Out of Place Chapter 5

[galadriel1010]

Greg’s eyes flickered before he opened them fully, the usual early morning worries of ‘where am I and how did I get here’ flying away like ephemera when his gaze lighted on the still peacefully sleeping face of Nicholas Stokes. His breath caught in delight and he smiled against the Texan’s chest as the fog in his mind cleared to reveal his surroundings fully, but nothing mattered really apart from the strong arms holding him close, the fingers tangled with his own and the steady heartbeat that seemed to pulse through both of them. They’d just collapsed into bed together the night before, too tired to do anything more. They’d always been too tired to do anything more, or too scared; Greg thought that it might spoil what they had by now. Whenever they went away to conferences or there was a party at someone’s house or one of them broke down and had to get a lift home, any excuse they could find really, they took the opportunity to crawl into bed together and just hold each other. It wasn’t much really, not what anyone else would call a proper relationship, but it was what they shared and that was enough.

“Greggo, tickles.” Nick groaned and squeezed Greg’s hand where it lay on his chest, stopping the fingers that had been idly tracing patterns on his skin.

“Sorry.” Greg muttered with a smile, scooting up to kiss him gently. The older man groaned against his lips and wrapped his arms around Greg’s neck, pulling him down and deepening the kiss to a level of fiery passion. Eventually they broke apart and the Californian smiled down at him, leaning closer briefly for another gentle kiss before pulling back further and straddling his hips with his hand flat on his chest, “That a better way to wake up?”

“Much better.” Nick chuckled, now fully awake and tugged Greg back against him, nipping lightly at his collarbone before flipping him over and tickling him mercilessly.

Tears were rolling down the young man’s cheeks by the time someone knocked at the door and Jasmine’s voice called out, “Are you two decent in there?”

Nick stopped for long enough to reply, “Yup, door’s open.” But didn’t move from his position over his young lover

Jazz poked her head around the door and laughed at the sight of Greg’s flushed, tearstained and still laughing face, “You two having fun there?”

Greg squirmed and laughed, “Help Jay, save me from this monster.”

She appeared to consider it for a moment but grinned evilly, “You hold him down Nick, I’ll tickle his feet. Erm… I’m just about to do breakfast, for want of a better word. You two OK with pancakes?”

“Sounds good to me.” Greg gasped, taking advantage of Nick’s distraction to squirm out from underneath him and hide in the wardrobe. “Now keep him away!”

Nick’s breath caught as Greg shut the wardrobe door on himself, closing it completely and ‘protecting’ him from the older man’s good-natured attack. The closed door, Greg shut in there… He closed his eyes as memories swept over him and clenched his fists tight, starting when a warm hand touched his arm gently, “Nick, are you OK?”

Greg poked his head out of the wardrobe at the question and hurried over, pulling Nick down onto the bed and wrapping his arms around him in horror, “Oh God Nick, I’m sorry. I didn’t think…”

“It’s OK.” He put his hand over the younger man’s and met his eyes, hearing Jazz retreat from the room once she was sure he was OK, “I’m OK, you’re OK. I’ll…”

“Hey.” Greg kissed him softly, “I’m so sorry, I should have thought.”

“Not your fault, we all get caught up in the moment occasionally.” He sighed and kissed Greg again, this time slow and lingering, drawing comfort from it and pouring reassurance back, “I love you Greg Sanders, don’t ever doubt that.”

“Never have, never will, never could.” He pulled Nick down so that the older man’s head rested against his chest and sighed, “I have to admit, it feels good to be out of the closet.”

Nick groaned, “I knew it, I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist.”

“Sorry.” Greg chuckled and the sound vibrated around the two of them as they held on to each other. Eventually the older man squeezed his boyfriend gently and stood up, flexing his shoulders gently and smiling at the look on Greg’s face.

“See something you like?”

“Something I like a lot.” Greg agreed, swinging over the bed and looking through the drawers, “I hope there’s something suitable to wear around here, otherwise everyone will know something’s up.”

Nick chuckled and opened the wardrobe fully, “It’s a safe house, which mean’s there’ll probably be lots of black… And a Hawaiian shirt if you’re interested?”

The younger man turned and caught it as it was thrown at him, “Oooh, just my colour. What’s that doing in there?”

“It’s not, you’ve got it, but they look to have a bit of everything really. Lots of black.” He pulled out a dark red T-shirt with a white guitar stamped across it and a black one with the same motif and held them up, “What do you think?”

“Yeah, I like the black.” Greg looked down at himself, he was now wearing the Hawaiian shirt over a white T-shirt and looked much like he had in his lab rat days, “Somehow this feels weird.”

“Looks good though. Would look even better with trousers.” Nick pointed out and he pulled a pair of jeans on, followed by the black T-shirt

“Fair point.” Greg hunted around and found his jeans from the night before, “Jazz didn’t even bat an eyelid.”

“Apart from checking us out you mean?”

“Checking you out you mean, which is only natural.” He came up behind his boyfriend and wrapped his arms around his waist, nuzzling gently at the back of his neck, “Found anything interesting?”

“Mm-hm. Lots of corsets.” He pulled one out, a red and black number with lots of lace, “I wonder what Jazz looks like in one of these?”

“I suspect she’d show us if we asked.” Greg chuckled, “Come on, I smell breakfast.”

Downstairs they could hear Jazz chattering and laughing happily before they got down to the kitchen and actually saw her, dressed in black pyjama bottoms and a white vest top, with a black top to match the bottoms slung over the back of a chair. A computer screen set into the front of a cupboard showed another kitchen with a blonde man moving around and also preparing breakfast. “… Jack and Ianto make it downstairs last night?”

“Yeh, they did.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah, actually lay awake for quite a while down in our room, it’s a bit empty without you.”

“I miss you too.” She leaned on a chair as she poked at a pancake, oblivious to the two men watching her, “Didn’t sleep a wink today, but that’s mainly because I got dragged out by Liberty Towers on a drug run.”

“Fun. You’ve got company by the way.”

She turned slightly and flipped the pancake smoothly, “Heya guys, sleep well?”

“Yes thanks.” Greg grinned at her and waved at the screen, “Evening, John?”

“Good morning Greg, oh, hey sleeping beauty.”

“Heya John.” Ianto’s voice joined the conversation and the man himself soon wandered across the picture, waving lazily at the camera on his way to the coffee machine, “Anyone for coffee?”

“Thanks Ianto, you two?” Jazz grinned at Nick and Greg, enjoying their confusion

“Erm… He’s in Cardiff, right?” Greg asked, sliding into a chair

“Yeah.”

“And we’re in Vegas.”

“Your usual Jay?” Ianto asked, the smirk audible in his voice

“You’re a star Yan.”

“I’ll send three over, see what you two make of it.” Moments later the oven pinged and Jazz opened the door, pulling out a tray with three mugs of coffee and handing them out, putting hers on the work surface whilst she flipped the last pancake and put the plate on the table.

“Erm…” Greg’s expression of complete bemusement, followed closely by astonished delight when he finally took a sip of the coffee, was too much for those watching who knew what was going on. Jazz collapsed into a chair with laughter and grabbed the bag of marshmallows, “What did we say?”

“It’s a portable teleportation device. Turns any metal box into a teleport station. It’s top secret, just in the testing stages and made using alien tech, but I’ve got one so that I can send stuff from wherever I am in the world, and they’ve got one so that I can send them the stuff.” Jazz explained, popping a marshmallow into her mouth and folding her pancake over on top of the pile of marshmallows, chocolate and more chocolate.

“How does it work?”

“No idea, you just attach it to the front of the box, set the destination device and whoop. Off it goes.” She laughed, “And if the device you send it to isn’t attached at the time it gets queued up, like an email.”

“That’s brilliant.”

“It’s extremely useful.” An American accent was added to the mix and they saw Jack wander across and tilt Ianto’s head back as he sat at the table in Cardiff to plant a kiss gently on his lips. “Morning gorgeous, morning all.”

“Heya Jack, put some clothes on dearest.” Jazz laughed, “Whatcha having for breakfast over there?”

“Full English.”

“Welsh.” Ianto corrected with a laugh, “You?”

“Pancakes.” Jazz sighed, “We’ve got to be at work in about two hours.”

“You say it like you don’t want to.”

“I’m shattered.” She chuckled, “Got a run this afternoon on a drug case, took us about six hours to get it cleared up, so I got about an hour’s sleep.”

“The life of Torchwood.”

“Hell yeah, wouldn’t want it any other way.” She laughed, “Oh Gods, I’m buzzed now. I actually can’t wait to go to work. No, that's a lie, I can't wait to get home.”

“Oh shit, she’s mood swinging!” Jack backed away from the camera in mock horror and made the sign of the cross with his fingers, “Get her away.”

“At least she’s not as bad as Gwen with her mood swings. Just mothers us to death.”

“I would really hate to see you pregnant.” Jack laughed, “You’re a proper nester, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I am, and even snugglier than I am normally.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Remind me not to get you pregnant.” John chuckled, “Wow, that was redundant.”

“Just a little.” She chuckled, “And I think it’s the coffee more than the hormones. Possibly.”

A claxon blared suddenly and the men in the kitchen in Cardiff moved rapidly, “Zee, we’ve got a spike, can you co ordinate from over there?”

“Sure thing.” She grabbed her mug and ate the last mouthful of her pancake, then practically ran down the corridor to her study. Greg and Nick exchanged bemused glances but followed her, “North end of Bute Terrace, of course. Hey guys, have a seat, watch and learn. No biological readings, big energy signatures though.”

“Great. Radiation?”

“Uh, yes. What sort though I couldn’t tell you. I’d need Tosh’s computer and it’s still too secure for me to get in from over here.”

“Shit. Is it dangerous?”

“Jaaaack, I haven’t a clue, but it’s not normal.”

“OK, I’m going in first then. You two can follow if and only if it’s safe.” Silence greeted this announcement, so Jack assumed that they agreed, even if they didn’t want to, “OK Jay, can you get the place evacuated.”

“One gas leak already sent. Andy’s on tonight, so I’ve tipped him the wink… Or something.”

“Cheers doll.”

“Just another day in Cardiff.” Ianto’s voice was brittle and silence fell on the team for a long time

Nick caught Greg’s hand and held it tightly, wondering for the first time what sort of life they’d got caught up in.