You Want To Make A Memory (1/2)
Title: You Want To Make A Memory
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG-13
Length: 11,000 words - eek - in two parts to appease LJ.
Disclaimer: I don't own Jack, I don't own Ianto, I don't own the Doctor either.
Spoilers: None, really.
Summary: Jack and Ianto want to have a baby, but that might be tougher than it appears.
Author's Notes: This is for morbid_sparks, without whom the plot bunny that led to this fic would have been ignored until it went away.
Thanks to: morbid_sparks for the beta, and also for encouraging me while writing it. Thanks to angelzbabe1989 for her encouragement too.
You Want To Make A Memory
Part One
It was negative. Again.
Jack blew out a disappointed breath and threw the test into the bin. Twenty-one months of trying - and how they were trying - and still nothing.
Ianto’s hands dropped onto his shoulders and turned him around, pulling him into the younger man’s embrace.
“It’s okay,” Ianto murmured in his ear. “So we keep trying. Maybe next time we’ll have better luck.” The words should be comforting, but Jack had heard them before, and the strain was starting to tell in Ianto’s voice whenever he had to say them.
“Yeah…” Jack was beginning to sound defeated. “Maybe.”
* * *
Ianto rolled onto his back, mechanically handing Jack a tissue to clean up. Taking another for himself, he sighed. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take.
On the face of it, sex multiple times daily sounded like a fantastic idea, but that was the problem really. The more time that went on without Jack getting pregnant, the more desperate they got, and the more it started to feel like just that - sex.
Even right back at the beginning, when Ianto would have sworn that what they shared was purely sexual, it had been more than this. This had turned something they both took great pleasure in into a chore, almost something to be endured rather than enjoyed.
But he didn’t say anything - wouldn’t, couldn’t - to Jack. Not when he wanted this so badly.
Jack cleaned up methodically, staring at the ceiling. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take.
He wanted to be pregnant, more than anything - a fact that he would have shocked himself with just a few short years ago - but they couldn’t go on like this.
He was tired of them forcing themselves into sex even when they weren’t in the mood. He was tired of the schedule. Hell, he was tired of always bottoming.
They used to have a wonderful, imaginative, adventurous sex life, but in the last months it had dissipated, leaving behind only, well, sex.
And not even good sex.
But he didn’t say anything - wouldn’t, couldn’t - to Ianto. Not when he wanted this so badly.
* * *
Jack stared at the test in his hand, willing it to show a different result than every other test he’d taken in the last two years had.
He risked a glance at Ianto, who was staring tensely at the floor, one fist clenched in his lap, the other hand holding the stopwatch loosely.
“How long?” he asked huskily, just for something to say.
Ianto’s eyes flicked over to the stopwatch face. “Thirty seconds.”
Jack nodded, although it hadn’t really been information. They had done this so many times now that he could time three minutes in his head, accurate to the second.
Exactly thirty seconds later, he looked again at the window.
Damn.
Ianto didn’t even need to ask, the look on Jack’s face enough to tell him that, once again, they’d been unsuccessful.
Both had been hoping that maybe, just maybe, this time would be different. It was a special date after all. Two years to the day since they had that fateful discussion and had decided to try and get pregnant.
They’d been so giddy that night, so deliriously happy in each other and the possibility of their future child.
But two years later, both were beginning to wonder if all of their plans had simply been pipe dreams.
Discarding the test, Jack pulled Ianto to his feet, and they walked silently back into their bedroom. The air was thick with unspoken words as they sat on the end of the bed, neither one looking at the other.
“I’ve been thinking,” Ianto finally said, still not looking up. “Maybe I should, I don’t know, get tested or something.”
“What?” Jack’s head snapped up, twisting to look at Ianto.
Ianto didn’t meet his gaze immediately, studying the carpet beneath his toes as he started to speak again. “I mean, I should get fertility tested. Because we clearly have a problem here, and it has to be me.”
His head finally rose to let him look at Jack. “You’ve been pregnant before, so it can’t be you.” Jack had told him the story several years previously, shortly after they first became serious, when Ianto had suggested for the first time that they stopped using condoms.
Ianto still felt vaguely proud of himself that he had retained consciousness and avoided a panic attack at the sudden discovery that his very male lover could, in theory, carry their child. At the time it had been just that - theoretical.
After that discussion, and the easy decision that they would continue with the condoms where they were required as birth control, the subject had been put to bed. Neither of them had brought it up again until that night two years ago, when, things having finally settled down after the formalisation of their relationship, they began to wonder about expanding their newly formed family of two.
Truthfully, as Ianto had admitted that night, the issue had never completely left his mind. The idea of children, one day, had been something he’d thought about with Lisa; something he’d initially thought he would be giving up when he made the decision to really be with Jack. Knowing that the option was still there, it was always a vague notion in the back of his mind.
Jack felt a very vague twinge at the talk of his previous pregnancy, but he was long past the point where he couldn’t talk about it. “You know that I never carried to term though, it really could be…”
Ianto silenced him with a finger over his lips. “That wasn’t your fault, and it really doesn’t have any bearing here. I looked it up, and at least in 21st century women, there’s no link at all between a past termination and problems conceiving.”
Ianto knew there was a part of Jack that still blamed himself for the loss of his unborn child, even though he’d been given no choice in the matter. When he’d found himself pregnant as a nineteen year old junior agent, the Time Agency had been unbending in their orders. Get rid of it.
While Jack had been terrified of continuing the pregnancy without a partner to help, he’d never considered ending it. But he hadn’t been given the choice, and within a month, he’d been forced back to work.
Jack wrapped his fingers around Ianto’s wrist, pulling his hand away. “Even so, we don’t know for sure if that’s the same for me. And that was a long, long time ago. A lot has happened to me since I was last pregnant… who knows what that could have done to me.”
“There’s one big difference though,” Ianto interrupted. “I can actually get tested, here and now. And if something’s wrong…”
His tone was that of a man who had already convinced himself that there was a problem. “If something’s wrong, then at least we know about it, and we can… well, I don’t know really. We can discuss all of our other options again, see if any of them appeal more when we know this option is a no-go.”
Jack sighed. He didn’t like it, but Ianto had a point. They’d been trying for what was considered rather a long time, and it would perhaps be best to know now if there was a reason they hadn’t had any success, before they spent any longer getting nowhere.
He nodded.
* * *
Ianto bit his lip nervously as he walked into the bright, cheerful foyer of the fertility clinic. Jack had wanted to accompany him, but Ianto had pointed out the impossibility of that, considering what he was there to be tested for. They couldn’t exactly explain the situation to a doctor here.
Now that he was actually here, though, he rather wished he’d let Jack come with him anyway.
Blowing out a determined breath, he strode over to the reception desk, giving the young girl who sat behind it his name.
“Doctor Evans will be with you in just a minute, Mr Jones, if you’d like to just take a seat.” She waved in the direction of a small waiting area to one side of the foyer.
Ianto sat down, clasping his hands together and staring at the floor to avoid meeting the gaze of any of the area’s other occupants. They were mostly in couples, he noted absently, wishing again that he wasn’t there alone.
A few minutes later, a nurse appeared from a hallway and called his name, leading him to a large office with the name ‘Dr Evans’ emblazoned on the door.
It was painted in warm, friendly colours, the doctor didn’t sit behind a huge imposing desk, and the seats were soft and comfortable, but Ianto felt anything but comfortable being there.
He knew he couldn’t be entirely honest with Dr Evans, and although he had plenty of practice skirting around the truth in his professional life at Torchwood, he hated having to do the same with something so intensely personal.
He answered the doctor’s questions as truthfully as it was safe to do, making careful use of the phrase ‘my partner’ whenever a question about his ‘wife’ was posed. After fifteen minutes of questions that were, frankly, becoming rather more invasive than he was prepared for, he was almost ready to give up. Almost ready to stand and walk out, or scream for the questions to just, please, stop.
Thinking of the heartache they’d had over the last two years, and remembering that he was the one who had suggested this, he forced himself through it.
While it was nice to know that, at least based on his answers to the questions, they hadn’t been doing anything that would unnecessarily impede their chances of conception, Ianto was relieved when Dr Evans closed his folder and pressed a button on his desk to call the nurse.
He just wanted to get this over and done with, so they had their answers and could start dealing with whatever they said. The same nurse from before reappeared at the door.
Ianto shook the doctor’s hand and followed the nurse out, letting her lead him down a long corridor lined with numbered rooms.
She came to a stop outside number 11.
“You should find everything you need inside. Just press the buzzer next to the hatch when you’re ready.” She opened the door to reveal a small brightly lit room, furnished with a crisp-sheeted bed, a small table, a television, and a rack of magazines. A small hand-basin took up one corner.
The door closed discretely behind him as he walked over to inspect the small pile on the table-top. There were copies of all the informational leaflets he’d already read, a ‘menu’ of what was available on the TV, a large box of tissues, and the expected plastic specimen cup, hermetically sealed in a sterile package.
He picked up the last of these, perching on the side of the bed as he examined the small receptacle through the clear plastic packaging.
He wiped a sweaty palm on the leg of his jeans, placing the cup back on the table and closing his eyes.
‘You can do this’ he told himself. ‘You’re going to do this.’
He picked up the cup again and tore it out of its plastic wrapping before setting it back down on the table.
Settling back onto the bed, he closed his eyes again, letting his hand drift down to his denim-covered crotch. Consciously slowing his breathing, and trying to relax, he brought up several images from his store of cherished memories.
Jack, spread out under him, head thrown back in pleasure…
Jack’s weight pressing him into the mattress…
Jack inside him…
The sounds Jack made in the throes of passion…
The look on Jack’s face when he went over the edge…
Several minutes later, allowing his hand to slide off onto the mattress beside him, he sighed in frustration. No matter what fantasy he thought up, what memory he brought out, it just wasn’t working. Images that would normally have him hard in seconds were doing nothing, having no effect. His body just wasn’t interested, and if he was honest, he couldn’t even get his brain into it.
He knew it wasn’t the act itself that was the problem - he’d been taking care of himself with plenty success since he was twelve, and wasn’t a stranger to it even now, either alone or giving Jack a show.
But being here, in this clinical setting, and having it expected of him, was just too much. There were people waiting behind the hatch for him to press a buzzer and announce that he was done; a group of complete strangers who knew exactly what he was doing - or rather, what he was supposed to be doing.
No matter how much he tried to block it out, draw himself into a fantasy world, he couldn’t.
He glared at the empty plastic cup sitting on the table. Its very existence was like a talisman of his failure to do this, his inability to do the one thing they had at their disposal to possibly explain the problems they’d been having.
Swinging his legs around to the side of the bed, he sat up.
This wasn’t going to happen, and there was no point hanging around. Taking one last look around, he went over to the wall hatch and pressed the buzzer.
A minute later, the hatch slid open and a young laboratory technician appeared.
“Ready?”
“I’m sorry.” Ianto shook his head. “I just can’t do this. It doesn’t feel right.”
The technician nodded sympathetically. “It actually happens more than you might think, so don’t feel bad. Some people just can’t get fully comfortable with the situation.”
If it was possible, the technician’s understanding words made Ianto feel even more awkward.
Pasting a fake smile on his face - and noting absently that it was the same one he used when trying to appear unassuming when undercover - he nodded at the man and turned for the door.
As he made his way back along the corridors and out of the clinic, there was only one thought going through his mind.
‘How am I going to tell Jack?’
* * *
He was still worrying about the question as he left himself into the small house, ten minutes from the Hub, that he had shared with Jack for the last three years.
As soon as the door closed behind him, Jack’s head popped out of the living room door.
Something must have shown on his face, because barely a moment later, Jack was gathering him into his arms.
“Didn’t go well?” he murmured softly in Ianto’s ear.
Ianto sighed, savouring Jack’s embrace for a few seconds longer before pulling back a little so he could look him in the eye.
“I couldn’t go through with it,” he admitted, watching Jack’s reaction carefully.
To his surprise, Jack didn’t seem all that shocked, or even upset. His gaze remained steady and loving, inviting Ianto to air his issues.
“It was just too awkward. Even the discussion with the doctor was uncomfortable, and the actual… sample giving? It felt… wrong, somehow. I know it’s for a good cause, but I just… couldn’t. And… aren’t you upset?”
Jack shook his head gently, bringing a hand up to cup Ianto’s face. “A tiny bit maybe, but not really. I was actually rather expecting it. I know you, Ianto, and putting yourself in that situation… It was way out of your comfort zone, further even than we’ve gone together.”
Ianto nodded slightly, leaning into Jack’s hand before clasping it in his own and leading them through to their living room where they settled on the sofa, the TV still playing silently where Jack had muted it on Ianto’s arrival.
“So, what do we do now, then?” Ianto hit the remote to kill the TV as he spoke.
Jack jumped up and rounded the sofa, grabbing a few papers from a table against the wall. He handed them to Ianto over the back of the sofa before making his way back to retake his seat against Ianto’s side. “I actually did a bit of research while you were gone.”
Ianto glanced down at the computer printouts and then at Jack. It appeared that Jack had known him, and his reactions, better than he did himself.
“Home test kits?”
“Yeah, I found a few places selling them while I was looking for alternatives to the normal testing at a clinic. None of them say exactly how they work, but they all claim to be pretty accurate.”
Ianto read a little further down the top page. “They still recommend going to a clinic for further testing if the home test indicates there’s something wrong,” he intoned gloomily.
“Hey,” Jack admonished, tugging Ianto into a cuddle, “don’t go thinking like that. We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it, okay?”
Ianto nodded, but it was obvious that he was still expecting the worst.
* * *
It was another week and a half before the testing kit they’d eventually ordered arrived. The parcel was waiting for them when they made it home after a long day at the Hub, and they both knew immediately what it contained.
It was twenty-four hours later before Ianto brought himself to actually open it.
He scoffed at himself when he’d removed all the packaging and had the box in his hands. He and Jack had read over all the material available on the test online, had compared the accuracy and testing methods of all the different tests available before making a decision - why had he been so scared to open it?
Opening the box, he spread the contents over the coffee table. Jack came to join him on the sofa as he picked each one up in turn, mentally marking them off against the ‘contents of this box’ list at the top of the instructions.
“You know,” he commented to Jack, picking up the collection cup and waving it, “I’m strangely relieved that this isn’t made of clear plastic.”
Jack just smiled reassuringly and tightened his arm around Ianto’s waist.
Together, even though they’d read the basic instructions on the manufacturer’s website, they pored over the instruction leaflet.
“So, as far as I can tell, tomorrow night, I just need to ‘deposit a sample’ in the cup, wait half an hour, press that button, and then wait for the results,” Ianto stated a while later, looking up from the leaflet. “I think I can do that.”
“Why tomorrow night?”
Ianto pointed to one of the paragraphs near the bottom of the page. “It says I have to wait 48 hours since my ‘last ejaculation’. So that means tomorrow night. Or the next night, I suppose, but now that we’re down to it, I want to know.”
He pointed out the end of the paragraph. “And I can’t wait too long anyway, as apparently if I haven’t come in over a week that’s bad too.”
He shrugged. “I’m not quite sure why, but I’m assuming these people are the experts, so who am I to argue?”
Jack grinned and tucked Ianto’s head under his chin. “Tomorrow it is.”
* * *
Jack and Ianto perched nervously on the edge of the sofa, staring at the test, which was once again on the coffee table; watching the little window, waiting for the results to appear.
It had been just over an hour since Ianto had - with a little helping hand from Jack - produced the required sample, and he was getting a little antsy as the time passed. Even though they knew it could easily be another fifteen to twenty minutes before the indicative red lines appeared, they couldn’t make themselves go and do anything else while they waited.
So they watched. And waited. And watched.
Ten minutes later, a hint of red started to appear, and Ianto gripped Jack’s hand tight as it became clearer.
Within a minute, the result was clear. Two red lines were plainly visible in the window. A positive result.
Ianto blew out a breath. “I was so sure it was me…”
Jack’s fingers were still gripped tight around Ianto’s. “Guess not, huh?” His eyes were downcast. “Must be me.”
Ianto twisted around and used his other hand to tilt Jack’s head so he met his eyes. “You don’t know that. We don’t know that. Just because my sperm motility is apparently at acceptable levels doesn’t mean it couldn’t still be my problem. And you know what we’ve read. It might not be either of us. We could just be one of those couples that are unlucky.”
Jack’s frustration was evident on his face. “Ianto, be realistic here. You’re almost certainly fine, so there’s a pretty high chance the problem is with me. Hell, we shouldn’t be surprised. Look at what I’ve put my body through since the last time. If that isn’t enough to cause fertility problems then…”
Ianto cupped Jack’s face and cut off his self-depreciating rant with a soft kiss. “Just stop. Even if you do have a problem, it’s not your fault.”
Jack sagged. “I’m sorry, it’s just…”
Ianto nodded. “I know, cariad, I know.”
“We don’t even have any way of finding out if it is me. We can’t very well walk into a gynaecologist’s office and ask to have me tested. We’d be laughed out of the place before you could say ‘retcon’.”
Ianto sat back as an idea struck him. “What if there was a way we could get you tested?”
“Ianto, what are you talking about? I just said…”
“But what if we could?” Ianto insisted.
Jack was confused. “Well, yes, of course, but… we can’t.”
“But that’s the thing,” Ianto said. “We could. If we took a trip to the future, we could.”
Jack just looked at him, wondering why that had never occurred to them before.
* * *
Jack’s finger hovered over the ‘call’ button on his phone. The single word ‘Doctor’ appeared on the screen.
He looked over at Ianto, sitting next to him on the sofa in their living room, and looking just as nervous as he felt.
They had discussion this option at length; had decided that it was a good idea to at least try, but still, now that the moment for action was upon them, both were being assailed by more doubts.
It wasn’t a sensation Jack was particularly used to. Once he’d decided upon a plan of action, it was very rare that he had any compunction in carrying it out.
The difference was that this time, it was personal. Very personal. And there was a more than fair chance that the Doctor would take issue with some part of their request.
Despite seeing him several times over the past two years, Jack and Ianto hadn’t broken the news to the Doctor that they were trying to get pregnant. It had taken them nearly a year even to tell the rest of their team.
Once the team had gotten over the revelation that Jack could, theoretically, get pregnant, they had been utterly supportive. They rarely brought it up, at the couple’s request, but whenever the topic did arise they were encouraging.
The Doctor, they worried, might not be quite so behind the idea.
“I know mobile technology has advanced a lot in the last few years, but I don’t think staring at it is actually going to work.”
Jack smiled thinly at Ianto’s attempt to lighten the tension. Ianto’s hand slid over to rest on Jack’s thigh. “We can do this Jack, we can. Remember, the worst he can really say is no, right?”
Jack nodded resolutely. “Right.”
He took a deep breath and, placing a hand over Ianto’s on his thigh, pressed the call button.
For a long minute, it simply rang out.
Brrr…brrr……brrr…brrr…
“Come on, Doctor, pick up,” Jack murmured, his fingers tightening around Ianto’s.
Jack was almost ready to give up, try again a little later, when there was a click and the Doctor’s voice came over the line.
“Jack! Brilliant to hear from you! What’s up?”
“Hey!” Jack said, trying his best to sound like his normal self.
The Doctor wasn’t fooled for a second. “What’s wrong, Jack? Is there something you need help with, should I…?”
“Nothing!” Jack interrupted. “There’s nothing wrong… well, not really wrong, anyway. There is something I, well, we, need help with, but it’s not an invasion or anything, so don’t worry, it’s more…”
The Doctor cut him off. “Jack. What is it?”
Ianto’s fingers flexed under his own, and Jack looked over at his partner to see him gesturing at the phone. Getting the hint, Jack put the phone down on their coffee table and hit the button to put it onto speakerphone
“Doctor,” Ianto began, managing to sound much more calm and collected than Jack had, “what Jack is trying to say is that we, Jack and I, that is, have a personal favour to ask from you.”
“Oh yes?” The Doctor sounded intrigued.
Jack and Ianto entwined their fingers tightly, curling against each other for protection and support from the backlash they half-expected from the Doctor when they explained themselves.
“We need to go somewhere,” Jack started, “or more accurately, some when.”
The Doctor, for once, was silent, waiting for them to continue the story.
Ianto picked it up. “The thing is, for just over two years now, we - well, mostly Jack - have been trying to get pregnant, and…”
“WHAT?” Jack and Ianto suspected they might have been able to hear the Doctor’s reaction even without the phone connection. “What do you think you’re doing? You’re in the 21st century! You can’t just go around getting pregnant, Jack. Think of the timelines! People in the 21st century just aren’t ready for…”
“Doctor!” Ianto’s voice cut through the Doctor’s outraged ramble before he could really get going. “Just stop, and listen, please.”
They could hear the Doctor audibly gulping back his words. “Okay, I’m listening, but this had better be good.”
“Okay, firstly, we’re not complete idiots - we did actually realise that we can’t let anyone outside of Torchwood find out about this. Do you think I want Jack to become a laboratory experiment? We did actually think about this before we decided to try.”
“And?”
“Once Jack starts showing,” Ianto paused for a second, mentally sending out a plea that one day Jack would be pregnant and showing, “and it becomes necessary, he would stay either at home or in the Hub during daylight, moving between the two under cover of darkness. And we still have his perception filter too, in case of emergency.”
“What about…”
“The birth itself would happen at Torchwood, performed by our own medic, and we could manipulate the records to show either a surrogacy arrangement or adoption, so no questions would be asked about how the child came to be ours.”
There was a long pause, and Jack and Ianto braced themselves for whatever was to come next. “And Jack’s… unique talent? What about that?”
“You’d know better than us if there was any chance of that being passed on, Doctor,” Jack said, a little reproachfully. They knew that the Doctor wasn’t quite as okay with Jack’s immortality as he pretended to be whenever they were around.
“There’s really no way for me to say for sure,” the Doctor said tentatively. “After the birth, now that’s a different matter, but…”
“To be brutally honest, Doctor, it really isn’t a factor in this for us. We would love him or her just the same, whether they inherit Jack’s immortality or not.” Ianto’s voice was firm, allowing for no more quibbling on the matter from the Doctor.
“You’re missing the point in all this,” Jack interjected. “We’ve been trying for two years, Doctor.” His voice cracked a little at the end.
The Doctor didn’t need any more words to understand what it was they were asking of him. “You want me to take you somewhere far enough into the future that they can help?”
“We just want to go far enough that we can get him checked out, see if there’s anything really wrong.” There was more than a hint of entreaty in Ianto’s voice. “I got myself tested here, now, but for obvious reasons Jack can’t do the same.”
“I see, of course.”
“So, can you do it? Will you do it? As a favour to us?” Jack’s tone skipped right past asking and went straight to begging.
“Well, there are some human male pregnancies beginning to occur naturally as early as the 34th century. They’re still pretty rare though… now if we went to the mid-41st century, they’re as common as dirt, what with the population boom and all. Well, I say as common as dirt, but dirt isn’t really so common at that point, they were all very obsessed with being clean, and…”
“Doctor!” Jack and Ianto’s voices sounded in unison.
“So you’ll do it then?” Jack asked.
“Didn’t I just say I would?”
Ianto rolled his eyes. “Not in so many words, no.”
“Oh. Well then, this is me, agreeing to it.”
Jack and Ianto couldn’t hold back the relieved smiles that blossomed over their faces as they wrapped their arms around each other.
“Thank you, Doctor, I mean it,” Jack breathed out. “This means so much to us.”
“Yes, well… when do you want to leave, anyway?” The Doctor brushed off their emotional gratitude.
Jack and Ianto shared a look, nodding at the unspoken words in each other’s eyes. “We’d have to let the team know, which we can do tomorrow morning, but other than that, as soon as possible really.”
“We’ve waited long enough, Doctor. We don’t want to waste any more time than we have to.”
“Got it. I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon then.”
Jack looked over at Ianto, noting he shared his incredulity at the Doctor’s apparent confidence that he would land when planned.
“Sure…” they said together. “We’ll see you then.”
* * *
As they had rather expected, the Doctor missed the following afternoon, but only by a day and a half, landing very late in the evening the day after that.
It had been a long day in the Hub, the Rift alarm sounding unexpectedly just as the team had been packing up in the hopes of leaving for the day.
A few hours later, tired, dirty and sore, and with a new resident in the vaults, Jack and Ianto were just setting the last few alarms to remote when there was a familiar groaning and the TARDIS appeared on the CCTV image of the Plass, right on top of the invisible lift.
Quickly finishing the alarm setting, they took the tourist office exit, and walked round to the Plass hand in hand.
When they got there, the Doctor was leaning against the side of the TARDIS, scratching his head. “I never seem to be able to land here quite when I want to,” he grumbled as Jack and Ianto approached him. “I’d swear I told her yesterday afternoon, but, enough about that, I’m here now.” He grinned at them widely.
Jack smiled slightly. “To be honest, Doctor, we weren’t really expecting you to make it here yesterday afternoon. You don’t have the best record of getting places exactly when you intend. We sorted everything out with the team just in case, but this is actually a lot closer than we expected.”
“Oi!” the Doctor protested. “I’m not that bad!”
Jack and Ianto just glanced at each other and back to the Doctor.
“Okay, so I’m not perfect, but it’s not entirely my fault. The Rift throws everything off around here.” The Doctor was getting dangerously close to pouting.
“Yeah, yeah, we know,” Jack placated. “And as you said, you’re here now.”
The Doctor perked up. “So, are you ready to go, then?”
Jack looked over at Ianto, who had been yawning discretely for the last half hour, and was clearly dead on his feet. He wouldn’t mind a chance to clean up and a few hours of rest himself.
“Actually,” he began, “it’s been an incredibly long day, and as much as I want to do this as soon as possible, I’d prefer it if we were both properly awake for it.” He squeezed Ianto’s hand, and received a grateful look in return. “So, could you maybe wait until morning? You can stay here if you want, or you could come back with us to the house…”
The Doctor was nodding. “Oh no, no, that’s fine. I can stay here. I’m sure the old girl will be glad of the chance to fuel up too.” He patted the side of the TARDIS.
“Right then,” Ianto said through a yawn. “We’ll be back here, ready to go, bright and early in the morning, but right now…” He yawned again.
Jack nodded at the Doctor, who pushed open the TARDIS door and returned the nod. “Until morning, Captain.”
Part Two
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG-13
Length: 11,000 words - eek - in two parts to appease LJ.
Disclaimer: I don't own Jack, I don't own Ianto, I don't own the Doctor either.
Spoilers: None, really.
Summary: Jack and Ianto want to have a baby, but that might be tougher than it appears.
Author's Notes: This is for morbid_sparks, without whom the plot bunny that led to this fic would have been ignored until it went away.
Thanks to: morbid_sparks for the beta, and also for encouraging me while writing it. Thanks to angelzbabe1989 for her encouragement too.
You Want To Make A Memory
Part One
It was negative. Again.
Jack blew out a disappointed breath and threw the test into the bin. Twenty-one months of trying - and how they were trying - and still nothing.
Ianto’s hands dropped onto his shoulders and turned him around, pulling him into the younger man’s embrace.
“It’s okay,” Ianto murmured in his ear. “So we keep trying. Maybe next time we’ll have better luck.” The words should be comforting, but Jack had heard them before, and the strain was starting to tell in Ianto’s voice whenever he had to say them.
“Yeah…” Jack was beginning to sound defeated. “Maybe.”
* * *
Ianto rolled onto his back, mechanically handing Jack a tissue to clean up. Taking another for himself, he sighed. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take.
On the face of it, sex multiple times daily sounded like a fantastic idea, but that was the problem really. The more time that went on without Jack getting pregnant, the more desperate they got, and the more it started to feel like just that - sex.
Even right back at the beginning, when Ianto would have sworn that what they shared was purely sexual, it had been more than this. This had turned something they both took great pleasure in into a chore, almost something to be endured rather than enjoyed.
But he didn’t say anything - wouldn’t, couldn’t - to Jack. Not when he wanted this so badly.
Jack cleaned up methodically, staring at the ceiling. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take.
He wanted to be pregnant, more than anything - a fact that he would have shocked himself with just a few short years ago - but they couldn’t go on like this.
He was tired of them forcing themselves into sex even when they weren’t in the mood. He was tired of the schedule. Hell, he was tired of always bottoming.
They used to have a wonderful, imaginative, adventurous sex life, but in the last months it had dissipated, leaving behind only, well, sex.
And not even good sex.
But he didn’t say anything - wouldn’t, couldn’t - to Ianto. Not when he wanted this so badly.
* * *
Jack stared at the test in his hand, willing it to show a different result than every other test he’d taken in the last two years had.
He risked a glance at Ianto, who was staring tensely at the floor, one fist clenched in his lap, the other hand holding the stopwatch loosely.
“How long?” he asked huskily, just for something to say.
Ianto’s eyes flicked over to the stopwatch face. “Thirty seconds.”
Jack nodded, although it hadn’t really been information. They had done this so many times now that he could time three minutes in his head, accurate to the second.
Exactly thirty seconds later, he looked again at the window.
Damn.
Ianto didn’t even need to ask, the look on Jack’s face enough to tell him that, once again, they’d been unsuccessful.
Both had been hoping that maybe, just maybe, this time would be different. It was a special date after all. Two years to the day since they had that fateful discussion and had decided to try and get pregnant.
They’d been so giddy that night, so deliriously happy in each other and the possibility of their future child.
But two years later, both were beginning to wonder if all of their plans had simply been pipe dreams.
Discarding the test, Jack pulled Ianto to his feet, and they walked silently back into their bedroom. The air was thick with unspoken words as they sat on the end of the bed, neither one looking at the other.
“I’ve been thinking,” Ianto finally said, still not looking up. “Maybe I should, I don’t know, get tested or something.”
“What?” Jack’s head snapped up, twisting to look at Ianto.
Ianto didn’t meet his gaze immediately, studying the carpet beneath his toes as he started to speak again. “I mean, I should get fertility tested. Because we clearly have a problem here, and it has to be me.”
His head finally rose to let him look at Jack. “You’ve been pregnant before, so it can’t be you.” Jack had told him the story several years previously, shortly after they first became serious, when Ianto had suggested for the first time that they stopped using condoms.
Ianto still felt vaguely proud of himself that he had retained consciousness and avoided a panic attack at the sudden discovery that his very male lover could, in theory, carry their child. At the time it had been just that - theoretical.
After that discussion, and the easy decision that they would continue with the condoms where they were required as birth control, the subject had been put to bed. Neither of them had brought it up again until that night two years ago, when, things having finally settled down after the formalisation of their relationship, they began to wonder about expanding their newly formed family of two.
Truthfully, as Ianto had admitted that night, the issue had never completely left his mind. The idea of children, one day, had been something he’d thought about with Lisa; something he’d initially thought he would be giving up when he made the decision to really be with Jack. Knowing that the option was still there, it was always a vague notion in the back of his mind.
Jack felt a very vague twinge at the talk of his previous pregnancy, but he was long past the point where he couldn’t talk about it. “You know that I never carried to term though, it really could be…”
Ianto silenced him with a finger over his lips. “That wasn’t your fault, and it really doesn’t have any bearing here. I looked it up, and at least in 21st century women, there’s no link at all between a past termination and problems conceiving.”
Ianto knew there was a part of Jack that still blamed himself for the loss of his unborn child, even though he’d been given no choice in the matter. When he’d found himself pregnant as a nineteen year old junior agent, the Time Agency had been unbending in their orders. Get rid of it.
While Jack had been terrified of continuing the pregnancy without a partner to help, he’d never considered ending it. But he hadn’t been given the choice, and within a month, he’d been forced back to work.
Jack wrapped his fingers around Ianto’s wrist, pulling his hand away. “Even so, we don’t know for sure if that’s the same for me. And that was a long, long time ago. A lot has happened to me since I was last pregnant… who knows what that could have done to me.”
“There’s one big difference though,” Ianto interrupted. “I can actually get tested, here and now. And if something’s wrong…”
His tone was that of a man who had already convinced himself that there was a problem. “If something’s wrong, then at least we know about it, and we can… well, I don’t know really. We can discuss all of our other options again, see if any of them appeal more when we know this option is a no-go.”
Jack sighed. He didn’t like it, but Ianto had a point. They’d been trying for what was considered rather a long time, and it would perhaps be best to know now if there was a reason they hadn’t had any success, before they spent any longer getting nowhere.
He nodded.
* * *
Ianto bit his lip nervously as he walked into the bright, cheerful foyer of the fertility clinic. Jack had wanted to accompany him, but Ianto had pointed out the impossibility of that, considering what he was there to be tested for. They couldn’t exactly explain the situation to a doctor here.
Now that he was actually here, though, he rather wished he’d let Jack come with him anyway.
Blowing out a determined breath, he strode over to the reception desk, giving the young girl who sat behind it his name.
“Doctor Evans will be with you in just a minute, Mr Jones, if you’d like to just take a seat.” She waved in the direction of a small waiting area to one side of the foyer.
Ianto sat down, clasping his hands together and staring at the floor to avoid meeting the gaze of any of the area’s other occupants. They were mostly in couples, he noted absently, wishing again that he wasn’t there alone.
A few minutes later, a nurse appeared from a hallway and called his name, leading him to a large office with the name ‘Dr Evans’ emblazoned on the door.
It was painted in warm, friendly colours, the doctor didn’t sit behind a huge imposing desk, and the seats were soft and comfortable, but Ianto felt anything but comfortable being there.
He knew he couldn’t be entirely honest with Dr Evans, and although he had plenty of practice skirting around the truth in his professional life at Torchwood, he hated having to do the same with something so intensely personal.
He answered the doctor’s questions as truthfully as it was safe to do, making careful use of the phrase ‘my partner’ whenever a question about his ‘wife’ was posed. After fifteen minutes of questions that were, frankly, becoming rather more invasive than he was prepared for, he was almost ready to give up. Almost ready to stand and walk out, or scream for the questions to just, please, stop.
Thinking of the heartache they’d had over the last two years, and remembering that he was the one who had suggested this, he forced himself through it.
While it was nice to know that, at least based on his answers to the questions, they hadn’t been doing anything that would unnecessarily impede their chances of conception, Ianto was relieved when Dr Evans closed his folder and pressed a button on his desk to call the nurse.
He just wanted to get this over and done with, so they had their answers and could start dealing with whatever they said. The same nurse from before reappeared at the door.
Ianto shook the doctor’s hand and followed the nurse out, letting her lead him down a long corridor lined with numbered rooms.
She came to a stop outside number 11.
“You should find everything you need inside. Just press the buzzer next to the hatch when you’re ready.” She opened the door to reveal a small brightly lit room, furnished with a crisp-sheeted bed, a small table, a television, and a rack of magazines. A small hand-basin took up one corner.
The door closed discretely behind him as he walked over to inspect the small pile on the table-top. There were copies of all the informational leaflets he’d already read, a ‘menu’ of what was available on the TV, a large box of tissues, and the expected plastic specimen cup, hermetically sealed in a sterile package.
He picked up the last of these, perching on the side of the bed as he examined the small receptacle through the clear plastic packaging.
He wiped a sweaty palm on the leg of his jeans, placing the cup back on the table and closing his eyes.
‘You can do this’ he told himself. ‘You’re going to do this.’
He picked up the cup again and tore it out of its plastic wrapping before setting it back down on the table.
Settling back onto the bed, he closed his eyes again, letting his hand drift down to his denim-covered crotch. Consciously slowing his breathing, and trying to relax, he brought up several images from his store of cherished memories.
Jack, spread out under him, head thrown back in pleasure…
Jack’s weight pressing him into the mattress…
Jack inside him…
The sounds Jack made in the throes of passion…
The look on Jack’s face when he went over the edge…
Several minutes later, allowing his hand to slide off onto the mattress beside him, he sighed in frustration. No matter what fantasy he thought up, what memory he brought out, it just wasn’t working. Images that would normally have him hard in seconds were doing nothing, having no effect. His body just wasn’t interested, and if he was honest, he couldn’t even get his brain into it.
He knew it wasn’t the act itself that was the problem - he’d been taking care of himself with plenty success since he was twelve, and wasn’t a stranger to it even now, either alone or giving Jack a show.
But being here, in this clinical setting, and having it expected of him, was just too much. There were people waiting behind the hatch for him to press a buzzer and announce that he was done; a group of complete strangers who knew exactly what he was doing - or rather, what he was supposed to be doing.
No matter how much he tried to block it out, draw himself into a fantasy world, he couldn’t.
He glared at the empty plastic cup sitting on the table. Its very existence was like a talisman of his failure to do this, his inability to do the one thing they had at their disposal to possibly explain the problems they’d been having.
Swinging his legs around to the side of the bed, he sat up.
This wasn’t going to happen, and there was no point hanging around. Taking one last look around, he went over to the wall hatch and pressed the buzzer.
A minute later, the hatch slid open and a young laboratory technician appeared.
“Ready?”
“I’m sorry.” Ianto shook his head. “I just can’t do this. It doesn’t feel right.”
The technician nodded sympathetically. “It actually happens more than you might think, so don’t feel bad. Some people just can’t get fully comfortable with the situation.”
If it was possible, the technician’s understanding words made Ianto feel even more awkward.
Pasting a fake smile on his face - and noting absently that it was the same one he used when trying to appear unassuming when undercover - he nodded at the man and turned for the door.
As he made his way back along the corridors and out of the clinic, there was only one thought going through his mind.
‘How am I going to tell Jack?’
* * *
He was still worrying about the question as he left himself into the small house, ten minutes from the Hub, that he had shared with Jack for the last three years.
As soon as the door closed behind him, Jack’s head popped out of the living room door.
Something must have shown on his face, because barely a moment later, Jack was gathering him into his arms.
“Didn’t go well?” he murmured softly in Ianto’s ear.
Ianto sighed, savouring Jack’s embrace for a few seconds longer before pulling back a little so he could look him in the eye.
“I couldn’t go through with it,” he admitted, watching Jack’s reaction carefully.
To his surprise, Jack didn’t seem all that shocked, or even upset. His gaze remained steady and loving, inviting Ianto to air his issues.
“It was just too awkward. Even the discussion with the doctor was uncomfortable, and the actual… sample giving? It felt… wrong, somehow. I know it’s for a good cause, but I just… couldn’t. And… aren’t you upset?”
Jack shook his head gently, bringing a hand up to cup Ianto’s face. “A tiny bit maybe, but not really. I was actually rather expecting it. I know you, Ianto, and putting yourself in that situation… It was way out of your comfort zone, further even than we’ve gone together.”
Ianto nodded slightly, leaning into Jack’s hand before clasping it in his own and leading them through to their living room where they settled on the sofa, the TV still playing silently where Jack had muted it on Ianto’s arrival.
“So, what do we do now, then?” Ianto hit the remote to kill the TV as he spoke.
Jack jumped up and rounded the sofa, grabbing a few papers from a table against the wall. He handed them to Ianto over the back of the sofa before making his way back to retake his seat against Ianto’s side. “I actually did a bit of research while you were gone.”
Ianto glanced down at the computer printouts and then at Jack. It appeared that Jack had known him, and his reactions, better than he did himself.
“Home test kits?”
“Yeah, I found a few places selling them while I was looking for alternatives to the normal testing at a clinic. None of them say exactly how they work, but they all claim to be pretty accurate.”
Ianto read a little further down the top page. “They still recommend going to a clinic for further testing if the home test indicates there’s something wrong,” he intoned gloomily.
“Hey,” Jack admonished, tugging Ianto into a cuddle, “don’t go thinking like that. We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it, okay?”
Ianto nodded, but it was obvious that he was still expecting the worst.
* * *
It was another week and a half before the testing kit they’d eventually ordered arrived. The parcel was waiting for them when they made it home after a long day at the Hub, and they both knew immediately what it contained.
It was twenty-four hours later before Ianto brought himself to actually open it.
He scoffed at himself when he’d removed all the packaging and had the box in his hands. He and Jack had read over all the material available on the test online, had compared the accuracy and testing methods of all the different tests available before making a decision - why had he been so scared to open it?
Opening the box, he spread the contents over the coffee table. Jack came to join him on the sofa as he picked each one up in turn, mentally marking them off against the ‘contents of this box’ list at the top of the instructions.
“You know,” he commented to Jack, picking up the collection cup and waving it, “I’m strangely relieved that this isn’t made of clear plastic.”
Jack just smiled reassuringly and tightened his arm around Ianto’s waist.
Together, even though they’d read the basic instructions on the manufacturer’s website, they pored over the instruction leaflet.
“So, as far as I can tell, tomorrow night, I just need to ‘deposit a sample’ in the cup, wait half an hour, press that button, and then wait for the results,” Ianto stated a while later, looking up from the leaflet. “I think I can do that.”
“Why tomorrow night?”
Ianto pointed to one of the paragraphs near the bottom of the page. “It says I have to wait 48 hours since my ‘last ejaculation’. So that means tomorrow night. Or the next night, I suppose, but now that we’re down to it, I want to know.”
He pointed out the end of the paragraph. “And I can’t wait too long anyway, as apparently if I haven’t come in over a week that’s bad too.”
He shrugged. “I’m not quite sure why, but I’m assuming these people are the experts, so who am I to argue?”
Jack grinned and tucked Ianto’s head under his chin. “Tomorrow it is.”
* * *
Jack and Ianto perched nervously on the edge of the sofa, staring at the test, which was once again on the coffee table; watching the little window, waiting for the results to appear.
It had been just over an hour since Ianto had - with a little helping hand from Jack - produced the required sample, and he was getting a little antsy as the time passed. Even though they knew it could easily be another fifteen to twenty minutes before the indicative red lines appeared, they couldn’t make themselves go and do anything else while they waited.
So they watched. And waited. And watched.
Ten minutes later, a hint of red started to appear, and Ianto gripped Jack’s hand tight as it became clearer.
Within a minute, the result was clear. Two red lines were plainly visible in the window. A positive result.
Ianto blew out a breath. “I was so sure it was me…”
Jack’s fingers were still gripped tight around Ianto’s. “Guess not, huh?” His eyes were downcast. “Must be me.”
Ianto twisted around and used his other hand to tilt Jack’s head so he met his eyes. “You don’t know that. We don’t know that. Just because my sperm motility is apparently at acceptable levels doesn’t mean it couldn’t still be my problem. And you know what we’ve read. It might not be either of us. We could just be one of those couples that are unlucky.”
Jack’s frustration was evident on his face. “Ianto, be realistic here. You’re almost certainly fine, so there’s a pretty high chance the problem is with me. Hell, we shouldn’t be surprised. Look at what I’ve put my body through since the last time. If that isn’t enough to cause fertility problems then…”
Ianto cupped Jack’s face and cut off his self-depreciating rant with a soft kiss. “Just stop. Even if you do have a problem, it’s not your fault.”
Jack sagged. “I’m sorry, it’s just…”
Ianto nodded. “I know, cariad, I know.”
“We don’t even have any way of finding out if it is me. We can’t very well walk into a gynaecologist’s office and ask to have me tested. We’d be laughed out of the place before you could say ‘retcon’.”
Ianto sat back as an idea struck him. “What if there was a way we could get you tested?”
“Ianto, what are you talking about? I just said…”
“But what if we could?” Ianto insisted.
Jack was confused. “Well, yes, of course, but… we can’t.”
“But that’s the thing,” Ianto said. “We could. If we took a trip to the future, we could.”
Jack just looked at him, wondering why that had never occurred to them before.
* * *
Jack’s finger hovered over the ‘call’ button on his phone. The single word ‘Doctor’ appeared on the screen.
He looked over at Ianto, sitting next to him on the sofa in their living room, and looking just as nervous as he felt.
They had discussion this option at length; had decided that it was a good idea to at least try, but still, now that the moment for action was upon them, both were being assailed by more doubts.
It wasn’t a sensation Jack was particularly used to. Once he’d decided upon a plan of action, it was very rare that he had any compunction in carrying it out.
The difference was that this time, it was personal. Very personal. And there was a more than fair chance that the Doctor would take issue with some part of their request.
Despite seeing him several times over the past two years, Jack and Ianto hadn’t broken the news to the Doctor that they were trying to get pregnant. It had taken them nearly a year even to tell the rest of their team.
Once the team had gotten over the revelation that Jack could, theoretically, get pregnant, they had been utterly supportive. They rarely brought it up, at the couple’s request, but whenever the topic did arise they were encouraging.
The Doctor, they worried, might not be quite so behind the idea.
“I know mobile technology has advanced a lot in the last few years, but I don’t think staring at it is actually going to work.”
Jack smiled thinly at Ianto’s attempt to lighten the tension. Ianto’s hand slid over to rest on Jack’s thigh. “We can do this Jack, we can. Remember, the worst he can really say is no, right?”
Jack nodded resolutely. “Right.”
He took a deep breath and, placing a hand over Ianto’s on his thigh, pressed the call button.
For a long minute, it simply rang out.
Brrr…brrr……brrr…brrr…
“Come on, Doctor, pick up,” Jack murmured, his fingers tightening around Ianto’s.
Jack was almost ready to give up, try again a little later, when there was a click and the Doctor’s voice came over the line.
“Jack! Brilliant to hear from you! What’s up?”
“Hey!” Jack said, trying his best to sound like his normal self.
The Doctor wasn’t fooled for a second. “What’s wrong, Jack? Is there something you need help with, should I…?”
“Nothing!” Jack interrupted. “There’s nothing wrong… well, not really wrong, anyway. There is something I, well, we, need help with, but it’s not an invasion or anything, so don’t worry, it’s more…”
The Doctor cut him off. “Jack. What is it?”
Ianto’s fingers flexed under his own, and Jack looked over at his partner to see him gesturing at the phone. Getting the hint, Jack put the phone down on their coffee table and hit the button to put it onto speakerphone
“Doctor,” Ianto began, managing to sound much more calm and collected than Jack had, “what Jack is trying to say is that we, Jack and I, that is, have a personal favour to ask from you.”
“Oh yes?” The Doctor sounded intrigued.
Jack and Ianto entwined their fingers tightly, curling against each other for protection and support from the backlash they half-expected from the Doctor when they explained themselves.
“We need to go somewhere,” Jack started, “or more accurately, some when.”
The Doctor, for once, was silent, waiting for them to continue the story.
Ianto picked it up. “The thing is, for just over two years now, we - well, mostly Jack - have been trying to get pregnant, and…”
“WHAT?” Jack and Ianto suspected they might have been able to hear the Doctor’s reaction even without the phone connection. “What do you think you’re doing? You’re in the 21st century! You can’t just go around getting pregnant, Jack. Think of the timelines! People in the 21st century just aren’t ready for…”
“Doctor!” Ianto’s voice cut through the Doctor’s outraged ramble before he could really get going. “Just stop, and listen, please.”
They could hear the Doctor audibly gulping back his words. “Okay, I’m listening, but this had better be good.”
“Okay, firstly, we’re not complete idiots - we did actually realise that we can’t let anyone outside of Torchwood find out about this. Do you think I want Jack to become a laboratory experiment? We did actually think about this before we decided to try.”
“And?”
“Once Jack starts showing,” Ianto paused for a second, mentally sending out a plea that one day Jack would be pregnant and showing, “and it becomes necessary, he would stay either at home or in the Hub during daylight, moving between the two under cover of darkness. And we still have his perception filter too, in case of emergency.”
“What about…”
“The birth itself would happen at Torchwood, performed by our own medic, and we could manipulate the records to show either a surrogacy arrangement or adoption, so no questions would be asked about how the child came to be ours.”
There was a long pause, and Jack and Ianto braced themselves for whatever was to come next. “And Jack’s… unique talent? What about that?”
“You’d know better than us if there was any chance of that being passed on, Doctor,” Jack said, a little reproachfully. They knew that the Doctor wasn’t quite as okay with Jack’s immortality as he pretended to be whenever they were around.
“There’s really no way for me to say for sure,” the Doctor said tentatively. “After the birth, now that’s a different matter, but…”
“To be brutally honest, Doctor, it really isn’t a factor in this for us. We would love him or her just the same, whether they inherit Jack’s immortality or not.” Ianto’s voice was firm, allowing for no more quibbling on the matter from the Doctor.
“You’re missing the point in all this,” Jack interjected. “We’ve been trying for two years, Doctor.” His voice cracked a little at the end.
The Doctor didn’t need any more words to understand what it was they were asking of him. “You want me to take you somewhere far enough into the future that they can help?”
“We just want to go far enough that we can get him checked out, see if there’s anything really wrong.” There was more than a hint of entreaty in Ianto’s voice. “I got myself tested here, now, but for obvious reasons Jack can’t do the same.”
“I see, of course.”
“So, can you do it? Will you do it? As a favour to us?” Jack’s tone skipped right past asking and went straight to begging.
“Well, there are some human male pregnancies beginning to occur naturally as early as the 34th century. They’re still pretty rare though… now if we went to the mid-41st century, they’re as common as dirt, what with the population boom and all. Well, I say as common as dirt, but dirt isn’t really so common at that point, they were all very obsessed with being clean, and…”
“Doctor!” Jack and Ianto’s voices sounded in unison.
“So you’ll do it then?” Jack asked.
“Didn’t I just say I would?”
Ianto rolled his eyes. “Not in so many words, no.”
“Oh. Well then, this is me, agreeing to it.”
Jack and Ianto couldn’t hold back the relieved smiles that blossomed over their faces as they wrapped their arms around each other.
“Thank you, Doctor, I mean it,” Jack breathed out. “This means so much to us.”
“Yes, well… when do you want to leave, anyway?” The Doctor brushed off their emotional gratitude.
Jack and Ianto shared a look, nodding at the unspoken words in each other’s eyes. “We’d have to let the team know, which we can do tomorrow morning, but other than that, as soon as possible really.”
“We’ve waited long enough, Doctor. We don’t want to waste any more time than we have to.”
“Got it. I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon then.”
Jack looked over at Ianto, noting he shared his incredulity at the Doctor’s apparent confidence that he would land when planned.
“Sure…” they said together. “We’ll see you then.”
* * *
As they had rather expected, the Doctor missed the following afternoon, but only by a day and a half, landing very late in the evening the day after that.
It had been a long day in the Hub, the Rift alarm sounding unexpectedly just as the team had been packing up in the hopes of leaving for the day.
A few hours later, tired, dirty and sore, and with a new resident in the vaults, Jack and Ianto were just setting the last few alarms to remote when there was a familiar groaning and the TARDIS appeared on the CCTV image of the Plass, right on top of the invisible lift.
Quickly finishing the alarm setting, they took the tourist office exit, and walked round to the Plass hand in hand.
When they got there, the Doctor was leaning against the side of the TARDIS, scratching his head. “I never seem to be able to land here quite when I want to,” he grumbled as Jack and Ianto approached him. “I’d swear I told her yesterday afternoon, but, enough about that, I’m here now.” He grinned at them widely.
Jack smiled slightly. “To be honest, Doctor, we weren’t really expecting you to make it here yesterday afternoon. You don’t have the best record of getting places exactly when you intend. We sorted everything out with the team just in case, but this is actually a lot closer than we expected.”
“Oi!” the Doctor protested. “I’m not that bad!”
Jack and Ianto just glanced at each other and back to the Doctor.
“Okay, so I’m not perfect, but it’s not entirely my fault. The Rift throws everything off around here.” The Doctor was getting dangerously close to pouting.
“Yeah, yeah, we know,” Jack placated. “And as you said, you’re here now.”
The Doctor perked up. “So, are you ready to go, then?”
Jack looked over at Ianto, who had been yawning discretely for the last half hour, and was clearly dead on his feet. He wouldn’t mind a chance to clean up and a few hours of rest himself.
“Actually,” he began, “it’s been an incredibly long day, and as much as I want to do this as soon as possible, I’d prefer it if we were both properly awake for it.” He squeezed Ianto’s hand, and received a grateful look in return. “So, could you maybe wait until morning? You can stay here if you want, or you could come back with us to the house…”
The Doctor was nodding. “Oh no, no, that’s fine. I can stay here. I’m sure the old girl will be glad of the chance to fuel up too.” He patted the side of the TARDIS.
“Right then,” Ianto said through a yawn. “We’ll be back here, ready to go, bright and early in the morning, but right now…” He yawned again.
Jack nodded at the Doctor, who pushed open the TARDIS door and returned the nod. “Until morning, Captain.”
Part Two