweat, it comes as close to their DNA as you possibly can. It's a bit weird..."

Ianto: "Sweat? Are you taking the piss?"

Owen: "It's not just any sweat, it's the sweat that is excreted when they are in danger; it's released as a cry for help from others."

Jack: "But why would someone send us that in the mail?"

Ianto: "And why are we in quarantine?"

Tosh: "The system has detected the compound but it's also programmed to look for any compounds that may be masked in the mixture, after the last time-"

All three of the others: "Oh, yeah."

Ianto: "That was nasty." Jack nods at Ianto with their faces showing disgust at the memory. "So it's detected them separately and assumed it was a Trojan horse?"

Tosh: "Basically."

Jack: "Is there a chance that is was a Trojan horse?"

Tosh: "I need you to tap into the computer's air filtration system."

Jack: "Ianto's on it." He stood behind Ianto as he followed Tosh's lead.

Tosh: "Go to the filtration levels and then to the quarantine plan. It should tell you the level of the compound and then the two separately."

Ianto: "It says Tyfilline at 67% and Roffive at 33% while the Tyfil-Five is at 79%?"

Tosh: "That's good, it the levels were at 50 each then there'd be a problem but at those levels they aren't acting on their own, they're acting as a mixture. What does the quarantine say?"

Owen: "Can I hang up now?"

Jack: "Shut up, Owen!" Ianto flinched a little at the volume of Jack's warning.

Ianto: "It says 'Hours to complete filtration: 90."

Jack: "90?!"

Owen starts laughing.

Tosh: "Oh, I'm sorry guys but…"

Owen: "You're stuck in there until Monday!" Owen is still pissing himself.

Jack: "Owen if you want to have a job to come back to on Monday then you'll shut up. Right now." Ianto couldn't help but smile as Jack let out his pent up fear as anger on Owen and it might have something to do with Jack squeezing Ianto's shoulder in anticipated relief. "So we're safe, Tosh? We just have to wait until the air clears and we can leave?"

Tosh: "I wouldn't open any more mail, though."

Jack couldn't help but laugh. He loosened his grip on Ianto's shoulder but didn't pull away.

Owen: "How come you're allowed to laugh?"

Now Ianto was laughing.

Jack smiled at Ianto: "You can laugh now I know that Ianto is safe."

Ianto: "Why just me?" He looked up at Jack.

Owen: "Don't get excited, tea boy. Jack can't die, remember?" He started laughing again.

Jack: "I don't know why you're laughing because we can't leave here."

Owen: "And we have a day off?" They were all silent. "And we're investigating the letter, right. Someone should really call Gwen."

Jack just nodded and smiled at Ianto. "Get breakfast guys or whatever and we'll talk in a while." He clicked his comms and looked at Ianto. "Don't even let me help with the mail again."

Ianto laughed and stood up. "More coffee, sir?"

"I thought you'd never ask." He followed Ianto to the kitchen. "Maybe I shouldn't have got up early this morning."

"To help with the mail?"

"No, to finish all of my work. What am I going to do for 90 hours?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something, sir."

"I bet I will." Ianto looked at Jack as he smiled. "If we're going to be here that long, you don't have to call me sir, call me Jack. Just until Monday though, I kind of like it when you call me sir."

"I don't think I could do that, sir." Ianto turned and handed Jack a cup, the machine had barely cooled down from the last cup.

"You called me Jack earlier."

"Did I?" Ianto thought back to earlier. He did. "Oh my god, I did. I'm sorry, sir."

"That's quite alright. Like I said, we're going to be here for a while so you calling me sir is going to wear thin pretty quick." He sighed. "What are we going to do?"

"I can catch up on organising the archive." Jack just laughed. "What?"

"Oh, Ianto. Poor, poor Ianto. Do you ever switch off? You must have had plans for this weekend?"

"Just me, a takeaway and a 'Dad's Army' marathon. When I go home I do switch off, but when I'm in here I have my… Torchwood head on."

"Well, you're going to have to turn it off because you can't go down to the archives."

"Why not?"

"We're in quarantine but not the whole place - just this bit." He gestured around and glanced up at Myfanwy flying around.

"We're locked off from the rest of the base?"

Jack nodded. "Just here, no archives, no holding cells... Just you and me in here."

"It's not all bad then."

Jack smiled again. "Why's that?"

"It could have been Owen."

Jack spluttered his coffee. "Well, I'm glad that it was you, Ianto Jones. Owen was off this morning anyway, took it off and worked early last week."

"My lucky day then, I was thinking that I could have been stuck in here with Owen."

"Am I better?"

Ianto took a sip and walked away. "Much better… Jack."