Remember Time Brings... [attn: Jack]

Rose looked at him disbelievingly for a moment before speaking, softly. "Really? Cos what I'm hearing I don't see how. Meant that you've had people finding out cos you got.. killed and came back in front of them, yeah?" She met his eyes.

Jack met her gaze, and this time he didn't try to weasel out of the plain truth of it. "Yeah. That's.. how it happens. I die, but then I wake up again. Good as new." More or less. "On the plus side, handsome as ever, right? And not lacking in things to do with my time." Frankly, and very, very privately, the idea of what would happen when he ran out of 'things to do' worried him.

"But it's still dieing. Still has to hurt.." Rose muttered, voice almost inaudible. She forced a smile at his next comment though, and tried to overshadow the other. "Can't imagine you not. You wouldn't know what to do with yourself." It was a weak attempt at teasing, she knew, but better then nothing, or at least she hoped. Part of her realized it can't have been a topic he wanted to talk about.

"Nah, not too much. Everybody makes a fuss.." He waved a hand dismissively. One of his many talents: downplaying what he didn't want people to think about. Jack smiled at Rose's attempt at teasing him - however weak, it was something. "Exactly. So it's in everyone's best interests that I stay as handsome and charming as I am, right?" He winked.

It would have been nice to believe him, but she found she couldn't. Too much practice at figuring out what things needed to be taken with a grain of salt, especially from him. She made sure the look she gave him demonstrated as much before speaking. "Really fishing for compliments today, aren't you? If I didn't know better I'd say you were plotting something." How the two went together she wasn't sure, but she gave him a slightly more real smile, and stuck the tip of her tongue out from between her teeth.

"Me, plotting something?" He asked, feigning innocence and ignoring the look she gave him. Then he grinned and added, "When am I not?" Not that he actually was, because he wasn't, but it was a joke, and he was going with it. It was certainly better than the awkwardness of trying to explain his 'situation'.

"Now?" She suggested. "Unless you are. If that's the case I wanna know what." It was a purposeful way of letting the conversation keep drifting away. Something in the back of Rose's head itched at her, and she wasn't sure she wanted the thought to surface completely.

Jack shrugged. "Nah, not really," he admitted, grinning. "Wish I'd come up with something to get out of that paperwork earlier, but.." No getting around that. He did have one small little plan, but that was mostly just ensuring that his staff didn't get to knowing he'd brought a strange girl to the Hub. That would arouse far too many questions. But that didn't concern Rose.

"No luck? Can't win 'em all." She told him with a small smile. "'Specially not against paperwork." The more you let it be the more it piled up, and you were left with more trouble then when you started. Rose paused before deciding to ask him a question. "So, the rest of this place..."

"Of course not - and if I ignore it, it just gets worse. And the letters get more irate," he said, shaking his head. "They're always polite, you know, but you can tell when they start wanting to beat you over the head with a briefcase." Her question made him pause, and when she didn't continue immediately, he prompted, "What about it?"

"Any way I could get a look at it?" She gave him a practiced look that worked to inform him that he knew he wanted to. "Show me around? Looked interesting, even if it was a bit blurry." And, she didn't add, it would give them a new topic of conversation.

She was right - even having been, well, living in the Hub for a long time now, he loved it - it was interesting. He had to take a second to weigh the pros and cons of showing her around, and decided eventually that, precautions and security be damned, he wasn't going to disappoint Rose when he'd only just found her again. Well, the night before, anyway.

"Don't see why not. It's classified, but I'm pretty sure you can handle it." He smiled.

"Should be able to I think. Not like it'd be my first time seeing something classified. I know how it goes." Rose smiled back at him. Exploring somewhere that probably didn't have anything hiding in it that would jump out and decide she looked tasty.

She moved to grab her shoes, crouching down to grab them. The knots caught her interest, and she wondered what exactly she had managed to do to the poor laces last night.

"Yeah-- the usual. Don't talk to random people about 'that place under the plass', try not to scream, don't press the buttons.." He grinned. "Long as you can manage that, I think we're okay. And you're good at not screaming, right?" Teasing a little, watching her as he waited for her to be ready for.. what was sure to be an interesting tour, at least.

"Better than some. Think I can manage the rest alright." She re-waged the war on her shoelaces, surprised at the ease they were conquered with now that they weren't in double. Rose worked them onto her feet, retied them and stood. 'Socks' and 'confidential' didn't tend to go well in her mind. "Okay." She smoothed her hair as well as she could with her fingers. "Ready."

"All set?" Jack offered a hand to Rose, and then led her out of the office. Of course, given that the Hub was on the larger side, he hadn't any intention of showing her the entire place, but hitting the important areas would work well enough, he figured. He definitely wasn't showing her to the 'cold storage' or the interrogation room... actually, probably best if they stayed clear of the basement altogether.

But the main areas were fair game. "Work stations, flora -- no fauna, this time of night anyway," Jack commented, pointing out Tosh and Owen's desks. By 'fauna' he meant the staff, and was incredibly glad none of them had decided to work late (he would have sent them home anyway, but he could do without questions about who the blonde was). "There's the med bay, through there.. I'm pretty sure there's nothing in it right now, though." He indicated the archway leading down to the med bay, leading her a little closer to get a look without actually going in. This was show, not tell.

Rose nodded, took his hand and let herself be led out. She gazed intently around the Hub once again as she walked, taking care to pay attention to the actual tour though. It took a moment for her to get the fauna joke, but she laughed once she had, or at least thought she had.

"Ah. Always good to have, better when you don't need it." Rose commented as she looked through the archway. "Lowered, I see." She smiled at him teasingly. "Think I'm discovering a trend in the architecture." Down and down and down. Sort of an inversion of the other Torchwood's skyscraper, she though.

"Not many trends open when you're underground," he retorted jokingly, "It's not like I could've put in windows." Not that it had stopped there from being quite a lot of glass panes around the place, but that hadn't been his idea. Inherited positions came with inherited bizarre architectural choices. "Not more windows, anyway."

Indicating the boardroom, visible as it was on the second 'story', though it was across the fountain area from where they were standing, he pointed out, "We've got plenty. That's the boardroom up there. Well, meeting room - place with enough chairs for everybody." Calling it a boardroom made it sound boring.

"No, for underground I think you've got your windows covered." She sounded amused. "Though I suppose it makes it easy to see if you've left something somewhere." At least, she reasoned, if the something was big.

Sort of a necessary evil, boardrooms. Whatever you called them. "It's popular, I'm sure. Definitely seen worse." Though thankfully she hadn't had to stay in any of them. Most had involved just standing off to the side.

"Also makes keeping an eye on the staff pretty easy," he replied with a smirk. Yeah, like he didn't have the video feed for that if he really needed it. But some trade secrets must remain secrets. When she said she'd seen worse, Jack asked, "So are you telling me you approve?" Kidding, of course. He was a little over needing other people's approval on details. Or much of anything really.

"True. Doesn't let them hide very easily." She took a moment to look up at the room again, acting like she was considering it carefully. "I don't know..." Rose started slowly, drawing it out with a lightness in her tone. "I suppose. Yeah, from what I can see."

"Glad to hear it," he replied with a grin. "Want a closer look at anything, or..?" Or they'd find something else to do. She couldn't stay much longer - he didn't want her to meet the team, at least not yet, so she'd have to go before they got in. Unfortunately. He was glad to have her there, and he didn't really want it to end, but it was getting on to morning, and it would have to. Ah, well.

Rose mulled that over for a few moments, looking around her. "I'm not sure..." She admitted, trailing off. The entire place was interesting as a whole, but she wasn't sure how it would hold up under individual scrutinization. "Anything around here you think I'd like a closer look at?" She smiled.

"Oh, plenty," he replied with a smile, but it was quick and didn't last too long, as he thought. "Not sure how much time we'll have," he admitted. "The team'll be here pretty soon." And as much as he wanted Rose there, he didn't want to deal with their questions just yet.

"Right...and it'd probably take a bit to explain why you brought me down into your secret base, what with the whole confidential thing." Rose mused, trying to look at it logically. "Especially with the whole legally dead thing." She gave him a small smile. "Could always finish this another time..."