'Get your kit off Ianto,' crowed Owen delightedly. 'You're going in! Tosh has programmed you into their access system under a false identity. We chose it from our porn names.'

'Now I'm intrigued,' said Jack.

'Name of your first pet plus the name of the street you grew up in,' Owen continued. 'I had a dog called Bobby and grew up in Warren Drive, so I'm Bobby Warren. Gwen is Tiggi Locke. And Ianto,' he concluded with a note of incredulity, 'is Trevor Swanson.'

Owen slapped the Weevil in the face. 'Come and have a go,' he said, 'if you think you're hard enough.'

Christ, he thought as the creature snapped its head round to face him, you'd better be right about this Harper. Since his resurrection, Owen had discovered his very presence seemed to cow the creatures into submission. But did this one know he was King of the Weevils?

The creature's sunken eyes glittered at him. It growled softly, and lowered its head.

Owen blinked slowly. 'Good boy.'

'What's the worst you've ever had?'

Jack considered a moment. 'You don't wanna know.'

'Burnt to a crisp in a fire?'

'You're a sick man, you know that?'

'Says the man with the detachable foot.' Owen narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. 'Could you survive going through a meat grinder?'

'Never been tempted,' replied Jack. 'God, that would really sting, wouldn't it? Still what doesn't kill ya just makes ya stronger.'

'Tell me about it,' muttered Owen.

'Yeah I'm from the East End. Plainstow. Terraced houses and council estates and old pubs. You could hear the Hammers playing at home from the back bedroom. Big cheer whenever they scored. Big groan when the goal went against them. I used to lie there and listen, Saturday afternoons. Used to make up my own commentary, as well.'

'So why did you go to med school?'

Good question and one he tried not to think about too often. 'Most of my friends ended up as car mechanics or estate agents. I could see al that ahead of me, and I couldn't face it. I wanted to do something that meant something. And then...'

'Go on,' she said softly.

'And then my dad died. Just upped and died. We found him in the bedroom one morning, slumped against the wall. He was wearing his shirt and his boxers and he ad one sock off and one still in his hand. He looked... he looked like someone had said something to him that he couldn't quite hear, and he was trying to work out what it was. One of the arteries in his chest had just given way. Aortic aneurysm, it's called. I've done all the lectures and I've seen photos in textbooks, and I've conducted autopsies of people who've died that way, but for me an aoric aneurysm will always be my dad, sitting there one bare foot and frowning.'

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets