Torchwood -- Wishes Redesigned
Title: Wishes Redesigned
horizonssing Challenge: Day Six
Date Written: 7/11/08
Rating: PG-13/T to be on the safe side
Word Count: 600
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Ianto/Lisa, Team Torchwood (mentioned)
Spoilers: For Doctor Who up through Season 02, and for Torchwood up through Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, to be safe
Warnings: Angst, battle mentions and het and gay. Or, all the good things.
Author Notes: Inspired predominantly by torchwoodlove and their pictoral Day Six challenge entry. It's also a bribe for teachwriteslash, for another part of her ongoing fic. This one's for you two!
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.
- Alexander Pope
There was a time, a lifetime ago, before Canary Wharf, when Ianto Jones had known exactly what was going to happen for the rest of his life.
Lisa, of course, figured into it predominantly -- as his world, his soul, his very being, she would hold the coveted position of wife, partner, queen. He'd live for her, die for her, give anything and everything for her happiness.
Of course, children would follow. Probably quite a few, because she was amazing in bed -- and even if she wasn't Ianto loved her and that meant that he couldn't keep his hands off of her. He could even see them, children with their mother's devastatingly beautiful looks, his eyes and laugh. Daughters to adore and dote upon and keep him tied tight to their little fingers. Sons to encourage and teach rugby to and be his pride and joy. They'd take over the world, those Jones-Hallet hybrids.
There was Torchwood too, of course. The job he just fit into, as if he'd been born to do it. Some of his coworkers had said Life was Torchwood and everything else was marking time -- Ianto knew that Lisa was Life and Torchwood was just a fantastic perk.
All those dreams, gone in a firestorm.
Even when Lisa had been alive -- as such it could be called -- he'd accepted that they'd probably never have children. The Cybernetics were in every inch of her, she'd never be able to conceive. The realization had devastated him, imaginary children winking out of potential existence. He'd told himself when she got better, after they were married and everything was perfect again, they could take in children as their own, ones that had other peoples' faces and expressions but just as beautiful and adored.
Then Torchwood became Life, because Life had been taken away.
Sometimes he would think on it, on all those shattered dreams, those hopes and wishes locked away. A part of him still wanted that, the partner, the kids, the house with a garden and maybe even a dog. He'd practically resigned himself to how his life had turned out.
"Ianto."
He looked up from where he'd been daydreaming in front of the filing cabinet -- again, he always got like this around Canary Wharf's anniversary -- and turned to see Jack in the doorway of the Archives. "Yes, Jack?"
"Dinner tonight, you and me," Jack said, making it both a request and an order at the same time. "Maybe even a film, but I get to pick this time! I love you, but I can only take so many chick flicks."
"I didn't know the last one was a chick flick," Ianto retorted, "the review said it was a comedy."
"Romantic comedy, thus chick flick." Jack grinned. "I'm thinking spy movie. One of the cinemas is showing an old Bond movie marathon."
"Sean Connery it is then."
Jack grinned and threw him a wink before disappearing.
Ianto turned back to his work, the dreams of the past mixing with the present situation. He had the partner in Jack, kids in Owen, Toshiko, and Gwen, the house in the Hub -- complete with greenhouse garden -- and the guard dog constantly flapping overhead and begging for take-away tidbits.
His dreams and wishes hadn't been resigned or thrown away, he suddenly realized. They'd just shifted outside traditional views. And here he'd been worried he'd never have what he wanted, when he really had it all long.
When he mentioned his revelation to Jack later, the Captain had just smiled and said, "Took you long enough."
horizonssing Challenge: Day Six
Date Written: 7/11/08
Rating: PG-13/T to be on the safe side
Word Count: 600
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Ianto/Lisa, Team Torchwood (mentioned)
Spoilers: For Doctor Who up through Season 02, and for Torchwood up through Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, to be safe
Warnings: Angst, battle mentions and het and gay. Or, all the good things.
Author Notes: Inspired predominantly by torchwoodlove and their pictoral Day Six challenge entry. It's also a bribe for teachwriteslash, for another part of her ongoing fic. This one's for you two!
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.
- Alexander Pope
There was a time, a lifetime ago, before Canary Wharf, when Ianto Jones had known exactly what was going to happen for the rest of his life.
Lisa, of course, figured into it predominantly -- as his world, his soul, his very being, she would hold the coveted position of wife, partner, queen. He'd live for her, die for her, give anything and everything for her happiness.
Of course, children would follow. Probably quite a few, because she was amazing in bed -- and even if she wasn't Ianto loved her and that meant that he couldn't keep his hands off of her. He could even see them, children with their mother's devastatingly beautiful looks, his eyes and laugh. Daughters to adore and dote upon and keep him tied tight to their little fingers. Sons to encourage and teach rugby to and be his pride and joy. They'd take over the world, those Jones-Hallet hybrids.
There was Torchwood too, of course. The job he just fit into, as if he'd been born to do it. Some of his coworkers had said Life was Torchwood and everything else was marking time -- Ianto knew that Lisa was Life and Torchwood was just a fantastic perk.
All those dreams, gone in a firestorm.
Even when Lisa had been alive -- as such it could be called -- he'd accepted that they'd probably never have children. The Cybernetics were in every inch of her, she'd never be able to conceive. The realization had devastated him, imaginary children winking out of potential existence. He'd told himself when she got better, after they were married and everything was perfect again, they could take in children as their own, ones that had other peoples' faces and expressions but just as beautiful and adored.
Then Torchwood became Life, because Life had been taken away.
Sometimes he would think on it, on all those shattered dreams, those hopes and wishes locked away. A part of him still wanted that, the partner, the kids, the house with a garden and maybe even a dog. He'd practically resigned himself to how his life had turned out.
"Ianto."
He looked up from where he'd been daydreaming in front of the filing cabinet -- again, he always got like this around Canary Wharf's anniversary -- and turned to see Jack in the doorway of the Archives. "Yes, Jack?"
"Dinner tonight, you and me," Jack said, making it both a request and an order at the same time. "Maybe even a film, but I get to pick this time! I love you, but I can only take so many chick flicks."
"I didn't know the last one was a chick flick," Ianto retorted, "the review said it was a comedy."
"Romantic comedy, thus chick flick." Jack grinned. "I'm thinking spy movie. One of the cinemas is showing an old Bond movie marathon."
"Sean Connery it is then."
Jack grinned and threw him a wink before disappearing.
Ianto turned back to his work, the dreams of the past mixing with the present situation. He had the partner in Jack, kids in Owen, Toshiko, and Gwen, the house in the Hub -- complete with greenhouse garden -- and the guard dog constantly flapping overhead and begging for take-away tidbits.
His dreams and wishes hadn't been resigned or thrown away, he suddenly realized. They'd just shifted outside traditional views. And here he'd been worried he'd never have what he wanted, when he really had it all long.
When he mentioned his revelation to Jack later, the Captain had just smiled and said, "Took you long enough."