Fic: The Sea After a Storm (65/?)
Title: The Sea After a Storm, Chapter 65
Rating: R
Warnings: Just a bit of language
Spoilers: Season Two thru Adam (2x05)
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Torchwood, Doctor Who and all their wonderfulness belong to the Mighty Beeb and He Who Must Not Be Named. No infringement, only worship intended!
Summary: In which some visitors arrive at the Hub - one expected and one not...
Notes: So...Wednesday happened and I didn't realize it! Whoops! You can find all the previous chapters of The Sea After a Storm here. This is a sequel to Vizzini’s Rule and To The Pain. Thanks again and forever to my amazing beta and wonderful friend
thraceadams for all the help and support and beta work; any mistakes are mine!
The Sea After a Storm: Chapter Sixty-Five
Previously on The Sea After a Storm: Jack told Ianto about two years the Time Agency stole from him and Ianto discovered the note Jack had left himself about their missing days…
"Jack."
"Ianto." Jack mimicked Ianto's serious tone of voice with his greeting and then reverted to his usual pitch. "Are you up in the Tourist Office? Owen just drank the last of the coffee."
"Tragic," Ianto replied dryly. "Jack, there's a man standing on the invisible lift."
"So?"
Ianto sighed into the phone. "He's been there for almost an hour. And every so often, he stomps his feet and yells."
"Yells what?"
"Well, from my limited lip reading skills, I'm guessing something along the lines of 'Let me in'."
"Really? Interesting…"
"I thought so, hence the call."
"I'll be up in a second. Unless you want to come down here? You know, we could check out the CCTV while you make coffee?" Jack suggested hopefully.
"It's Thursday, Jack."
"So it's Thursday. I drink coffee on Thursdays. What does Thursday have to do with coffee?" Jack asked.
"Nothing," Ianto explained. "But it has everything to do with why I'm sitting up here in the first place. You were the one who insisted that the Hub be restricted to Torchwood employees only, remember?"
"Oh," Jack said flatly. "UNIT."
"Yes, UNIT. Brendan should be here any moment."
Jack sighed heavily into the phone. "Fine, I'll be up to check out the suspicious character… and take a look at the guy on the lift, too."
Jack hung up before Ianto could respond, his pleased chuckle at his own joke cutting off mid-mirth. Ianto snapped his phone closed and shoved it in his pocket. He flipped the page of the new Cardiff brochure he was perusing with a little more force than necessary, cursing when the page ripped.
When the wall clicked and began to open, Ianto glanced into his office at the CCTV feed to make sure the man was still yelling at the invisible lift.
He was.
Jack came through the door and Ianto motioned to the display on the other side of the bead curtain without speaking or looking up, however, he did grunt in surprise as Jack gave his arse a two-handed squeeze when he passed behind him.
"Well, I'll be damned," Jack said, peering at the monitor. "Colin Kingsley-Brown."
Ianto looked up and thought hard for a second. "Torchwood operative," he hazarded. "Active early 80s?"
Jack nodded, still looking at the CCTV feed. "I haven't seen him in… well, almost as long as you've been alive. He must be in his seventies now, he came to Torchwood after 30 years in the Royal Marines. One of his squadrons ran into something nasty - turned out to be some sort of mutated weevil - killed several of his men. He's heard rumours of Torchwood over the years so he tracked us down to deal with it. Retired from the Marines and stuck around for a few years after it was sorted but decided in the end it wasn't for him. Last I heard, he'd retired to a tiny farm in Northumberland. I wonder -"
Jack's pondering was cut off by the jingle of the bell over the Tourist office door.
"Ianto, hey," Brendan said with a smile. "Bitter out there today."
Ianto met Brendan's gaze with an answering smile. "It is. Coffee?" he offered, reaching for a mug and the insulated carafe he'd filled earlier that morning, ignoring Jack's muffled, outraged cry.
"There was more coffee?!" Jack hissed at him through the hanging beads.
Ianto ignored him, handing Brendan the full mug. Brendan glanced at the doorway to Ianto's office, but didn't say anything. He took the mug gratefully, as Ianto poured himself a cup as well. Brendan held the coffee up and took a deep breath of the fragrant steam, letting out an almost pornographic sound.
"God, that smells so good," Brendan moaned, his eyes darting to the beaded curtain again when Jack let out a muted huff.
Ianto smiled and sipped his coffee. "He's pouting," he murmured to Brendan. "There's plenty if you want a cup, Jack," he said in a slightly louder tone.
There was a second of silence and then Jack strode majestically through the curtain, ignoring the strings of beads that bounced around him. "No thank you, I think I better see to our guest. I'll just…" Jack jerked his head meaningfully towards Brendan. "…bring him in the other door. Corporal," he added by way of greeting as he stepped around the counter.
Ianto rolled his eyes.
"Captain," Brendan said serenely, giving Jack a neat salute before taking another drink from his mug.
Jack muttered something under his breath and exited the Tourist Office, banging the door behind him.
Brendan caught Ianto's eye and they both chuckled.
"What other door?" Brendan asked curiously.
"Probably the lift," Ianto replied. "The 'guest' he's referring to has been standing on it for the better part of an hour. Former employee of Torchwood," he explained further. "Already knows all the secrets."
Brendan laughed. "Unlike me," he said with a wink, "who's never seen more than this office and the garage."
"Precisely." Ianto winked back.
"Speaking of the garage…" Brendan let his voice trail off as he finished his coffee. "I'll see to the SUV and then, that is, if you're still free, I mean, can you go get some lunch?"
Ianto nodded. "Definitely."
Looking relieved, Brendan nodded happily. "Good! Because I was serious about pestering you about coming with me to the wedding. It's on Valentine's Day, if you can believe that, so I need you there with me to mock all my cousins when they get into fights over the available boys and trample each other trying to catch the bouquet and then cry when someone else gets it."
With a chuckle at the image Brendan painted, Ianto finished his coffee and set down the mug. He looked up at Brendan. "From what I hear, there's someone else you should be asking to the wedding as an actual date," he teased, tossing out the info he'd gleaned from an email from Jamie that morning.
Brendan's mouth dropped open. "What? How did…? I mean, who? What?"
"All excellent questions," Ianto said sagely. He came out from behind the counter and took the empty mug from Brendan's hand. Then he put his arm around Brendan's shoulders and steered him to the door. "Why don't you do whatever it is you do to the SUV and we can talk about it over lunch?"
He led Brendan out the door, still stunned and unresisting, and helpfully pointed him towards the garage. Brendan shot him a dirty look, but then grinned and headed off to do his work, turning at the last moment to shout, "I should have known Jamie couldn't keep his mouth shut!"
Ianto laughed and shouted back, "He never can!"
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"So what exactly did His Nibs tell you?" Brendan asked as he slid into his side of the booth at the pub.
Ianto followed suit with a low chuckle at Brendan's choice of words for Jamie. "Oh this and that. He asked me to casually drop the name 'Ross' into conversation and report back on your reaction."
Brendan bit his lower lip as a flush slowly stained his cheeks.
"Hmmm…" Ianto ignored the little jolt his heart gave at the sight of Brendan's slightly crooked front tooth and folded his hands under his chin to peer at Brendan gravely across the table. "Subject appears to have an emotional reaction to the name 'Ross'," he made a note, pretending to write on an imaginary memo pad.
Brendan kicked him under the table. "Shut it," he mumbled. "He's just a guy."
"A guy who…?" Ianto prompted. When Brendan just squirmed in his seat and took a drink from his pint, Ianto reached across the table to grab Brendan's hand. "Seriously, I want to hear about him."
Brendan sighed and squeezed Ianto's hand before reluctantly letting go. He took another sip of beer. "I met him over the summer bank hols. The base always goes down to a skeleton crew so most people can have the time off and I volunteered to stay because… well, the idea of hanging out with my family instead of…" Brendan looked up at Ianto, his expression equal parts pain and chagrin. "Sorry, but I'd spent the summer sort of building up this idea in my head of… well, us, you know, if… well…"
Ianto flinched. "I'm so sorry, Brendan, I - "
"No, no, was my own stupid fault, I just… I wasn't in a happy-family-time place, you know?" He cleared his throat and continued. "Anyway, so I stayed on base. It was quiet, which was nice for a while but then it got boring. Since there wasn't much to do, a bunch of us ended up getting together a game of footy most afternoons and then after mess we'd just sort of laze around and talk or whatever. Ross ended up on the same team as me and I guess he could tell I wasn't exactly in the best mood and he kinda tried to make me laugh and stuff."
"Sounds like a good guy."
"He is." Brendan shot him a shy smile which faded quickly. "We've hung out a lot since then but pretty much always in a group, it's been hard to find time alone. Well, there was one party at one of the guys girlfriend's flats where we… um, well we ended up stuck on the roof for a few hours because some arsehole moved the pole that was propping the door open and we both really talked… you know, a lot of personal stuff and I got the feeling… well, at one point I just sorta said 'fuck it' and kissed him, you know? Sometimes how you just know the right moment? You know, you're either right or you get your teeth knocked in but it's totally worth the risk?"
Ianto nodded absently, trying to tamp down the hot spark of jealousy that flared up as he imagined Brendan kissing some guy on a rooftop under the stars. You asked. You wanted to know. No right to be jealous and you know it, he told himself firmly.
"Trouble is," Brendan added with a sigh, "he's a Private, so I outrank him."
"Ah. So how big of an issue is the rank thing to UNIT?" Ianto asked, taking a long drink of his pint. He had to force himself to slow down, knowing he'd only be able to get away with one beer if he wanted to do anything useful that afternoon.
Brendan frowned. "Pretty big. It would matter less if we weren't in the same Company and really, I could get a transfer without much fuss if I talk to my uncle but that's a big step to take for a guy I haven't even been on a real date with. I mean, if it was you…" Brendan looked up at Ianto through his lashes.
"Brendan…"
Ianto got an unrepentant grin from Brendan. "Sorry, couldn't resist," he said. "But seriously, we're kind of stuck unless we sneak around and that's not something I've done since I came out. Not sure I want to go back in the closet, not that that's what we'd be doing, really, but it feels like it, you know?" He let out a deep sigh and ran his hand through his curly hair. "Anyway, you can see why I broke down and called Jamie."
"Definitely," Ianto replied with a nod, as he sat back to give the waitress room to deliver their food. He picked up his fork and then paused for a moment before digging in. "I'm sure he had more sage advice to give you, but I will say this from my own experience - keeping your personal life quiet at work for a little while? Not such a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Some things just aren't anybody else's business until you want them to be."
Brendan chewed thoughtfully and then nodded. "True." He smiled again. "I guess that's Torchwood thinking vs. UNIT thinking for you."
Ianto raised his glass. "To Torchwood, outside the government, even UNIT," he toasted, his lips twitching as he attempted to keep a straight face.
Brendan raised an eyebrow instead of his glass. "Not sure I can drink to that one."
With a smile, Ianto amended his salutation. "To following your heart, then," he said softly.
"Here, here," Brendan replied, clinking his pint against Ianto's. "No matter where it leads you."
Ianto had to swallow his sip of beer over a lump that suddenly formed in his throat. He hoped Brendan's heart would lead him somewhere with a much happier ending this time.
TBC…
. This entry was originally posted at http://buttononthetop.dreamwidth.org/107698.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Rating: R
Warnings: Just a bit of language
Spoilers: Season Two thru Adam (2x05)
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Torchwood, Doctor Who and all their wonderfulness belong to the Mighty Beeb and He Who Must Not Be Named. No infringement, only worship intended!
Summary: In which some visitors arrive at the Hub - one expected and one not...
Notes: So...Wednesday happened and I didn't realize it! Whoops! You can find all the previous chapters of The Sea After a Storm here. This is a sequel to Vizzini’s Rule and To The Pain. Thanks again and forever to my amazing beta and wonderful friend
thraceadams for all the help and support and beta work; any mistakes are mine!
The Sea After a Storm: Chapter Sixty-Five
Previously on The Sea After a Storm: Jack told Ianto about two years the Time Agency stole from him and Ianto discovered the note Jack had left himself about their missing days…
"Jack."
"Ianto." Jack mimicked Ianto's serious tone of voice with his greeting and then reverted to his usual pitch. "Are you up in the Tourist Office? Owen just drank the last of the coffee."
"Tragic," Ianto replied dryly. "Jack, there's a man standing on the invisible lift."
"So?"
Ianto sighed into the phone. "He's been there for almost an hour. And every so often, he stomps his feet and yells."
"Yells what?"
"Well, from my limited lip reading skills, I'm guessing something along the lines of 'Let me in'."
"Really? Interesting…"
"I thought so, hence the call."
"I'll be up in a second. Unless you want to come down here? You know, we could check out the CCTV while you make coffee?" Jack suggested hopefully.
"It's Thursday, Jack."
"So it's Thursday. I drink coffee on Thursdays. What does Thursday have to do with coffee?" Jack asked.
"Nothing," Ianto explained. "But it has everything to do with why I'm sitting up here in the first place. You were the one who insisted that the Hub be restricted to Torchwood employees only, remember?"
"Oh," Jack said flatly. "UNIT."
"Yes, UNIT. Brendan should be here any moment."
Jack sighed heavily into the phone. "Fine, I'll be up to check out the suspicious character… and take a look at the guy on the lift, too."
Jack hung up before Ianto could respond, his pleased chuckle at his own joke cutting off mid-mirth. Ianto snapped his phone closed and shoved it in his pocket. He flipped the page of the new Cardiff brochure he was perusing with a little more force than necessary, cursing when the page ripped.
When the wall clicked and began to open, Ianto glanced into his office at the CCTV feed to make sure the man was still yelling at the invisible lift.
He was.
Jack came through the door and Ianto motioned to the display on the other side of the bead curtain without speaking or looking up, however, he did grunt in surprise as Jack gave his arse a two-handed squeeze when he passed behind him.
"Well, I'll be damned," Jack said, peering at the monitor. "Colin Kingsley-Brown."
Ianto looked up and thought hard for a second. "Torchwood operative," he hazarded. "Active early 80s?"
Jack nodded, still looking at the CCTV feed. "I haven't seen him in… well, almost as long as you've been alive. He must be in his seventies now, he came to Torchwood after 30 years in the Royal Marines. One of his squadrons ran into something nasty - turned out to be some sort of mutated weevil - killed several of his men. He's heard rumours of Torchwood over the years so he tracked us down to deal with it. Retired from the Marines and stuck around for a few years after it was sorted but decided in the end it wasn't for him. Last I heard, he'd retired to a tiny farm in Northumberland. I wonder -"
Jack's pondering was cut off by the jingle of the bell over the Tourist office door.
"Ianto, hey," Brendan said with a smile. "Bitter out there today."
Ianto met Brendan's gaze with an answering smile. "It is. Coffee?" he offered, reaching for a mug and the insulated carafe he'd filled earlier that morning, ignoring Jack's muffled, outraged cry.
"There was more coffee?!" Jack hissed at him through the hanging beads.
Ianto ignored him, handing Brendan the full mug. Brendan glanced at the doorway to Ianto's office, but didn't say anything. He took the mug gratefully, as Ianto poured himself a cup as well. Brendan held the coffee up and took a deep breath of the fragrant steam, letting out an almost pornographic sound.
"God, that smells so good," Brendan moaned, his eyes darting to the beaded curtain again when Jack let out a muted huff.
Ianto smiled and sipped his coffee. "He's pouting," he murmured to Brendan. "There's plenty if you want a cup, Jack," he said in a slightly louder tone.
There was a second of silence and then Jack strode majestically through the curtain, ignoring the strings of beads that bounced around him. "No thank you, I think I better see to our guest. I'll just…" Jack jerked his head meaningfully towards Brendan. "…bring him in the other door. Corporal," he added by way of greeting as he stepped around the counter.
Ianto rolled his eyes.
"Captain," Brendan said serenely, giving Jack a neat salute before taking another drink from his mug.
Jack muttered something under his breath and exited the Tourist Office, banging the door behind him.
Brendan caught Ianto's eye and they both chuckled.
"What other door?" Brendan asked curiously.
"Probably the lift," Ianto replied. "The 'guest' he's referring to has been standing on it for the better part of an hour. Former employee of Torchwood," he explained further. "Already knows all the secrets."
Brendan laughed. "Unlike me," he said with a wink, "who's never seen more than this office and the garage."
"Precisely." Ianto winked back.
"Speaking of the garage…" Brendan let his voice trail off as he finished his coffee. "I'll see to the SUV and then, that is, if you're still free, I mean, can you go get some lunch?"
Ianto nodded. "Definitely."
Looking relieved, Brendan nodded happily. "Good! Because I was serious about pestering you about coming with me to the wedding. It's on Valentine's Day, if you can believe that, so I need you there with me to mock all my cousins when they get into fights over the available boys and trample each other trying to catch the bouquet and then cry when someone else gets it."
With a chuckle at the image Brendan painted, Ianto finished his coffee and set down the mug. He looked up at Brendan. "From what I hear, there's someone else you should be asking to the wedding as an actual date," he teased, tossing out the info he'd gleaned from an email from Jamie that morning.
Brendan's mouth dropped open. "What? How did…? I mean, who? What?"
"All excellent questions," Ianto said sagely. He came out from behind the counter and took the empty mug from Brendan's hand. Then he put his arm around Brendan's shoulders and steered him to the door. "Why don't you do whatever it is you do to the SUV and we can talk about it over lunch?"
He led Brendan out the door, still stunned and unresisting, and helpfully pointed him towards the garage. Brendan shot him a dirty look, but then grinned and headed off to do his work, turning at the last moment to shout, "I should have known Jamie couldn't keep his mouth shut!"
Ianto laughed and shouted back, "He never can!"
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"So what exactly did His Nibs tell you?" Brendan asked as he slid into his side of the booth at the pub.
Ianto followed suit with a low chuckle at Brendan's choice of words for Jamie. "Oh this and that. He asked me to casually drop the name 'Ross' into conversation and report back on your reaction."
Brendan bit his lower lip as a flush slowly stained his cheeks.
"Hmmm…" Ianto ignored the little jolt his heart gave at the sight of Brendan's slightly crooked front tooth and folded his hands under his chin to peer at Brendan gravely across the table. "Subject appears to have an emotional reaction to the name 'Ross'," he made a note, pretending to write on an imaginary memo pad.
Brendan kicked him under the table. "Shut it," he mumbled. "He's just a guy."
"A guy who…?" Ianto prompted. When Brendan just squirmed in his seat and took a drink from his pint, Ianto reached across the table to grab Brendan's hand. "Seriously, I want to hear about him."
Brendan sighed and squeezed Ianto's hand before reluctantly letting go. He took another sip of beer. "I met him over the summer bank hols. The base always goes down to a skeleton crew so most people can have the time off and I volunteered to stay because… well, the idea of hanging out with my family instead of…" Brendan looked up at Ianto, his expression equal parts pain and chagrin. "Sorry, but I'd spent the summer sort of building up this idea in my head of… well, us, you know, if… well…"
Ianto flinched. "I'm so sorry, Brendan, I - "
"No, no, was my own stupid fault, I just… I wasn't in a happy-family-time place, you know?" He cleared his throat and continued. "Anyway, so I stayed on base. It was quiet, which was nice for a while but then it got boring. Since there wasn't much to do, a bunch of us ended up getting together a game of footy most afternoons and then after mess we'd just sort of laze around and talk or whatever. Ross ended up on the same team as me and I guess he could tell I wasn't exactly in the best mood and he kinda tried to make me laugh and stuff."
"Sounds like a good guy."
"He is." Brendan shot him a shy smile which faded quickly. "We've hung out a lot since then but pretty much always in a group, it's been hard to find time alone. Well, there was one party at one of the guys girlfriend's flats where we… um, well we ended up stuck on the roof for a few hours because some arsehole moved the pole that was propping the door open and we both really talked… you know, a lot of personal stuff and I got the feeling… well, at one point I just sorta said 'fuck it' and kissed him, you know? Sometimes how you just know the right moment? You know, you're either right or you get your teeth knocked in but it's totally worth the risk?"
Ianto nodded absently, trying to tamp down the hot spark of jealousy that flared up as he imagined Brendan kissing some guy on a rooftop under the stars. You asked. You wanted to know. No right to be jealous and you know it, he told himself firmly.
"Trouble is," Brendan added with a sigh, "he's a Private, so I outrank him."
"Ah. So how big of an issue is the rank thing to UNIT?" Ianto asked, taking a long drink of his pint. He had to force himself to slow down, knowing he'd only be able to get away with one beer if he wanted to do anything useful that afternoon.
Brendan frowned. "Pretty big. It would matter less if we weren't in the same Company and really, I could get a transfer without much fuss if I talk to my uncle but that's a big step to take for a guy I haven't even been on a real date with. I mean, if it was you…" Brendan looked up at Ianto through his lashes.
"Brendan…"
Ianto got an unrepentant grin from Brendan. "Sorry, couldn't resist," he said. "But seriously, we're kind of stuck unless we sneak around and that's not something I've done since I came out. Not sure I want to go back in the closet, not that that's what we'd be doing, really, but it feels like it, you know?" He let out a deep sigh and ran his hand through his curly hair. "Anyway, you can see why I broke down and called Jamie."
"Definitely," Ianto replied with a nod, as he sat back to give the waitress room to deliver their food. He picked up his fork and then paused for a moment before digging in. "I'm sure he had more sage advice to give you, but I will say this from my own experience - keeping your personal life quiet at work for a little while? Not such a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Some things just aren't anybody else's business until you want them to be."
Brendan chewed thoughtfully and then nodded. "True." He smiled again. "I guess that's Torchwood thinking vs. UNIT thinking for you."
Ianto raised his glass. "To Torchwood, outside the government, even UNIT," he toasted, his lips twitching as he attempted to keep a straight face.
Brendan raised an eyebrow instead of his glass. "Not sure I can drink to that one."
With a smile, Ianto amended his salutation. "To following your heart, then," he said softly.
"Here, here," Brendan replied, clinking his pint against Ianto's. "No matter where it leads you."
Ianto had to swallow his sip of beer over a lump that suddenly formed in his throat. He hoped Brendan's heart would lead him somewhere with a much happier ending this time.
TBC…
. This entry was originally posted at http://buttononthetop.dreamwidth.org/107698.html. Please comment there using OpenID.