Timelord!Ianto: Away 5
Aug. 13th, 2011 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galadriel1010Title: Trials of a Timelord
Chapter Title: Getting Away From It 5
Challenge/Fest: LongLiveIanto Bingo
Prompt: Proposal
Rating: G
Dedication: For my lovely Ash
Summary: Jack and Ianto's time away comes to an end
Characters: Jack/Ianto, Doctor, Torchwood 3
Contains:
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
Ianto paused at the sound of familiar heavy footsteps on the grating and waited until Jack sat down next to him and rested a hand on his stomach before he resumed what he was doing. “I’m nearly finished,” he told Jack before the silence could stretch out. “I thought you’d still be asleep.”
“I’ve slept more this week than I have in years.” Jack didn’t move except to lean sideways against the console. “It’s been… I don’t know, but it’s been good.”
He smiled at the underside of the console and finally pulled himself out, wiping his hands on the towel he’d spread underneath him to cushion himself from the grating. “It’s been better than that, Jack. But it is time to go home.”
Jack tipped his head back to look at the arched ceiling and smiled. “We have three weeks left here. We can always come back, if we can borrow her again.”
“Actually…” He smiled when Jack looked at him sharply and held his hand out for Jack’s so that when he got to his feet he could pull Jack up with him. “There’s something I need to show you.”
He led Jack through the corridors to a newly formed room with golden tracing around the doorway. Gallifreyan symbols ran in a circle around the edge of a metal panel, and he traced them with his finger. Jack’s chin nestled in against his shoulder and their cheeks rubbed together. “What does it say?” Jack asked quietly.
Ianto tapped the panel and reached for the door knob rather than answer. The door opened soundlessly and he stepped into a tiled room that was bathed in golden light from a basin in the very centre of it. Jack took his hand and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him and couldn’t seem to drag his eyes from the basin and the light. Although he tried to hide it, there was a familiarity and an agony in the set of his jaw and the creases around his eyes, and his hand held Ianto’s tighter than usual. Realisation dawned and Ianto squeezed his hand back. “You recognise it.”
“How could I not?” Jack chuffed a laugh and shook his head. “It’s written through my whole being.”
He stepped forwards without releasing Jack’s hand and rested his free hand on the edge of the basin. “This is the light of an untethered TARDIS. She’s only a baby, but she’ll grow. She could take us anywhere.” Jack didn’t come closer so Ianto turned back to him with a sigh. “I had my suspicions. Somewhere between innate knowledge, things you said, the way you act when you… come back. I didn’t know, not for certain.”
“But now you do.” Jack released his hand and folded his arms across his chest. “What is it? Is there anything…” he trailed off at Ianto’s expression and grunted. “I thought not.”
“The TARDIS preserves her ship by anchoring it as a fixed point in time. No time passes in here unless she decrees it. She did the same for you. You will never age, never grow ill. The only time you can see the passage of time is when she pulls you back through it to heal you.” He closed his eyes rather than face Jack as he said, “There’s no way to fix it. You’re tied to time through her, and will be as long as she lives.”
“And how long will that be?” Jack’s jaw was clenched when Ianto looked up to him at last, and he nodded sharply before he could answer. “I need to… I’ll be back.”
Ianto sank down to sit on the floor, leaning against the basin, and waited for Jack to return. The infant TARDIS sang in his mind, exploring the world around it as it would only be able to until it was bound in a ship. It couldn’t survive without one for very long, but he still grieved this freedom which would be curtailed so soon.
Gentle touches against his mind took his memory back to Gallifrey, to the court halls where he’d earned his training by recording the unions and dissolutions and other transfers between houses. He’d dreamed of finding someone to travel with and being able to leave their names in the immortal tomes whilst they learned everything there was to know. It would probably seem prosaic to Jack, whose pairing rituals probably involved certain cycles of the moon and lengthy vows, if Ianto’s knowledge of that period of history was as accurate as he thought it was.
He sighed and folded his arms so that he could rest them on his knees and prop his chin on them, and he was still mulling the thoughts over when Jack returned and came to lean on the basin above him. “Sorry about that,” he said softly, nudging Ianto’s shoulder with his knee in a way that seemed affectionate. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“It’s okay.” He looked up and tugged on Jack’s jeans. “Sit down, will you?”
“Why?”
“You might be glad of it in a minute.” He waited until Jack had done as he was told and then reached out to take his hands. “Now, you have to believe that I mean every word I’m about to say, and that I’ve thought about it very carefully, okay?”
Jack started looking worried, but rubbed his thumbs across the back of Ianto’s hands. “Okay.”
He took a deep breath and met Jack’s eyes. “I want… I want to marry you. And I know that you can’t be in a committed relationship with someone you can’t have sex with because it’s not the way you are, so I want to have sex with you as well. I don’t know if it’ll work, or if I’ll be able to do it often or even again, but… I want to try. For you.”
Ianto hadn’t been expecting Jack’s eyes to crinkle in laughter, but as Jack kept hold of his hands and leaned closer to him he reasoned that it wasn’t a bad reaction. “I’m over-corny, you’re over-formal,” Jack said at last, after he appeared to make a decision. “Between us we make one normal person.”
“That’s my intention,” he blurted, before he could decide against it.
Jack laughed and swung himself around until he was kneeling instead of sitting in front of Ianto. “Ianto Jones, will you do me the honour of marrying me in a time period of your choosing?”
He tried to smother a smile, failed, gave it another go and got to his knees in front of Jack. “I will. And will you raise our baby TARDIS with me and travel with me through time and space?”
“I can think of nothing I want more,” Jack told him.
Ianto laughed, out of joy rather than amusement, and tugged Jack closer at last. “I can think of one thing that you might want more…”
“Not now.” Jack held him and traced his lower lip with his thumb. “It has to be special…” He leaned in and caught Ianto’s lips for a gentle kiss, then trailed across to his ear to whisper, “Save it for our wedding night.”
They returned to their suite and collected together what they wanted to take back with them from their trip, whilst making sure to leave enough to make it look like they were still using the rooms. A week had passed out of their month’s booked stay, and they had used the time to explore the city from the glittering shopping centres and restaurants to the markets on the edge of town, and had gone out to the island again twice. Their room was full of trinkets and gifts, which they had now stashed securely in boxes to take home with them.
Jack was going over the apartment one more time whilst Ianto plotted their course home, and when he returned he wrapped his arms around Ianto from behind to watch him work. Once he’d finished setting the stabilisers, Ianto leaned back against him and rested his hand on the lever. “I need to make a stop off in London first,” he informed Jack. “There’s something there I need to pick up.”
Not five minutes later, he straightened his tie and stepped out of the TARDIS, advancing on the neat front door whilst Jack watched him from the TARDIS doorway. His sharp knock was answered after a few moments, but it took a moment for recognition to register in Anton’s eyes. “Archie?”
“Ianto,” Ianto corrected him. “It’s good to see you, Anton.”
“Yeah… yeah, you too.” He stared a while longer, lost for words, and then remembered his manners and beckoned him in. “Come on, have a seat. Tea? Or is this not a social call?”
“It’s…” Footsteps clattered downstairs and he paused in the doorway to enjoy the look of shock on Brendan’s face. “Brendan.” A moment later he was engulfed in a hug, and he returned it awkwardly, patting him on the back. “I’m pleased to see you too?”
Brendan pulled back and released him sheepishly, flicking his gaze past him to Anton. “So… how have you been?”
“I’ve been… good, yeah.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced over at Anton, then back to Brendan. “You two have been…”
“Good too.” Brendan gave him a lopsided smile and turned back to the stairs. “It’s up here.”
He smiled apologetically at Anton before he followed Brendan up the stairs to what appeared to be the spare bedroom. A plain metal bed with a bare mattress stood next to the door, facing the window, and the large, claw-footed wardrobe took up most of the space on the far side of the bed. His shoulders sagged when he saw it, and he rounded the bed to rest his hand against the side. “Thank you for looking after her.” He looked over his shoulder at Brendan, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, and Anton, who was leaning in the doorway. “They all know in Cardiff now. Jack’s known for some time.” He turned back to the TARDIS shell and stroked his hand up the grain. “The rest of them found out just before we left.”
“Fireworks over dinner, then?”
“Something like that.” He turned back to them and leaned against it, fishing in his pockets for the device he’d rigged up. “At least we don’t have to worry about getting it down the stairs this time.”
He activated the device and a moment later he was caught up in the eye of the storm, watching his friends’ shocked expressions as the wind tugged at them until his vision was obscured by the Doctor’s TARDIS. Jack winked at him and strolled to the door, opened it and leaned out. “Hello there,” he called out, layering on the flirt. “Captain Jack Harkness, and who are you?”
Ianto went to rescue them and slipped his arm around Jack’s waist. “Jack, you remember Anton and Brendan. They were there at...” he glanced at them and let Jack pull him closer comfortingly. “Torchwood’s been treating me well. Very well.”
Jack squeezed him and sighed. “We have to go before they pick us up on the radar and come after us.”
“Yeah.” He stepped away from Jack and went to embrace them once more. “I’ll make more of an effort to keep up.”
“You’d better.” Brendan released him and clapped him on the shoulder, then pushed him back towards Jack. “Look after him for us, Captain.”
“Always.” Jack stepped to the side to let Ianto into the TARDIS and reached for the doors to close them. “Watch your post for a wedding invitation.”
Ianto heard them sputtering before Jack closed the door, and chuckled as he launched them into the void again. “Just one more stop before we go home. Hold the stabilisers whilst I check something?” He got a curious look, but he skidded through the corridors to the room that had contained the baby TARDIS. Inside, filling the space almost entirely, his TARDIS stood in the form it had taken for so long now, but it hummed with life and time once more. He smiled contentedly and returned to Jack in the console room. “Okay. Ready.”
They stopped by their flat first, not even stopping long enough to leave the TARDIS, and then Ianto focussed on returning them to the Hub as soon after they left as he could. It was beyond difficult, the Rift and the presence of the TARDIS between them pushing them away, and he relied heavily on Jack to keep them stable. The TARDIS lurched and swung violently, and he clung on for dear life for the last few moments as he trusted her to bring them in where he wanted them to be.
Stillness fell at last and he and Jack studied each other across the console, holding their breaths. He was starting to straighten up when the door was flung open and the Doctor strode towards him, every inch the Oncoming Storm. “How dare you?” he snapped, stabbing his finger at Ianto angrily. “How… I…” Speech had deserted him, so he settled for wagging his finger pointedly. “You need to leave, now.”
Ianto leaned back on the console and smirked. It was carefully calculated to annoy the Doctor even more. “I just thought that Jack deserved a holiday after everything you put him through. He waited so long, but I couldn’t stand the thought of watching him go off with you and not know when you were going to turn up again, so I did it myself. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“Get out. Now.” The Doctor was vibrating with anger, so Ianto did as he was told and followed Jack, who had made a rapid exit.
The atmosphere in the Hub was just as frosty, and he drew closer to Jack for protection. Tosh couldn’t look at him, but Owen and Gwen were both armed and glaring at him, despite Jack’s attempts to calm them down. Behind him Martha escaped into the TARDIS and it slipped into the Vortex, and Ianto took a moment to regret such a bad start between the two of them. He pushed the emotions back in favour of dealing with the moment and kept his eyes on Gwen’s gun, knowing that Jack would do the same with Owen’s. Jack’s hand found his and he pulled Ianto even closer to him as he finally snapped, “Put your weapons away, now. Before someone gets hurt.”
They did so reluctantly, but the atmosphere remained tense. Owen had positioned himself between them and the cog door and fixed them with a glare, whilst Gwen faced them and Tosh hovered by her desk with the security controls. “So you’re an alien?” Gwen asked slowly, once the silence had dragged on too long. “Are you…”
“I was arrested by Torchwood London and held as their prisoner for over twenty years. When I got out, I didn’t want to go back to being… to people looking at me like that.” He looked between them and shook Jack’s hand off. “So I lied by omission, to keep everything normal for a while.”
Tosh gave him a nod of understanding when he looked at her, and Owen relaxed to lean against the desk. “So were you ever going to tell us?”
“Not if I could help it.” He hid his hands in his trouser pockets and looked at the floor. “I would rather have died than let my secret get out.”
The silence descended again, as awkward as it had been before, and then Jack reached out for him and pulled him closer. “Nothing has changed. Well, one thing has. Ianto is still the same person you knew, still Ianto. All that’s different is that…” He paused and looked at Ianto for confirmation before he continued with a smile, “Is that Ianto and I are going to make our relationship official. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes.”
It was the perfect diversion, and the comradeship that had been damaged by Ianto’s revelations flooded back into the Hub to surround them. This wasn’t the end, he knew. But it was a nice feeling to consider it a start.
Next chapter
Chapter Title: Getting Away From It 5
Challenge/Fest: LongLiveIanto Bingo
Prompt: Proposal
Rating: G
Dedication: For my lovely Ash
Summary: Jack and Ianto's time away comes to an end
Characters: Jack/Ianto, Doctor, Torchwood 3
Contains:
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
Ianto paused at the sound of familiar heavy footsteps on the grating and waited until Jack sat down next to him and rested a hand on his stomach before he resumed what he was doing. “I’m nearly finished,” he told Jack before the silence could stretch out. “I thought you’d still be asleep.”
“I’ve slept more this week than I have in years.” Jack didn’t move except to lean sideways against the console. “It’s been… I don’t know, but it’s been good.”
He smiled at the underside of the console and finally pulled himself out, wiping his hands on the towel he’d spread underneath him to cushion himself from the grating. “It’s been better than that, Jack. But it is time to go home.”
Jack tipped his head back to look at the arched ceiling and smiled. “We have three weeks left here. We can always come back, if we can borrow her again.”
“Actually…” He smiled when Jack looked at him sharply and held his hand out for Jack’s so that when he got to his feet he could pull Jack up with him. “There’s something I need to show you.”
He led Jack through the corridors to a newly formed room with golden tracing around the doorway. Gallifreyan symbols ran in a circle around the edge of a metal panel, and he traced them with his finger. Jack’s chin nestled in against his shoulder and their cheeks rubbed together. “What does it say?” Jack asked quietly.
Ianto tapped the panel and reached for the door knob rather than answer. The door opened soundlessly and he stepped into a tiled room that was bathed in golden light from a basin in the very centre of it. Jack took his hand and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him and couldn’t seem to drag his eyes from the basin and the light. Although he tried to hide it, there was a familiarity and an agony in the set of his jaw and the creases around his eyes, and his hand held Ianto’s tighter than usual. Realisation dawned and Ianto squeezed his hand back. “You recognise it.”
“How could I not?” Jack chuffed a laugh and shook his head. “It’s written through my whole being.”
He stepped forwards without releasing Jack’s hand and rested his free hand on the edge of the basin. “This is the light of an untethered TARDIS. She’s only a baby, but she’ll grow. She could take us anywhere.” Jack didn’t come closer so Ianto turned back to him with a sigh. “I had my suspicions. Somewhere between innate knowledge, things you said, the way you act when you… come back. I didn’t know, not for certain.”
“But now you do.” Jack released his hand and folded his arms across his chest. “What is it? Is there anything…” he trailed off at Ianto’s expression and grunted. “I thought not.”
“The TARDIS preserves her ship by anchoring it as a fixed point in time. No time passes in here unless she decrees it. She did the same for you. You will never age, never grow ill. The only time you can see the passage of time is when she pulls you back through it to heal you.” He closed his eyes rather than face Jack as he said, “There’s no way to fix it. You’re tied to time through her, and will be as long as she lives.”
“And how long will that be?” Jack’s jaw was clenched when Ianto looked up to him at last, and he nodded sharply before he could answer. “I need to… I’ll be back.”
Ianto sank down to sit on the floor, leaning against the basin, and waited for Jack to return. The infant TARDIS sang in his mind, exploring the world around it as it would only be able to until it was bound in a ship. It couldn’t survive without one for very long, but he still grieved this freedom which would be curtailed so soon.
Gentle touches against his mind took his memory back to Gallifrey, to the court halls where he’d earned his training by recording the unions and dissolutions and other transfers between houses. He’d dreamed of finding someone to travel with and being able to leave their names in the immortal tomes whilst they learned everything there was to know. It would probably seem prosaic to Jack, whose pairing rituals probably involved certain cycles of the moon and lengthy vows, if Ianto’s knowledge of that period of history was as accurate as he thought it was.
He sighed and folded his arms so that he could rest them on his knees and prop his chin on them, and he was still mulling the thoughts over when Jack returned and came to lean on the basin above him. “Sorry about that,” he said softly, nudging Ianto’s shoulder with his knee in a way that seemed affectionate. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“It’s okay.” He looked up and tugged on Jack’s jeans. “Sit down, will you?”
“Why?”
“You might be glad of it in a minute.” He waited until Jack had done as he was told and then reached out to take his hands. “Now, you have to believe that I mean every word I’m about to say, and that I’ve thought about it very carefully, okay?”
Jack started looking worried, but rubbed his thumbs across the back of Ianto’s hands. “Okay.”
He took a deep breath and met Jack’s eyes. “I want… I want to marry you. And I know that you can’t be in a committed relationship with someone you can’t have sex with because it’s not the way you are, so I want to have sex with you as well. I don’t know if it’ll work, or if I’ll be able to do it often or even again, but… I want to try. For you.”
Ianto hadn’t been expecting Jack’s eyes to crinkle in laughter, but as Jack kept hold of his hands and leaned closer to him he reasoned that it wasn’t a bad reaction. “I’m over-corny, you’re over-formal,” Jack said at last, after he appeared to make a decision. “Between us we make one normal person.”
“That’s my intention,” he blurted, before he could decide against it.
Jack laughed and swung himself around until he was kneeling instead of sitting in front of Ianto. “Ianto Jones, will you do me the honour of marrying me in a time period of your choosing?”
He tried to smother a smile, failed, gave it another go and got to his knees in front of Jack. “I will. And will you raise our baby TARDIS with me and travel with me through time and space?”
“I can think of nothing I want more,” Jack told him.
Ianto laughed, out of joy rather than amusement, and tugged Jack closer at last. “I can think of one thing that you might want more…”
“Not now.” Jack held him and traced his lower lip with his thumb. “It has to be special…” He leaned in and caught Ianto’s lips for a gentle kiss, then trailed across to his ear to whisper, “Save it for our wedding night.”
They returned to their suite and collected together what they wanted to take back with them from their trip, whilst making sure to leave enough to make it look like they were still using the rooms. A week had passed out of their month’s booked stay, and they had used the time to explore the city from the glittering shopping centres and restaurants to the markets on the edge of town, and had gone out to the island again twice. Their room was full of trinkets and gifts, which they had now stashed securely in boxes to take home with them.
Jack was going over the apartment one more time whilst Ianto plotted their course home, and when he returned he wrapped his arms around Ianto from behind to watch him work. Once he’d finished setting the stabilisers, Ianto leaned back against him and rested his hand on the lever. “I need to make a stop off in London first,” he informed Jack. “There’s something there I need to pick up.”
Not five minutes later, he straightened his tie and stepped out of the TARDIS, advancing on the neat front door whilst Jack watched him from the TARDIS doorway. His sharp knock was answered after a few moments, but it took a moment for recognition to register in Anton’s eyes. “Archie?”
“Ianto,” Ianto corrected him. “It’s good to see you, Anton.”
“Yeah… yeah, you too.” He stared a while longer, lost for words, and then remembered his manners and beckoned him in. “Come on, have a seat. Tea? Or is this not a social call?”
“It’s…” Footsteps clattered downstairs and he paused in the doorway to enjoy the look of shock on Brendan’s face. “Brendan.” A moment later he was engulfed in a hug, and he returned it awkwardly, patting him on the back. “I’m pleased to see you too?”
Brendan pulled back and released him sheepishly, flicking his gaze past him to Anton. “So… how have you been?”
“I’ve been… good, yeah.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced over at Anton, then back to Brendan. “You two have been…”
“Good too.” Brendan gave him a lopsided smile and turned back to the stairs. “It’s up here.”
He smiled apologetically at Anton before he followed Brendan up the stairs to what appeared to be the spare bedroom. A plain metal bed with a bare mattress stood next to the door, facing the window, and the large, claw-footed wardrobe took up most of the space on the far side of the bed. His shoulders sagged when he saw it, and he rounded the bed to rest his hand against the side. “Thank you for looking after her.” He looked over his shoulder at Brendan, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, and Anton, who was leaning in the doorway. “They all know in Cardiff now. Jack’s known for some time.” He turned back to the TARDIS shell and stroked his hand up the grain. “The rest of them found out just before we left.”
“Fireworks over dinner, then?”
“Something like that.” He turned back to them and leaned against it, fishing in his pockets for the device he’d rigged up. “At least we don’t have to worry about getting it down the stairs this time.”
He activated the device and a moment later he was caught up in the eye of the storm, watching his friends’ shocked expressions as the wind tugged at them until his vision was obscured by the Doctor’s TARDIS. Jack winked at him and strolled to the door, opened it and leaned out. “Hello there,” he called out, layering on the flirt. “Captain Jack Harkness, and who are you?”
Ianto went to rescue them and slipped his arm around Jack’s waist. “Jack, you remember Anton and Brendan. They were there at...” he glanced at them and let Jack pull him closer comfortingly. “Torchwood’s been treating me well. Very well.”
Jack squeezed him and sighed. “We have to go before they pick us up on the radar and come after us.”
“Yeah.” He stepped away from Jack and went to embrace them once more. “I’ll make more of an effort to keep up.”
“You’d better.” Brendan released him and clapped him on the shoulder, then pushed him back towards Jack. “Look after him for us, Captain.”
“Always.” Jack stepped to the side to let Ianto into the TARDIS and reached for the doors to close them. “Watch your post for a wedding invitation.”
Ianto heard them sputtering before Jack closed the door, and chuckled as he launched them into the void again. “Just one more stop before we go home. Hold the stabilisers whilst I check something?” He got a curious look, but he skidded through the corridors to the room that had contained the baby TARDIS. Inside, filling the space almost entirely, his TARDIS stood in the form it had taken for so long now, but it hummed with life and time once more. He smiled contentedly and returned to Jack in the console room. “Okay. Ready.”
They stopped by their flat first, not even stopping long enough to leave the TARDIS, and then Ianto focussed on returning them to the Hub as soon after they left as he could. It was beyond difficult, the Rift and the presence of the TARDIS between them pushing them away, and he relied heavily on Jack to keep them stable. The TARDIS lurched and swung violently, and he clung on for dear life for the last few moments as he trusted her to bring them in where he wanted them to be.
Stillness fell at last and he and Jack studied each other across the console, holding their breaths. He was starting to straighten up when the door was flung open and the Doctor strode towards him, every inch the Oncoming Storm. “How dare you?” he snapped, stabbing his finger at Ianto angrily. “How… I…” Speech had deserted him, so he settled for wagging his finger pointedly. “You need to leave, now.”
Ianto leaned back on the console and smirked. It was carefully calculated to annoy the Doctor even more. “I just thought that Jack deserved a holiday after everything you put him through. He waited so long, but I couldn’t stand the thought of watching him go off with you and not know when you were going to turn up again, so I did it myself. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“Get out. Now.” The Doctor was vibrating with anger, so Ianto did as he was told and followed Jack, who had made a rapid exit.
The atmosphere in the Hub was just as frosty, and he drew closer to Jack for protection. Tosh couldn’t look at him, but Owen and Gwen were both armed and glaring at him, despite Jack’s attempts to calm them down. Behind him Martha escaped into the TARDIS and it slipped into the Vortex, and Ianto took a moment to regret such a bad start between the two of them. He pushed the emotions back in favour of dealing with the moment and kept his eyes on Gwen’s gun, knowing that Jack would do the same with Owen’s. Jack’s hand found his and he pulled Ianto even closer to him as he finally snapped, “Put your weapons away, now. Before someone gets hurt.”
They did so reluctantly, but the atmosphere remained tense. Owen had positioned himself between them and the cog door and fixed them with a glare, whilst Gwen faced them and Tosh hovered by her desk with the security controls. “So you’re an alien?” Gwen asked slowly, once the silence had dragged on too long. “Are you…”
“I was arrested by Torchwood London and held as their prisoner for over twenty years. When I got out, I didn’t want to go back to being… to people looking at me like that.” He looked between them and shook Jack’s hand off. “So I lied by omission, to keep everything normal for a while.”
Tosh gave him a nod of understanding when he looked at her, and Owen relaxed to lean against the desk. “So were you ever going to tell us?”
“Not if I could help it.” He hid his hands in his trouser pockets and looked at the floor. “I would rather have died than let my secret get out.”
The silence descended again, as awkward as it had been before, and then Jack reached out for him and pulled him closer. “Nothing has changed. Well, one thing has. Ianto is still the same person you knew, still Ianto. All that’s different is that…” He paused and looked at Ianto for confirmation before he continued with a smile, “Is that Ianto and I are going to make our relationship official. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes.”
It was the perfect diversion, and the comradeship that had been damaged by Ianto’s revelations flooded back into the Hub to surround them. This wasn’t the end, he knew. But it was a nice feeling to consider it a start.
Next chapter
