In 1900, his mother died. While Thomas was at St Teilo's Hospital, mysterious time-shifts started to occur — fractures in the rift, meaning that two slices of time were superimposed and becoming confused. Torchwood Three investigated; though they could not determine at what point in the future the other slice in time existed, they recognised Tommy in one of the fractures and decided to put him in stasis and wait until the hospital entered the other side of the fracture.