"My life is a very long story that I'll tell you some day, Thea, but not today. Not when I've got too many reminders of it staring me in the face."

His heartbeat was steady beneath his shirt, a pony-engine that didn't and couldn't give up. Jack's fingertips were gentle against her hair, drawing through the back of to try and calm her just as he had Ianto whenever he got wound up.

"It's all right, Thea. Easy," he murmured against his head, a shade above a whisper. "I've got you."

Her words made the shades clustered about less real even if he could hear the hurt in them. Whatever had happened to her had been bad, really bad given what little information he had gotten.

"What happened?" he asked in that same quiet voice. "Plenty of money, own a nightclub. What came next?"

And, he had to wonder, what or who was it that had driven Thea to this state.