Fic: The Sea After a Storm (35/?)
Title: The Sea After a Storm, Chapter 35
Rating: R
Warnings: None really, just don’t feel like changing the rating :)
Spoilers: Season Two thru To the Last Man (2x03)
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Torchwood and all its wonderfulness belong to the Mighty Beeb and He Who Must Not Be Named. All ©'s to Helen Raynor for situations borrowed from To the Last Man. No infringement, only worship intended!
Summary: In which Jack is pensive, Owen is industrious, Gwen is motivated and Ianto is worried about his files…
Notes: *waves* Hi! Still plugging along getting one chapter written and posted at a time. I hope y'all are still enjoying even with the agonizingly slow schedule. I am making every effort to post more often! Pretty please just bear with me and keep on reading. *hugs* Previous chapters found here. Sequel to Vizzini’s Rule and To The Pain. Thanks again and forever to my amazing beta and wonderful friend thrace_adams for all the help and support; any mistakes are mine!
The Sea After a Storm: Chapter Thirty-Five
Previously on The Sea After a Storm:
The team unfroze Tommy Brockless for his yearly "day out"…
Ianto stayed behind in the boardroom to tidy up the meagre remains of breakfast after Tommy had eaten his fill. He'd ordered enough for two extra people, but even with Tosh and Gwen mostly picking at their food, Tommy, Owen and Jack had managed to decimate the meal. He heard footsteps in the corridor as he finished tying off the bin bag. Glancing up, he was surprised to see Jack standing in the doorway.
"Perfect timing," Ianto said dryly. "Work's all done. Thought you'd gone up to help with Tommy?"
Jack shrugged. "Tosh and Owen are handling the physical and the mental eval. I gave Gwen some more details about Tommy's story and it… well, it just struck me. Do you know how many Torchwood staff I've told that exact same story to since Gerald told it to me in 1920?"
"Quite a few, I would imagine," Ianto said cautiously, stacking the dishes on his tray quietly. When Jack didn't respond, Ianto looked over to see him leaning on the doorframe, staring into space. Ianto brushed his hands off and moved closer to Jack. "Do you want one of us to take point on this today, Jack? It wouldn't be any trouble. Give you a bit of a break from it all."
Shaking his head, Jack finally focussed on Ianto. He shifted slightly so he could lean on Ianto instead of the doorway.
Knowing how much comfort Jack took from simple contact, Ianto slid one hand into Jack's hair, petting as he used the other to stroke up and down Jack's back.
"You sure?" he asked softly.
Jack nodded. "Tosh'll want to take him out for a bit as soon as he's cleared. Then she'll bring him back and we'll tuck him away until next year. And, the gods willing, you'll all still be here and I won't have to explain it again."
Ianto hugged Jack tighter. "Well, I can't speak for anyone else, sir, but I can tell you right now that I plan to be around for quite some time."
"Promise?" The word was a whisper, rough as broken glass.
Jack raised his head and for a brief second, Ianto saw longing warring with gut-clenching fear in Jack's blue eyes. Before he could reply, Jack's mouth was on his, stealing his breath in a long slow kiss. When Jack pulled back, that look was gone, the blue depths as calm as the sea after a storm, but Ianto remembered it. Jack wouldn't thank him for bringing it up, however, so Ianto simply kissed him again and then went back to the table for his tray of dishes.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"Ianto?"
"Yes, Gwen?" Ianto called from the kitchen area as he put the last plate in the washer.
"Can you help me with this? I can't get it to work," she called back.
He rinsed his hands and headed for Jack's office where he found Gwen rifling through Tommy's file.
"What can I do for you?"
"I'm trying to sort through all this and I can't actually see any of the pictures 'cause they're those slides and this thing won't work. What did Torchwood have against plain old photographs?" she griped as she hit the side of the light box.
"I believe this type of photo was better at capturing paranormal phenomena than the regular film of the time," Ianto said as he tapped the on/off switch. When nothing happened, he checked the cord which had been tugged loose from the socket. He pushed it back in and the light box lit immediately. "There you go."
"Thanks. Have you looked through this?" she asked as she shuffled random pages in the file, looking for something.
Ianto bit back a caution to keep everything in order, his fingers flexing with the urge to yank the file from her hands. He jammed his hands in his pockets. "Of course," he said. "Why?"
"Doesn't it bother you that they're keeping information from us?" she asked, pulling a few pictures from the file and gesturing at the temporally-sealed box on Jack's desk with them. "I mean, what Jack said - chunks of 1918 falling through time into the future - that sounds really bad. And how is Tommy supposed to stop it? Why would Torchwood hide important details from, well, Torchwood? It doesn't make sense."
"I'm sure they had their reasons," Ianto said soothingly.
"Who?"
"Well, him for a start," he said as he leant on the desk with one hand and looked at the photograph now resting on the light box. "Gerald Carter Kneale." Kneale's stats flashed before Ianto's eyes and he sighed.
Gwen tilted her head and looked down at the picture. "He's a bit of all right," she admitted.
"He's the boss," Ianto said, his thoughts immediately springing to Jack.
"Nothing changes," Gwen observed. Their eyes met and Gwen giggled, knowing exactly who he was thinking about.
"She's all right, too," Ianto said, wanting to be fair. Poor girl, he thought even as he said her name. "Harriet Derbyshire."
"I wonder what happened to her."
Ianto raised his eyebrows and glanced at Gwen. "She died," he said. "Year after that was taken. Twenty-six years old," he whispered.
Even Gwen seemed moved. "So young," she said sadly.
"They all were." Ianto picked up another picture, this one of the full staff of Torchwood Three 1917-1918. Everyone except Jack, he thought, knowing that Jack had been on the front lines at the time the photo had been taken. Right in the thick of it at Amiens, at that point, he remembered. "Nothing changes," he whispered, staring at the young faces, knowing that all but one of them would be dead before Jack returned to Cardiff after the war.
Gwen pushed past him, startling him out of his reverie.
"Where're you going?" he called as she grabbed her jacket off the rack.
"St. Teilo's Hospital," she told him. "And bloody cheer up, will you?"
Ianto tried to smile but knew it was a poor attempt. After she'd left, the cog door rolling closed and the proximity alarm ceasing its blaring, Ianto was struck by how quiet it was. Owen was hunched over his workstation, dutifully plugging in all the data he'd gathered from Tommy that morning and Jack was… missing. Ianto glanced around and then stepped over to the stairway to the lower levels. A few seconds later he heard it. He shook his head and hurried down the stairs.
As he neared the shooting range, he realised that he wasn't hearing the frantic pop-pop-pop of Jack just dumping bullets into the targets. It seemed that his Captain was winding down. Ianto waited until Jack set down the gun he was using and stepped forward into the room, clearing his throat.
"Ianto," Jack said, slightly out of breath. He tugged his earmuffs off. "Everything okay?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing," Ianto said, conjuring up a small smile. "Gwen's gone to the hospital to do a little investigating. Other than that, everything is fine."
Jack returned the smile and Ianto was relieved to see it was genuine, if brief. "What does she think she's going to find?"
Ianto shrugged. "Got me. She was going through the file," he added in pained tones.
Jack actually laughed and set about loading another gun. "And how long will it take you to put it to rights again?"
"At least an hour," Ianto said with a dramatic sigh. He reached down and loaded a Ruger SR9 that was sitting on the table.
"Well, you'd have to go through it anyway to add this year's data," Jack said dryly, clearly seeing through Ianto's ploy for sympathy.
Ianto grinned. "True."
Jack gestured to the gun in his hand. "You shooting?" he asked.
"Sure," Ianto replied, walking over to the wall and activating the target conveyor. He held the button until the paper weevils were far enough away to be a real challenge. "Winner buys dinner tonight after we put Tommy back to bed," he added.
"Don't I still owe you dinner from the last time we did this?" Jack asked as he put on his earmuffs and turned on the mic.
Ianto looked surprised and thought about it for a second. He put on his own earmuffs and then said, "Yeah, you do."
"Damn," Jack said, his voice sounding tinny over the radio. "Guess I'll have to take you out again no matter what."
"Well, if it's that much of a chore, Jack, you can just - eep!" Ianto jumped when Jack reached over and pinched his arse.
"Shut up and shoot, Jones," Jack growled.
Ianto chuckled and took aim. "Yes, sir," he said.
They spent a half-hour or so just playing around, trying to see how far they could shoot, how fast or how accurate. Jack had lost a lot of the rustiness he'd displayed right after he'd gotten back from his year with the Doctor and the two of them were evenly matched again. They were comparing targets that they'd tried to make smiley faces on, arguing over whose 'nose' was more centred, when their comms went off.
"Jack, Tosh's computer is showing a rift spike," Owen said. "All the bells and whistles just went off up here."
"Where?" Jack asked, already heading up the stairs with Ianto at his heels.
"St. Teilo's Hospital," Owen said grimly.
"Gwen's there," Jack said. "Get her on the comm see if she knows anything. I'm heading there now." Jack clicked off his comm and changed direction, heading for the garage instead. "Ianto?" he called over his shoulder.
"Yes, sir?"
"Get upstairs and keep an eye on that box. If this is just a random spike, it'll stay sealed. If not?" Jack's voice trailed off.
"Yes, sir," Ianto said again. He hurried up to join Owen, wondering if their dinner would have to wait.
TBC in Chapter Thirty-Six