Isn't Worth Living Chapter 12

Mark shoved his hands in his pockets as he stepped out of the elevator and looked up and down the corridor. Finally settling on a direction he headed for his boss’s office and leant in the doorway to watch her. She had used the desk to start with, for a period of about three days, then one morning they’d come in to find it pushed around and against the wall so there was a huge clear space in the middle of it; a space she was now sitting in the middle of. He felt a pang of despair at how young she’d been taken, sitting there in the middle of the floor, surrounded by papers, she looked like a teenager in the middle of revision, not the head of a top secret organisation trying to find a connection in some inexplicable and probably violent case.

She sighed and ran her hands through her hair, looking worried by whatever she’d found, “You having fun watching me?”

He tried to hide his surprise and moved into the room to lean on the desk and look at what she was studying. Photos and police reports littered the floor, forming a picture of disappearances from an area of Wales, “Wales? I thought that was 3’s beat?”

“Yup.” She still didn’t look up, “Ianto asked me to find out what he could about it, so I’ve dug out quite a lot of files. Yep, quite a lot.”

“Going back how far?”

“Hard to say really, there’s a crop of them once a decade, going back at least 80 years.” Now she smiled at him and started collecting them together according to the post-it notes she’d attached, “Ianto’s coming over this morning to collect it and have a look at some other files.”

“Oh good, we going to the pub then?”

He was rewarded with a laugh, “I thought we could have a pub lunch, yeah. And I’ve warned them we’re coming, so we’ll get a table.” He smiled and bent to help her collect together the orange papers, putting them neatly into the accordingly coloured folder. Her system worked, which had come of something as a surprise, but still had the big problem of being largely incompatible with every other system in the world.

“Should we open the next crate then? Or have a lazy day with Yan around?”

She glared at him, but it was spoiled somewhat by the grin, “Get the damn thing open, you have a far too relaxed approach to saving the world.”

“You mean I let everyone else do it?”

“Yes, actually, you can do this little lot. I was going to go and get all of Ianto’s files myself, but you’re getting irreverent and I feel like sitting on my desk and staring out of the window for a change.” He groaned and took the file from her, less than impressed but wise enough to button his lip – she might look like a child but she didn’t suffer fools gladly, or Mark for that matter.

He was checking a file on the computer in the reception area when the revolving door spun round and discharged an immaculately dressed Welshman. Hurrying over to relieve Ianto of the cardboards box he was carrying, he exchanged greetings with his friend and plonked the box on the reception counter to get at the computer again. “What’s in here then? Anything interesting?”

Ianto shrugged with a smile as he watched someone else work for a change, “Just part of our extensive etc collection. They’re just copies, but it would help if you lot can put a name or something to the files so I told Jane I’d bring them over for her to look at.”

“OK mate, we’ll have a look and get the stuff back to you as soon as possible. I’m halfway through gathering together the files you requested.” He pulled a face, “The Commander was going to do it, but I have a feeling she found out exactly how much time I’ve spent working lately, so I’m doing the running around today.”

“And exactly how much work have you been doing?”

“Well I sort of thought it would be a good idea to find out how much stuff in Sci-Fi novels ties in to reality, see if it can give us any clues. I read the whole of Hitch Hiker’s Guide in a week.”

“Ah” he nodded in amusement, “And how accurate would you say that is?”

“Oh it’s all true, but we knew that already. Douglas Adams’ true identity is Ford Prefect, or Ford Prefect’s true identity is Douglas Adams.” He took one look at Ianto’s face and smiled, “You already knew, didn’t you?”

“Yup.”

“Git.”

“Yup.” They laughed and Ianto collected up the box again, “Where do you want this then?”

“Research room down that corridor.” He pointed as he made his way around the desk, “The others are all in there going through the next crate of files form UNIT. Follow the noise; I’ll just tell her highness you’re here.”

“I heard that!” Jane bounded into the room with an enthusiasm far more appropriate for someone her age than someone of her rank, “Ianto, good to see you again, Mark, get some bloody work done!”

“On it boss.” He smiled sheepishly at Ianto and took the box from him, “I’ll get this lot organised.”

She glared after him with a half amused, half exasperated smile and turned back to Ianto, “Honestly, getting any work done in here is nigh on impossible. I sometimes think I’m the only one who does any.”

“I know the feeling.” He laughed, offering her his arm and winking at her as she slipped hers through and guided him down the corridor, “But an archivist’s work is never done, there is always a better system to be found.”

“Yeah, I’d quite like a system that files itself. Honestly, getting the UNIT stuff that I’d sorted in here was easy, it was all ordered neatly and they actually delivered it in filing cabinets. But the backlog that I didn’t manage to get through, oh my God! I have never seen such disorder. Who puts ‘Dalek’ next to ‘Auton’, seriously?”

“You think that’s bad. I’ve barely scratched the surface of Torchwood’s archive, it goes back over a hundred years.” He grumbled, “And someone in the past thought that the best way to file stuff was by date of encounter, ignoring the fact that there had been previous encounters with the same species. There’s no uniform system at all. I could just spend the rest of my life down there and still not have it all organised.”

They were walking down the corridor towards the research room, from which the sounds of singing and quiet study were emerging. When Jane pushed the door open she revealed what looked like a university study room or similar. There were now more team members, she’d told him about recruiting Jenny and Rachel Titley straight from school, based on recommendations from one Sarah Jane Smith, and there was a young boy there watching the whole process with awe. The room was arranged like a study room, but with more filing cabinets around. The cabinets were all numbered and stood against the walls around the edge of the room. In the middle there was a clear partition wall, like the one Gwen used for cases, which had a set of pictures and connecting lines indicating that it was used for the same purpose here; and there were desks situated around the room, in varying states of tidiness.

Everyone looked up as they walked in, and most of them waved a greeting before going back to work. Jenny and Rachel were working at the same desk, one of them sitting at it watching the computer screen whilst the other sat cross legged on top of the desk, reading her information. Mark didn’t look up, instead raising a hand and concentrating on the first report he’d pulled out of Ianto’s box, Alicia was at her desk going over something with Lucy, and Hannah was at one of the filing cabinets, apparently searching for a file. The boy Ianto had noticed was sitting on top of a filing cabinet, but now swung himself off it to approach them.

“This is Kenny, here on work experience. He helped to save his school from Krillitanes and wants to work for Torchwood or UNIT when he’s older. For the moment he’s learning our system, then when he starts sixth form he’d going to do his enrichment here. Kenny, this is Ianto Jones of Torchwood 3.”

“Nice to meet you Mr Jones.” He looked very nervous, so Ianto shook his hand formally and smiled encouragingly

“Pleasure’s all mine Kenny, why on Earth do you want to work for Torchwood?”

”It’s cool.”

“It’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous is cool.” He glared slightly and Ianto chuckled,

“You’re not wrong” He smiled at the thought of a certain Captain, the most dangerous man he knew – Jack had been drifting into his thoughts quite a lot recently.

Jane clapped her hands and rested them on her hips, “OK guys, give it another half hour, then we’ll go to the pub, but just for lunch. We’re not staying there all day. Kenny, see if you can help Mark with those files.” She turned to the door and looked over her shoulder at Ianto, “You coming?”

He followed her up to a room next to her office, apparently a sort of staff room with comfy chairs and a kitchen/dining area, and sank into one of the chairs whilst she made coffee. As he accepted it off her and realised with something approaching shock that it wasn’t all that bad, his mind drifted to the question he’d come here to ask.

Tosh, Owen and Gwen had all probed him about it since Guron had left, but until they’d started he’d never even heard about it. He had thought that the Earthquake was just that, an Earthquake. Nothing in the files suggested anything different, and no one had mentioned it since he started, but according to Tosh and Owen it should have been in the files, and when he looked and knew that he was looking for, there were some gaping omissions. There had been no investigation into a sudden increase in rift spikes, apparently no follow up on the disappearance of the Mayor and large quantities of CCTV footage from around the city for the whole day had been wiped, even when there was no way the Earthquake could have done it. All in all, things were looking suspicious, and the detective in him wouldn’t let it rest.

He leant forwards and curled his hands around his mug, “Jane, I need some help with something.”

She half-smiled, “Now that’s a lead in with a meaning, what do you need and why is it so secret?”

“It’s to do with Jack, I don’t like to pry into his affairs, but it involves the rift as well.”

She appeared to consider it for a moment, “Are you aware that your eyes go all shiny when you say his name?”

He was astonished, “They do not! Do they?”

“Yup, you’re falling for him. Are you still living together?”

“Erm.. yes.”

“Has he moved back to his own room yet?”

“No”

“Have you had sex yet?” She was grinning broadly and he couldn’t help but smile as well

“Nope, although I’m sure you’re about to tell me it’s only a matter of time.”

“Not at all, I was going to tell you to get a shift on, you’re dead cute when you talk about him. Anyway, what do you need to know that jack can’t find out you know?”

He looked bewildered at the sudden change of topic, although it was a much more comfortable topic, “The Cardiff Earthquake wasn’t just an Earthquake.”

“Correct.” She grinned smugly at his irritated expression, “Do you know what caused it?”

“The rift opened?” he guessed

“Correct, majorly. And Margaret Blaine disappeared on the very same day. Interestingly enough, Margaret Blaine went into number 10 the day it was blown up, but she never came out. And yet she survived. And from Sergeant Price’s reports and one from your own Toshiko Sato, we know that there were aliens in Downing Street, two species at least.”

“Which two?”

“Raxacoricophalipatorians, probably one of the criminal families. And a Time-Lord.”

“The Doctor was there?” he leaned further forwards in excitement, “What was he doing there?”

”Saving the world I suspect, he managed to avert World War 3 without anyone noticing. I mean, who’d notice something that didn’t happen amongst so much that did? But anyway, yes Margaret Blaine disappeared, as did most of the CCTV footage from an area around the Bay, up to City Hall and into the centre of Cardiff.”

“You said most… Hang on, have you been researching this before I arrived?” he asked almost indignantly, making her laugh

“I put stuff together, Ianto. That’s my job. And when I find a file about the destruction of Number 10, the death of the Prime Minister and then the same person disappearing from both that and from the Cardiff Earthquake, I get suspicious.”

“OK,” he looked slightly mollified, “so anyway, most CCTV cameras?”

“Yeah, someone did a pretty thorough job of deleting any footage from that day.”

”How do you know it was deleted?”

“Most stores video gets sent straight to a central security system for storage, that system crashed the following morning, taking with it 24 hours worth of film, something that shouldn’t have been possible because of their security defences. All council footage was destroyed when the systems shorted out during the earthquake. The only footage independent of the big systems is in small independent shops. Most of that has survived, although some surprising bits have gone. Like, for example, a video that was changed just minutes before the earthquake, but when he came to check over the tape, he found it was blank, when it should have had all the footage for that day.”

“So there’s nothing that could give us a clue, apart from the fact that it all looks very suspicious.”

“Ah, but I did say nearly. I did manage to find this bit of footage.” She swung round to her computer and typed in reference numbers quickly, “Which I think you’ll find extremely interesting.” He watched in bemusement as a small clothes shop appeared, his jaw must have physically dropped seconds later when an unmistakeable figure strode in through the doorway, following a pretty young woman, with whom he seemed to be engaged in a thrilling and highly entertaining discussion.

He leant forwards and touched Jack’s face on the screen gently, not sure if he could believe what he was seeing, “That’s… that’s definitely Jack?”

“You know him better than I do, but from your reaction I’m assuming I was right.” She nudged him in the ribs and he blushed slightly, “Don’t blame you for a second, he’s drop dead gorgeous.”

“But I’m straight!” he protested

“That’s not what your eyes are saying.” She teased, “Go for it, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“Erm… He could leave to find his Doctor, I will die and leave him alone for all eternity, or if he decides he wants to commit to me then he might not leave with his Doctor.” He watched the figure on the screen, now holding a dress against his body and causing the young woman to fall about in hysterics, “It’s a bad idea, trust me. Who’s the girl? His girlfriend?”

“Possibly, but I don’t think she is, that’s Rose Tyler, the Doctor’s companion. The next time she and the Doctor were on Earth, he wasn’t with them. If she were his girlfriend, presumably he would still have been with them.”

“His girlfriend died, I think she was there but not with them, died not long after.” He said sadly, watching the pair on screen being joined by a second man, “Who’s that?”

“Mickey Smith, Rose’s boyfriend, possibly ex. Sarah Jane told me about the three of them, she thinks the lines were a bit… you know, blurred. She went off and left him, he waited for her to come back. Then he disappeared, went travelling with them I suspect, and never came back. Although…” she picked up a pen from her desk and twiddled it between her fingers, “I don’t know anything for sure, but I think he was at the Battle.”

Silence fell as they watched the video until it stopped quite suddenly, leaving a blank screen where moments ago Jack had been trying to persuade the girl, Rose, to try on what appeared to be a floor-length ball gown. He looked at her inquisitively and she shrugged. “Tape ran out. And half an hour afterwards a police officer came in to collect the tape because there was a break in the day before. So the tape was in the possession of the police when the Earthquake happened.”

”But hadn’t made it on to the system, so it didn’t get wiped with the rest.” He ran a hand through his hair, “Funny how things work out, isn’t it?”

“Yup, and it’s the little things that make this job so much fun.” She smiled softly at him, holding his gaze for just longer than necessary, then blushing as she looked at the clock, “Right, time we were moving. The others will kill me if I make them late to the pub.”

“Aren’t you their boss?” He asked with a grin, well aware of how snarky the team back in Cardiff got if they didn’t get to the pub at least once a week

“Oh yes, and they know that I could run this archive on my own if I needed to, I man it on my own every night, but they’d still kill me.”

As they walked into the pub, the landlord recognised them and greeted them with a roll of his eyes and an exaggerated grimace, “Oh Lord, trouble’s here again. What are you all drinking?”

Before any of them could get orders in Jane fixed them with a glare and a grin, “Soft drinks only guys, you’re still on the clock remember? That’s assuming you want Torchwood to pick up the tab.”

The team looked at each other and rolled their eyes, “J2Os it is then.” Alicia sighed theatrically.

They were led to a table towards the back of the pub, which was already fairly full, then placed their orders whilst Jane and Mark brought the drinks over. She settled next to Ianto, leaving Mark to slide in with Hannah. “We got steak and chips for you both, that OK?” Jenny asked

“Super, thanks darlin’” Jane smiled, “How’s all that filing going by the way? Got anywhere with it?”

“Do we have to talk about this whilst we’re having lunch?” Hannah moaned, “I know more about autons than the Nestene Consciousness. But to answer your question, we’re about halfway through that crate, most of it seems to be on the Doctor, which is easy peasy to file.”

“Numero uno, first door you come to on the first floor.”

“Yeah, about that, we might need a bigger room soon. Or at least another one.”

“We’ve got that much stuff on him? Good God.”

“Well if you will keep finding stuff!” Hannah pointed out, making everyone laugh.

“I can’t help it, I’m good.” Jane took a sip of her drink to hide the smug grin spreading across her face. When she put the drink down she was composed again, but the light of amusement and excitement stayed glowing in her eyes.

Hannah rested her elbows on the table and glared balefully at the young Commander, but couldn’t hold the look for long before it was replaced with a bemused smile, “Seriously, she’s always finding stuff to file away. Last week it was a letter written by Charles Dickens but never sent, where he was telling a friend all about this wonderful man he’d met, and this girl called Gwyneth who saved the world from ghosts, in Cardiff.”

“Don’t tell me, the rift and the Doctor?” Ianto groaned at the predictability

“That was the first year the rift started to become active.” Jane shrugged, “Again, it’s jumping to conclusions, but it makes sense. Our job is entirely jumping to conclusions.”

Their meal arrived, curtailing any further discussion of serious matters. Jenny, Rachel and Mark descended into a fierce debate about who the best looking of the Charlie’s Angels was, giving Ianto a pretty good idea of the girls’ relationship. Eventually came the expected but not entirely welcome question, “And what about you Ianto, are you seeing anyone?”

He swallowed a mouthful of food and pulled a face, “Nope, too busy trying to keep my errant team mates in caffeine and muffins, stopping them and my boss from killing each other and finding somewhere to keep a pterodactyl in South Wales without anyone noticing.”

“Busy life.”

“Yeah.” He laughed, “It has its advantages though.” Jane caught his eye and smiled, he had to look away quickly to prevent the blush that was threatening; that girl could get to him quicker than Jack could. He was saved from elaborating by a beeping noise coming from her bag, probably designed to be as irritating as possible so that people answered it faster.

She reached into her bag with practiced ease, read the display quickly and then stood, grabbing a chip and she did so and pulling her bag onto her shoulder, “I’ve got to deal with this, you lot can stay here but I want you back by two at the latest, OK? Kenny, want to see how things work at the pointy end?” The kid nodded eagerly and scrambled out to follow her from the pub, leaving the team and Ianto to try to pick up the conversation

“Does she do that often?” he asked in slight bemusement

“Oh yeah, all the time. We’ve got UNIT groups across the world and about a dozen other organisations, all of whom may need to call on us at a moment’s notice for some file or another. Maybe the coding to defuse a bomb, or how to treat some alien disease, or just something to give them a way in, or out. The Commander deals with all those requests, unless she has more than one at once. She’s the only one who can get that information as fast as they need.”

“You call her the commander?”

Mark answered, “I don’t, they all do. She prefers to be called Jane or just Jay, but they all have a sense of propriety.”

“And you’re just trying to get into her knickers.” Hannah teased, wrapping her arms around him possessively

“Me, no, but Ianto. Come on mate, we can see the way you’re looking at her.” Ianto just groaned and buried his face in his hands, which made his old friend laugh even more, “It’s not too bad, she is cute.”

“Yes it is, because she’s encouraging to go out with my boss.” He glared at them to stop the laughter erupting round the table, “Not going to happen, before you ask. Well, probably. But with Jack, anything could happen I suppose. No, Hell will freeze over before I get together with Captain Bloody Harkness, I mean it.”

“Oh Ianto,” Lucy patted his hand, “Only you, only you dear.”

“Yep.” He agreed, “Only me.”

Rachel took pity on him and changed the subject, “So have you figured it out yet?”

“Figured what, you two?” he took a drink and smiled at her

“Yeah.”

“Civil partners? You’re definitely not sisters.”

They laughed, “We call ourselves wives, but yeah, we’ve been together since we were 15, married last year.”

“So asking which of you is the husband is a redundant question?”

“Oh that’s Jenny.” Rachel answered without hesitation, “Can’t cook for toffee, can’t iron either. Pretty useless actually.” Her wife just shrugged and smiled, stealing a chip whilst she was distracted. “So what’s Torchwood Cardiff been up to recently, anything exciting?”

“Oh, the usual. The occasional weevil, a lodger from Watah, child-stealing fairies and quite a lot of bananas.”

Lucy shook her head, “Wales is a strange place.” He feigned indignation, whilst privately agreeing with her

Isn't Worth Living: Chapter 22

Ianto sank onto the sofa in Jack’s office and rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes. He was worried, and scared and nervous; all words for the same thing but meaning very different things. Over the last few months as he’d got to know Jack he’d discovered the depths of pain in his memories. Many times in the dead of night he’d held Jack through floods of agony, wiping away the tears and the pain with his presence, just as Jack had done for him

Now he had seen his best friend, his other best friend, descend into the same dark depths of despair. Jane’s memories had come crashing back, because she’d come to help him; that bloody file. He stood and swung himself down into Jack’s bunker for the third time since he’d started at Torchwood, and the first time he’d been down there without Jack. This was Jack’s private place, his home for the last eight years, until he’d moved in with Ianto. And when Ianto was gone, he would probably come back here. The young man froze in the middle of the room, aware of just how intimate this was, even when Jack was upstairs holding his ex-girlfriend. He wasn’t here, but he was.

He took the opportunity to look around the small room and wondered how Jack had coped in here over the years. Jack was larger than life, he would fill this room three times over with his personality, but there was little in the room to indicate that anyone had used it recently, let alone that someone had lived here for eight years; someone who had already lived over a hundred years by that point. There was nothing apart from a book and a couple of alien artifacts on the bedside table. Sighing, he perched on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands and allowed the Captain’s presence to swirl around him, half surprised at just how comforting he found it. The small room smelt of him, all fifty-first century pheromones and coffee, cotton and wool. Jack just smelt… right. He’d smelt it properly for the first time in that warehouse when they caught Myfanwy, when he hadn’t believed him about the fifty-first century pheromones, and then lying on top of each other, feeling the evidence of Jack’s attraction to him… Was that why he’d hired him, because he looked good in a suit?

Did it matter? Really? Jack’s reasons for hiring him couldn’t have been worse than Ianto’s reasons for wanting the job, now he couldn’t imagine life without Torchwood Cardiff, without Jack…

But Jack had to face life without him, an eternity of love and loss, and Ianto was just one more. He didn’t want to leave him, not ever.

A claxon blared in the Hub and he was upright and halfway up the ladder before his brain had kicked in. Torchwood had that effect, it wired your impulses straight to your reactions without having to bother with thought; he’d once managed to track down and capture a Weevil with Owen whilst drawing up a shopping list of things he had to get on the way home in his mind. Still, he mused as his lover rested a hand on his waist and stood slightly closer than was professional, it wasn’t like it didn’t have its perks.

“What have we got Ianto?” Jack asked, his eyes flicking between various readouts, maps and reports.

“Alien sighting down on Riverside, sounds like a blowfish.”

“Doing what?”

“Peddling dope.” He chuckled, “Atraxet again?”

“Probably.” Jack groaned, “I’ve got it.”

“Have you now?” Ianto shot him a glare, “You’re not going alone.”

“Ianto, we can’t…”

“The regulations state that at least two Torchwood operatives must attend every sighting, no one’s allowed out alone, not even you. Besides, I’ve got the SUV keys and you wanted to show Jay life at the pointy end.” As Jack showed continued reluctance he rolled his eyes and went to the printer to get the reports, “Sorry sir, the keys are on my desk.”

“You are impossible.” Jack growled, “Come on then, but I’m driving. It’s only Atraxet after all, you up for this Jay?”

The young woman raised an eyebrow, “Does a bear shit in the woods? By the way, you can consider the keys ya-woinked.”

Ianto helped him to put his coat on and they followed her to the cog door, “You can’t ya-woink the keys! You can’t even drive.”

“Can too, and I’m insured on all Torchwood owned vehicles, so nuh. And I have to say, as your boss, Ianto has a very good point, you shouldn’t be responding to anything on your own.”

“It hasn’t killed me yet. Why do I get the feeling you two are ganging up on me?”

Ianto grinned as he pulled the back door of the SUV open and got in, “That would be because we are. And we are the first response team for the day, it’s our job to come out here with you.”

“It’s only Atraxet!”

Jay smirked at him as she pulled away and Ianto prodded him in the back of the head, “Yes, and I remember what happened last time you tried to bust him.”

The Captain shot a glare over the back of the seat, “Are you just doing this because we’re in a relationship, or just ‘cos the others aren’t here?”

“Just because the others aren’t here. Gwen’s much better at bollocking you than I am.” He replied with a straight face, “The police are round there, do you want me to get rid of them?”

Jack’s brain took a second to catch up with the conversation change and resigned himself to professionalism, which was what he wanted. Really it was, but… OK, facing the facts, he’d only been with Ianto properly for one night and he was worried. Worried about the dangers the job presented, even if it was only bloody Atraxet. He’d get used to it, given time.

They pulled up in a quiet car park in Riverside and piled out, “You armed Jazz, sorry Jay?”

“Jazz is OK Jack, I’m back. Whether I want to be or not I think. And yes, always these days.” She pulled a gun from her jacket and winked at him

“That’s new.”

“Yeah, well I had to take care of myself after you died, didn’t I? No trigger happy American air force captain to save me.” She smiled to take the sting out of her words, “Not that I ever really needed it…”

He stuck his tongue out and glared at her, “He wouldn’t be impressed, you were the sweet innocent one.”

“With a right hook that could lay out a Sontaran…”

“You never met a Sontaran, did you?” there was worry in his tone

“I’m still alive aren’t I?” she nudged Ianto in the ribs and peered over his shoulder at his scanner, “Where are we going?”

He coughed, and looked down the street, “Down that way last sighting, probably in his usual spot, sir?”

Jack blinked and followed his gaze, slipping his Bluetooth into place, “I suspect so, Bluetooth activated?”

“I’m good.” Ianto confirmed

“Yarp.” Jazz grinned, “Let’s prod buttock.”

“Yeah Pratchett!” Ianto laughed and cocked his gun, “What’s he got to say for himself this time I wonder.”

Jack led the way down the brightly lit alley into a central court. In the shadows under a broken light stood a group of teenagers and their target. “Hey, Atraxet! Not impressed.” The teenagers turned to study them, equally unimpressed, but the alien broke and ran for one of the other exits. “Oh great!”

They raced after him, ignoring insults and cat calls from the teenagers as they took off. Torchwood spent an awful lot of time running, but still he was too fast for them, gaining ahead of them every second. “Jack?” Jazz asked for permission

“Go.” He gasped, slowing up and grabbing Ianto’s hand to slow him too. Jazz on the other hand lengthened her stride and sped up, gaining on the blowfish with every stride until they disappeared around the corner. “Bloody hell that girl’s got legs.”

“Good legs.” Ianto commented with a smile, “And don’t think I didn’t see you looking.”

“Yeah, well…” a yell from around the corner got their attention back on the task in hand, “We should…”

“Lend assistance?”

They got there to find Jazz glaring at Atraxet, who was handcuffed to a lamp post and struggling to get loose. “Nice of you to join us gents.” She smirked, “You’re getting slow in your old age Jack. And stop struggling! It’s not going to happen.”

Jack shook his head and looked askance at the handcuffs, “Do I want to know where you got those?”

“Oh you know me, I always know where to find a set of handcuffs.”

Ianto clapped a hand to her shoulder and laughed, “Why do I get the feeling that you’ve chained him up in some inappropriate places?”

Atraxet snarled at her, but there was no malice in it, “Oh I should have known, you’re the Captain’s bird. What do you want with me Captain?”

Jack folded his arms, “You know, I’d quite like you to keep your head down and stop selling drugs, especially the drugs bit. You are aware that the existence of aliens is still a secret, right?”

“They’re just my mates, they know about me.”

“They shouldn’t, it’s a security risk. We need to wipe their memories.”

The alien looked at him with desperation in his eyes, “Oh don’t do that, please? They like me, no one else does.”

“Well you keep putting the security of the community in danger! It’s not the best way to make people like you.”

“You keep shooting us!” the alien shot back, but the fight had gone out of him. This had happened a few times too often for him to bother

“Only if I have to. Ianto, will you go for the SUV? I think Atraxet’s going to be spending a night with Janet.”

When Ianto nodded silently and went back the way they’d come, Atraxet rolled his eyes, “Call me Rax Captain, everyone else does. So do I get to enjoy a night of your delightful company again?”

“Nope,” Jack grinned, “I get to enjoy a night of Ianto’s delightful company, and possibly Jasmine’s if she’s coming back with us tonight.” Jazz smiled at him and he winked at her, “Oh and for the record, this is Jasmine, the head of Torchwood. And she’s not my bird, Ianto is.”

The SUV pulled up alongside them with perfect timing and Ianto got out to glare at the Blowfish, his hands on his hips, “Are you going to behave yourself or do we have to put you in the boot like a Weevil?”

“You’re kidding right?” he leered, “Pretty girl’s not as off limits as I thought, I’ll behave… To an extent.”

“Oh great.” She groaned, unlocking him and shoving him into the back seat before cuffing him to the headrest, “I get to be letched at by a pervy alien, again.”

“You love it really.” Jack called across to her as she closed the door, earning him a kick when she got close enough

“Just shut up and drive, and stop flirting with me in front of your boyfriend. It’s making him laugh.”

An hour and a half later, with Rax safely locked in the cells for the night, they were all sitting in the table in Ianto’s kitchen, drinking coffee and eating ice cream from the tub. Both men were watching Jasmine carefully, and she seemed to be carefully oblivious.

“How are you doing Jazz?” Jack asked gently

She sucked the ice cream off her spoon and refused to meet his eyes, “I’m coping. Mainly by suppressing it, I admit, but it seems to be working.”

He covered her spoonless hand with his own, “If you suppress them, they’ll only come back to bite you in the butt.”

She turned her hand over to squeeze his gently, “I’m not getting rid of them, just not thinking about them. There’s so much there that I don’t want to… That I want to move past. Torchwood’s given me that opportunity, a chance to start again with a new life. I just want to put the past behind me and concentrate on now.”

“Your family think you’re dead. I managed to get into the Leaky Cauldron, arranged to meet them there. I couldn’t…” he swallowed, tears in his eyes, “I couldn’t show them any photos of you, I only had one with me when we left the TARDIS that last time, and that was destroyed sixty years ago now. But they were pleased to hear of what you’d been up to. You’d only been gone a day when I saw them…”

“I should tell them I’m OK.”

“Yeah, you should, they’ll be glad to know you’re safe.” He sighed and locked eyes with Ianto, who was looking uncomfortable, “What are your plans then?”

“Erm… dunno. File stuff I suppose.” She sighed, “I should probably go home via Scotland, which will be a bit of a round about trip. Sooner rather than later too…” she grunted, “Too much to think about. But it’s time I got home really, my work here is done.”

“I thought you were here to archive? We’ve barely started.” Ianto raised an eyebrow

“Whatever gave you that idea?” she asked in feigned shock, “My sole purpose in coming here was to hook you two up. Now I’ve got you two sorted I can set to work on Alicia and the cute UNIT guard who always asks to be put on duty at the tower.”

“You came here to get us together?” the young man asked in shock

“Oh yeah, if I’d wanted to do filing I could have stayed in London.”

“You’re incorrigible.” He shook his head, “How long will you stay then?”

She looked at her watch, “I’ll go now, if I do that then I can catch up on the paperwork and catch the morning train up to Hogsmead.”

“Are you sure?” he stammered out, surprised but not overly upset by it; having his boyfriend’s ex around wasn’t great for the start of a relationship, even if she was his best friend.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” She smiled at him and stood up, “Jack, thank you. I won’t forget you again, I promise. And I dare say I’ll be back before long, chasing some file or another.”

“You don’t have to go.” Ianto whispered, pulling her into a hug, suddenly reluctant to see her leave

“Yeah I do, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, a whole identity to recreate. Besides, you two need to get to know each other without a house guest. Take care of him Ianto.”

“I will, take care of yourself, OK? Call me if you need someone to talk to.”

“Thanks.” She turned to Jack and hugged him too, “Look after him. And I’ll see you around.”

They went to the door to wave her off. Jack slid his arms around Ianto’s waist from behind and gave up trying to figure out the chain of events that had led them here, it was too bizarre and fantastical. As the roar of her Jasmine’s bike faded into the distance he felt Ianto turn in his arms. The young man studied him carefully for a moment before leaning in to capture his lips gently; their hands traced sensuous paths down their bodies and then Ianto’s slid underneath his undershirt and he gasped into his mouth at the sudden blaze of heat where the young man’s hands touched his bare skin. This was all the opportunity Ianto needed to deepen the kiss, his tongue slipping into Jack’s mouth to claim him.

Before very long, Jack was aching with need, and he could tell by his tension and the way his lover clung to him that Ianto was in the same state as he was. He lowered the pace slightly by trailing kisses along Ianto’s jaw across to his ear, “Take me to bed?” he whispered

The Welshman looked slightly taken aback by his submission, but made no comment as he led Jack up to their room and pushed him gently onto the bed, kneeling beside him to kiss him back into the pillows.

Some time later, Jack lay on Ianto’s chest, listening to his heartbeat as it slowed to its normal rate. He felt sleep dragging him away and relaxed, secure in Ianto’s arms. “You know,” he whispered, not really knowing why he was speaking or what he was saying, “immortality has its advantages.”

The young Welshman’s accent was even thicker this close to sleep, “Like what?”

“You.”

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The End