Not Just A Key
Title: Not Just A Key
Author: JerBearThompson
Rating: PG - minimal swearing
Spoilers: None
Characters: Jack/Ianto, Owen, Tosh
Summary: ‘Oh, it’s… a key. It’s your key, to my house.’
Disclaimer: We all worship at the shrine or RTD and the BBC.
Notes: Dedicated to oncomingfangirl because I feel bad but I honestly have no idea how to continue that other story. And to amobian who requested a fluffy “moving in” fic, which I’m not quite sure I achieved. School starts again tomorrow and we got a letter today saying that Mr Smith - my favourite teacher - has officially resigned. Still…
‘I’m going to buy a new pair of roller skates.’
‘Okay, Jack.’
‘And a unicorn, that’s going to be called… Sparky, and shoot fire out of its mouth. We’re going to the moon. We’re going to live there, happily, and talk to all the stars and sing and dance and get drunk and have sex and poke each other's eyes out with forks. What are you doing?’
Ianto made a non-committal noise in the back of his throat as he attempted to wrestle the crooked doorknob from the door. Jack sighed from his perch on the couch’s back.
‘Ianto, Ianto, Yannerino, Yanneroolydoo. You’re not listening.’
‘I am,’ Ianto protested feebly, his mind still miles away. ‘You’re going to the moon.’
‘Oh, so you heard my initial statement of--’
‘Yes, you bought a house. That’s great Jack, really. Can you pass me that screwdriver?’
‘Well I was… you know, well… never mind. Yeah, here,’ Jack tossed the tool in the Welshman’s direction, picking up a hefty looking book of instructions and settling on the floor to flip through it. "Your Guide to General Household Renovations," he read from the title page. ‘Oh, so that’s what you’re doing. Need some help?’
‘No, I’m fine, I just…’ Ianto trailed off into a string of welsh swear words as the doorknob finally popped off, sending him sprawling backward. He lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. ‘This is hopeless.’
‘What’s the matter?’ Jack asked.
‘My house is falling apart. The doorknobs won’t even open the doors anymore, and do you know how many times I’ve hit my head on the damn kitchen entrance?’
‘Well, you know--’
Ianto cut him off with a sigh. ‘No more talking about houses, I need a break.’ He missed the disappointed frown that momentarily took hold of Jack’s facial features before the captain smiled weakly.
‘Alright,’ Jack clapped his hands together. ‘Tea, then?’
‘I’ll make it, help me up?’
Jack obediently took hold of Ianto’s outstretched hands, standing on the Welshman's feet and yanking him upright. Consequently, Ianto crashed into his chest, grabbing hold of the captain’s arms to steady himself before placing a small kiss on Jack’s chin - like it was normal, like it was something he did every day.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said softly. ‘This apartment puts me in a bad mood. Tell me about your great purchase tomorrow?’
‘Yeah,’ Jack smiled delicately. ‘Of course.’
He watched as Ianto disappeared into the adjoining room - not before hitting his head and swearing again - and followed at his own leisurely pace, stopping to trace his fingers over the many photos mounted on the wall. Photos of Ianto as a child, as a teenager with his family, with Lisa, with the Torchwood team, with a group of men Jack did not know, with an elderly woman whose clear blue eyes screamed “relative”, and finally, with Jack, the captain’s chin by his shoulder, arms wrapped around his torso.
‘So we had a pretty quiet day without you,’ Jack called absentmindedly as a conversation starter.
‘Did you?’ Ianto’s voice floated back to him. ‘The Rift deciding to be good on my day off?’
Jack leant against the kitchen’s doorframe, noticing how the entrance’s ceiling arched down as low as his forehead. ‘Just a gooifyer over in Aberystwyth.’
Ianto paused in his tea-making, turning to stare at Jack. ‘Gooifyer?’
‘A garbage can, really,’ Jack nodded. ‘Obviously been sucked up by the Rift and spat out again because anything you put inside it turns to…’ Jack made a deflating noise, accompanied with the hand motion. ‘Goo. I sent the others home after an hour of watching Owen put tennis balls in it and throw the yellow globs at the wall and whichever person was close enough to hit.’
‘Oh? And when was this?’
Jack shrugged, even though Ianto had again turned his attention to the teacups. ‘About three. Then I finished up the paperwork so I officially own the word-that-must-not-be-spoken-of-in-your-presence-but-is-a-place-of-dwelling and came here.’
‘All in time for the five o’clock news,’ Ianto slid the two lightly-steaming cups onto the table and all but collapsed into one of the chairs.
‘Did you have a good day? Wrestling with… doorknobs?’
Ianto groaned. ‘So much fun, like you wouldn’t believe.’
Jack laughed. ‘Sorry I missed it.’
‘Your loss.’ Ianto took a long sip from his mug before nodding his head at Jack’s left fist. ‘What’s in your hand?’
‘Pardon?’
‘You’ve been fiddling with it ever since you arrived. What is it?’
‘Oh, it’s… a key.’ Jack held the small piece of metal up for inspection before placing it cautiously on the table. ‘It’s your key, to my house.’
‘How thoughtful,’ Ianto tapped his fingers on it twice before picking it up and tucking it into his pocket. ‘I’ll put it somewhere safe.’
Jack nodded, but his smile was fake and his eyes were troubled.
‘So,’ Ianto leant back in his chair. ‘You want to do something tonight?’
‘Actually… I was going to move some stuff over to my new house, maybe spend the night there. You know it’s an actual house, right? Not an apartment.’
‘That’s great, Jack. I’m really happy for you.’
‘Did you… want to come?’
If Ianto weren’t so tired he may have noticed that Jack was acting completely out of character, and that he was actually nervous. But as it was, Ianto had had a frustrating day and was thoroughly exhausted. And so instead of questioning Jack’s strange mood, he merely expelled a long breath of air and said, ‘No thanks, I think I’m just going to bunk down and get a good night’s sleep for once. Tomorrow, I promise.’
‘Okay, yeah, definitely.’ Jack quickly finished off the dregs in his teacup and stood, placing it carefully in the sink. ‘Alright, well I suppose I’ll leave you to that sleep, then. See you tomorrow?’
Ianto hummed in affirmation, taking his time to finish his tea and place the cup down before standing up.
‘Jack, come here.’
Jack immediately did as told, crashing into Ianto’s outstretched arms and holding the younger man tight. Ianto kissed his head repeatedly until the captain raised it enough for Ianto to get to his lips.
‘Love you,’ Jack murmured against the side of his mouth, his breath warm across Ianto’s cheek.
‘You too,’ the Welshman replied automatically.
It was only later, after Jack had made his dramatic exit, coat billowing around him despite the distinct lack of wind, that Ianto realised it was the first time Jack had ever said the words aloud. He knew, he’d known for months, that Jack loved him. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work that one out. But it was the first time Jack had ever voiced the words.
Ianto liked it.
It had come so easily, to accept and reply accordingly. It was so normal. And he loved it.
--
The nest day dragged on slowly, with nothing happening other than Jack calling each member up to his office at intervals - no doubt to give them a key of their own. When it came Ianto’s turn to go up, he sat at Jack’s desk silently for a full three minutes before the captain reached out and took up his hand, absently playing with it - bending his fingers this way and that, tapping them against his chin, holding it flat between his own palms - while he chewed his bottom lip nervously.
‘So you said you’d come to my house today.’
‘And I will.’
Jack let out a shaky breath. ‘That’s good. I missed you last night, it was… cold.’
Ianto laughed at Jack’s clear attempt to be romantic or domestic or whatever it was normal boyfriends should attempt to be.
‘I’m not very good at this stuff, I know.’
Ianto hummed and they lapsed into another period of silence until Jack cleared his throat and asked, ‘Have you had your fun with the Gooifyer yet?’
‘Not yet, sir. My boss distracted me from it with a pointless meeting.’
Jack frowned. ‘I had a purpose for calling you up here.’
‘Oh?’ Ianto raised an eyebrow and the captain smiled, tapping two fingers against his own lips. ‘Oh, I see,’ Ianto chuckled, moving around the desk so he could give Jack a good, proper kiss.
‘Love you,’ Ianto said when he pulled away, and the older man looked startled. It was obviously the first time Ianto had ever said it, either.
‘Love you,’ Jack repeated, a fine line of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
At the time, Ianto mistook it for nerves, which was his first mistake. Jack Harkness did not sweat - ever - and it was a rare day when he got really nervous. However, it was only when Jack disappeared that Ianto recalled these small abnormalities.
--
‘Oi Jones, where’s your boyfriend?’
‘Owen, for the last time…’ Ianto closed his eyes and breathed in heavily, suppressing the urge to hurt the team’s medic. ‘I don’t know. Probably his office.’
‘He’s not.’
‘Well did you actually check?’
‘I…’ Owen swivelled his jaw guiltily. ‘I yelled, and if he was in his office he would have come.’
‘For Christ’s sake, Owen. Go and look then, before you come running to me.’
Owen fixed Ianto with a dark glare before sauntering off, muttering under his breath all the while.
‘Are you looking for Jack?’ a small voice piped up from behind Ianto, and he turned to find Tosh staring at him worriedly.
‘Owen is.’ Ianto smiled gently. ‘Coffee, Tosh?’
‘He left,’ Tosh said, completely ignoring his question. ‘About two hours ago, I watched him on CCTV. Didn’t tell anyone, just… left.’
‘What do you mean?’ Ianto narrowed his eyes, reaching out to steady Tosh’s shaking hands. ‘I’m sure he just popped off to get something. He’ll come back. Tosh, Tosh, look at me. He’s coming back.’
Tosh nodded slowly. ‘I know, yeah.’
‘IANTO!’
It took all of eight seconds to get from where he was standing to Jack’s office where Owen was standing, pale faced and a tissue in his hand.
‘What the hell is this?’ he shook the tissue at Ianto. ‘Did you know about this? What the hell is it?’
‘It’s a tissue,’ Ianto replied calmly. ‘Owen, what--?’
‘Look,’ Owen thrust the tissue into Ianto’s hand, where he could clearly see the blood and saliva splattered over it.
‘Oh god...’
‘The room’s full of them. Did he tell you anything about this? Where the hell has he gone?’
‘He left, he…he left. Owen,’ Ianto grabbed hold of the doctor’s wrist as he made to exit the office. ‘Earlier, when I was talking to him, he was… pale, sweating a lot. What do you think is wrong with him?’
‘I don’t know,’ Owen ran a frustrated hand through his hair. ‘I won’t know until I examine him. Where did he go?’
‘No idea. Tosh!’ Ianto called across the Hub. ‘Did he take the SUV?’
‘No,’ Tosh shook her head as the two men approached her desk, tapping wildly at the keyboard. ‘But I think I can track him by the amount of Rift energy in that wristband thing of his… If I just…’
‘How long will it take?’ Owen demanded.
‘I don’t know. You guys go, follow close to the bay. I’ll direct you as I narrow it down.’
‘Thanks Tosh. Comms open, okay?’ Ianto was off at a sprint before the words were even out of his mouth. He barely heard Owen’s instructions for Tosh to put Gwen on stand-by as soon as the former policewoman got back from lunch.
He waited in the SUV for twenty-seven seconds before the doctor appeared by the door.
‘Alright?’ Owen asked as he slid into the driver’s seat, Ianto already buckled into the passenger side and staring straight ahead.
‘Yep, just go.’
--
‘’Okay, this is it,’ Tosh’s tinny voice crackled in both men’s ears. ‘Third house on your right.’
‘Sick bugger’s sodding off to someone else’s house in the middle of the day,’ Owen grumbled as he threw the car into park.
Ianto shook his head, fumbling with the seatbelt. ‘It’s his house, he bought it.’
‘Shit, he bought this house? It’s massive!’
‘Not really the time, Owen.’
‘Yeah sorry,’ Owen tugged on the front doorknob, twisting and pulling to no avail. ‘Locked.’
‘Well use your bloody key, then!’
‘What key?’
‘Didn’t Jack… give you a key, this morning?’
‘No, just told me that I’m getting sloppy with my work and I have to pull my act together. Did he give you one?’
‘Yeah but--’
‘For Christ’s sake, don’t just stand there, open the damn door!’
Ianto shakily patted his pockets for his ring of keys, flipping past the one for his car, his apartment, until he got to a small silver one.
‘Sodding hell…’ Owen breathed once they got inside. ‘He’s not honestly going to live here by himself, is he?’
‘Well… oh. Oh no…’
Owen chose to ignore Ianto’s words, and the faint blush that tinted his cheeks, instead wandering around the house yelling, ‘Jack! Jack?’
Ianto took the stairs two at a time so they could search the house quicker. At the end of the hallway to his left, the door was slightly ajar and he immediately went straight to it, figuring it to be the bedroom.
He was not wrong, and curled up on top of the bed covers, having not even taken his boots off, was a sleeping Jack Harkness. As Ianto got closer, he noticed Jack’s awkward breathing pattern as well as the small spots of blood over the pillow, made damp from his sweating face.
Jack sighed and his eyes flicked open when Ianto brushed the hair back from his forehead.
‘Hey,’ Ianto smiled. ‘You okay?’
‘Sick,’ Jack breathed, barely louder than a whisper.
‘You don’t get sick.’ The bed dipped as Ianto crawled onto it, kicking his shoes off before sitting cross-legged and pulling Jack’s head onto his lap.
He more felt than heard Jack’s repeated, ‘Sick,’ against his stomach as the captain tried to burrow into it.
‘So this is your house?’ Ianto asked softly, and Jack replied by clutching weakly at his knee. ‘And you gave me a key to your house…’ Another squeeze.
‘Jack, you idiot,’ Ianto stroked the captain’s hair affectionately. ‘That’s not how you’re supposed to ask me to move in with you.’
Jack breathed out heavily, and it took Ianto a while to realise there was a, ‘Will you?’ somewhere in amongst that.
‘Yeah, yes. Of course.’
‘Bloody hell, Ianto. Thanks for calling me when you found him.’
Owen angrily pushed Ianto off the bed, sending Jack into a fit of coughing, wiping his bloodied hand on his pants when he was done.
‘Alright, mate?’ Owen asked, not really expecting an answer as he peeled Jack’s eyelids back, shining a small torch into each respectively.
‘Fine,’ Jack mumbled, although whether it was to humour Owen or try to maintain that aura of brave leader, they’d never know.
‘I know, buddy. Alright, I’m going to put something on your tongue. It’s not going to be pleasant but I need you to swallow it, okay?’
He placed two small green pills on Jack’s tongue and pushed the captain’s chin up to close his mouth. He was just packing the torch back into his medical bag when Jack dribbled both pills out of his mouth.
‘Christ, Jack. Don’t be a child, just swallow the damn pills.’
He pushed the tablets back between Jack’s lips, grimacing at the saliva on his fingers, only for that grimace to turn into a scowl as the pills were dribbled back onto his hand.
‘Jones, your turn,’ Owen demanded, dumping the glob of spit containing two green tablets into Ianto’s palm before wiping his own hand furiously on his jeans.
‘Jack?’ Ianto leant over the older man’s still body, gently tapping at his jaw to open his mouth again. ‘They’ll make you feel better, please?’ He carefully plucked the tablets one by one from his hand and placed them on Jack’s tongue, drying his palm on Jack’s shoulder before closing the captain’s mouth.
‘For me?’ He rested his fingers against Jack’s cheek, smiling proudly as the older man swallowed and shuddered at the taste. ‘Good boy,’ Ianto rubbed his shoulder. ‘Good.’
‘Unbelievable,’ Owen breathed irritably. ‘I’m his doctor but no, let’s only do as the tea boy says.’
‘Said please,’ Jack sighed, his breathing starting to even out already.
Owen laughed and shook his head ‘Of course that’s the reason.’
‘What do the pills do?’ Ianto asked quietly.
Owen shrugged. ‘Make him unconscious and help speed up the healing process. That’s what Jack told me when he gave them to me last year.’
Ianto nodded and hesitantly pressed his fingers against Jack’s steadily rising and falling shoulder. ‘Shall we get him back to the Hub, then?’
‘Not much else I can do here,’ Owen agreed. ‘Alright, pick him up on three, then. One, two, three.’
--
The pills did not speed up the healing process - if anything, they made it worse. And Jack’s had been unconscious for twenty-seven hours with Owen still having no idea what was wrong with him when Ianto finally cracked.
Although for Ianto, “cracking” really wasn’t much of a show. He merely began pacing until he got annoyed enough to dig through the archives for a box labelled “Explosives - Minimal Damage”.
With a small red ball looking much like a Christmas tree decoration clenched firmly in his hand, he resumed his pacing around the Autopsy bay where Owen was merely poking and prodding Jack’s arm - clearly at a loss of what to do.
‘What the hell is that?’ he asked when he noticed the flash of red in Ianto’s hand.
‘Bomb,’ Ianto replied calmly. ‘Deciding what to blow up.’
‘Christ,’ Owen got to his feet and stepped into Ianto’s pacing-line, placing his hands gently on the Welshman’s chest. ‘Stop, no blowing up.’ He gently prised the explosive from Ianto’s hand. ‘Bombs are bad, bad, yes?’
Ianto scowled - ‘I’m not a child,’ - but allowed Owen to take the device from him anyway.
‘Let’s just put this… somewhere… ah, excellent.’ Owen grinned as he lifted the lid from the battered and grimy garbage can.
‘Owen, what are you doing?’ Ianto sighed.
‘I’m gooifyin--’
He was cut off by a large explosion as the bomb was dropped into the can, sending small pieces of shrapnel flying in all directions.
Ianto was immediatly aware of three things: Owen ducking, a sharp pain in his right arm and Jack gasping awake.
‘God,’ Jack hissed through clenched teeth. ‘Ahh, ow, god, Christ, ahh…’
‘Jack! Hey,’ Ianto was by is side in a second, touching his face gently. ‘You okay? Sorry, Owen’s fault. Did it hit you anywhere?’
‘No,’ Jack’s voice sounded immensely relieved. ‘Oh… feels better… chest, better…’ He latched onto Ianto’s hand, closing his eyes and breathing heavily through his nose.
‘Better? Owen!’
Owen looked up from beneath the shelter of his arms, grinning sheepishly. ‘Sorry, what was - shit.’
‘What?’ Ianto frowned at Owen’s wide-eyed stare.
‘Ian’o?’ Jack murmured from the autopsy table, the hand was wasn’t holding Ianto’s coming up to trace his upper arm.
‘Oh,’ Ianto swallowed heavily as he realised Jack was tracing his fingers around a large piece of metal producing from his arm, slowly dribbling thick red blood. ‘I’m fine. Are you okay?’
‘Yeah,’ Jack breathed. ‘Just tired. Hurt?’
‘No,’ Ianto lied as Owen went about checking all Jack’s vitals, steadily ignoring the pain of metal ripping through his muscle.
‘He’s fine,’ Owen announced as he again checked Jack’s pupils. ‘He’s absolutely fine. What the hell happened?’
‘That thing,’ Ianto began as Owen turned his attention to the Welshman’s arm, tugging Jack’s fingers away so he could swab antiseptic around it. ‘That goo trash can thing,’
‘The Gooifyer?’ Owen asked.
‘Yeah, I think it was having some sort of affect on Jack. I think the Rift energy in it was reacting to something in Jack’s bloodstream.’
‘That’d make sense. Yeah, oh!’ Owen threw his hands up into the air and grinned. ‘And I destroyed it! I am Jack’s saviour!’
Ianto’s smile didn’t last for long as Owen yanked the metal from his arm, causing him to gasp and swear under his breath as the doctor applied pressure to it, injecting him with a syringe before his brain could even process what the long pointy thing was and taping gauze over the wound.
‘You ‘kay?’ Jack asked, eyes still closed and looking almost asleep on the table.
‘Yeah,’ Ianto squeezed his hand as Owen began wrapping a crisp bandage around his bicep.
‘Alright, you know the deal, Jones. No heavy lifting, no strenuous activity, no antibiotics other than the ones I prescribe and no complaining about stiff muscles because that annoys the shit out of me. You’ll be right in a few days, you and Jack both.’
‘Good,’ Ianto nodded his head toward Owen, the closest he’d ever get to saying “thank you”.
‘H’me?’ Jack mumbled, staring at Ianto while patting Owen’s arm in thanks.
‘Home,’ Ianto agreed.
‘No strenuous activity!’ Owen called after them as Ianto supported Jack up the stairs.
Ianto moved his hand lower around Jack’s waist, just to spite the doctor.
--
Jack slept for the whole night and most of the next morning, waking up at about one o’clock in an empty bed. He felt a brief stab of disappointment before he started noticing things around the room. Like the watch and thick novel sitting on the opposite bedside table, and the way that despite half the bed being made neatly, it still maintained the distinct smell of Ianto’s aftershave.
Jack rolled over and sniffed the pillow deeply, before deeming himself a sappy idiot and rolling back onto his side.
‘Awake then?’ asked a voice from the doorway, and Jack didn’t even bother looking up. He knew who it was.
‘Just,’ he replied as he heard the squeak of shoes being removed and the slide of a tie being undone before a heavy weight crawled over his legs.
‘Feeling better?’ Ianto’s voice asked, a lot louder this time.
Jack shifted so he could better accept Ianto into his arms, humming contentedly in his throat as the Welshman settled against his chest. ‘Good as new,’ he affirmed.
‘Thank god.’
‘Hub doing okay without me?’
‘Quiet and peaceful.’
‘No more allergies to space trash cans?’
Ianto laughed, and Jack relished the warm, shaking feeling against his torso.
‘No, all safe there.’
‘And you’ve finished for the day?’
‘I’m afraid not,’ Ianto subconsciously tapped his fingers against the small of Jack’s back. ‘Just came home for lunch and to check on you. I’m due back in an hour… What?’ He raised an eyebrow at Jack’s smug smile.
‘You said home,’
‘Yeah well I have a week to move out of my apartment before the new tenants move in so you’d better get used to having me around.’
‘So you’re staying? Here, with me?’
‘No,’ Ianto replied sarcastically, drawing his cold fingers back around and tucking them under the warmth of Jack’s t-shirt. ‘Are you really that insecure?’
‘I just… I’ve never done this before.’
‘Pardon?’ Ianto looked up at him.
‘I mean, I’ve lived with a lot of people in my life but… they’ve always asked me. Or it’s just gone without saying. I’ve never actually asked someone to live with me before.’
‘Well,’ Ianto scoffed quietly, ‘You didn’t exactly ask me.’
‘Ianto Jones,’ Jack pulled back slightly so he could look at Ianto’s face properly. ‘If I give you a key, will you move in with me?’
Ianto scrabbled around in his pocket for a moment before drawing out a small silver key and tucking it into his breast pocket instead, where Jack could see it.
‘If I have to,’ he smiled. ‘Up for some lunch?’
‘What, with no kiss, first?’
Ianto pressed his mouth fiercely to the captain’s for a good minute before breathing heavily against his chin and asking again, ‘Lunch?’
Jack tightened his grip around the younger man, pulling him under the duvet and twining his legs with the trouser-clad ones.
‘Not yet.’
Author: JerBearThompson
Rating: PG - minimal swearing
Spoilers: None
Characters: Jack/Ianto, Owen, Tosh
Summary: ‘Oh, it’s… a key. It’s your key, to my house.’
Disclaimer: We all worship at the shrine or RTD and the BBC.
Notes: Dedicated to oncomingfangirl because I feel bad but I honestly have no idea how to continue that other story. And to amobian who requested a fluffy “moving in” fic, which I’m not quite sure I achieved. School starts again tomorrow and we got a letter today saying that Mr Smith - my favourite teacher - has officially resigned. Still…
‘I’m going to buy a new pair of roller skates.’
‘Okay, Jack.’
‘And a unicorn, that’s going to be called… Sparky, and shoot fire out of its mouth. We’re going to the moon. We’re going to live there, happily, and talk to all the stars and sing and dance and get drunk and have sex and poke each other's eyes out with forks. What are you doing?’
Ianto made a non-committal noise in the back of his throat as he attempted to wrestle the crooked doorknob from the door. Jack sighed from his perch on the couch’s back.
‘Ianto, Ianto, Yannerino, Yanneroolydoo. You’re not listening.’
‘I am,’ Ianto protested feebly, his mind still miles away. ‘You’re going to the moon.’
‘Oh, so you heard my initial statement of--’
‘Yes, you bought a house. That’s great Jack, really. Can you pass me that screwdriver?’
‘Well I was… you know, well… never mind. Yeah, here,’ Jack tossed the tool in the Welshman’s direction, picking up a hefty looking book of instructions and settling on the floor to flip through it. "Your Guide to General Household Renovations," he read from the title page. ‘Oh, so that’s what you’re doing. Need some help?’
‘No, I’m fine, I just…’ Ianto trailed off into a string of welsh swear words as the doorknob finally popped off, sending him sprawling backward. He lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. ‘This is hopeless.’
‘What’s the matter?’ Jack asked.
‘My house is falling apart. The doorknobs won’t even open the doors anymore, and do you know how many times I’ve hit my head on the damn kitchen entrance?’
‘Well, you know--’
Ianto cut him off with a sigh. ‘No more talking about houses, I need a break.’ He missed the disappointed frown that momentarily took hold of Jack’s facial features before the captain smiled weakly.
‘Alright,’ Jack clapped his hands together. ‘Tea, then?’
‘I’ll make it, help me up?’
Jack obediently took hold of Ianto’s outstretched hands, standing on the Welshman's feet and yanking him upright. Consequently, Ianto crashed into his chest, grabbing hold of the captain’s arms to steady himself before placing a small kiss on Jack’s chin - like it was normal, like it was something he did every day.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said softly. ‘This apartment puts me in a bad mood. Tell me about your great purchase tomorrow?’
‘Yeah,’ Jack smiled delicately. ‘Of course.’
He watched as Ianto disappeared into the adjoining room - not before hitting his head and swearing again - and followed at his own leisurely pace, stopping to trace his fingers over the many photos mounted on the wall. Photos of Ianto as a child, as a teenager with his family, with Lisa, with the Torchwood team, with a group of men Jack did not know, with an elderly woman whose clear blue eyes screamed “relative”, and finally, with Jack, the captain’s chin by his shoulder, arms wrapped around his torso.
‘So we had a pretty quiet day without you,’ Jack called absentmindedly as a conversation starter.
‘Did you?’ Ianto’s voice floated back to him. ‘The Rift deciding to be good on my day off?’
Jack leant against the kitchen’s doorframe, noticing how the entrance’s ceiling arched down as low as his forehead. ‘Just a gooifyer over in Aberystwyth.’
Ianto paused in his tea-making, turning to stare at Jack. ‘Gooifyer?’
‘A garbage can, really,’ Jack nodded. ‘Obviously been sucked up by the Rift and spat out again because anything you put inside it turns to…’ Jack made a deflating noise, accompanied with the hand motion. ‘Goo. I sent the others home after an hour of watching Owen put tennis balls in it and throw the yellow globs at the wall and whichever person was close enough to hit.’
‘Oh? And when was this?’
Jack shrugged, even though Ianto had again turned his attention to the teacups. ‘About three. Then I finished up the paperwork so I officially own the word-that-must-not-be-spoken-of-in-your-presence-but-is-a-place-of-dwelling and came here.’
‘All in time for the five o’clock news,’ Ianto slid the two lightly-steaming cups onto the table and all but collapsed into one of the chairs.
‘Did you have a good day? Wrestling with… doorknobs?’
Ianto groaned. ‘So much fun, like you wouldn’t believe.’
Jack laughed. ‘Sorry I missed it.’
‘Your loss.’ Ianto took a long sip from his mug before nodding his head at Jack’s left fist. ‘What’s in your hand?’
‘Pardon?’
‘You’ve been fiddling with it ever since you arrived. What is it?’
‘Oh, it’s… a key.’ Jack held the small piece of metal up for inspection before placing it cautiously on the table. ‘It’s your key, to my house.’
‘How thoughtful,’ Ianto tapped his fingers on it twice before picking it up and tucking it into his pocket. ‘I’ll put it somewhere safe.’
Jack nodded, but his smile was fake and his eyes were troubled.
‘So,’ Ianto leant back in his chair. ‘You want to do something tonight?’
‘Actually… I was going to move some stuff over to my new house, maybe spend the night there. You know it’s an actual house, right? Not an apartment.’
‘That’s great, Jack. I’m really happy for you.’
‘Did you… want to come?’
If Ianto weren’t so tired he may have noticed that Jack was acting completely out of character, and that he was actually nervous. But as it was, Ianto had had a frustrating day and was thoroughly exhausted. And so instead of questioning Jack’s strange mood, he merely expelled a long breath of air and said, ‘No thanks, I think I’m just going to bunk down and get a good night’s sleep for once. Tomorrow, I promise.’
‘Okay, yeah, definitely.’ Jack quickly finished off the dregs in his teacup and stood, placing it carefully in the sink. ‘Alright, well I suppose I’ll leave you to that sleep, then. See you tomorrow?’
Ianto hummed in affirmation, taking his time to finish his tea and place the cup down before standing up.
‘Jack, come here.’
Jack immediately did as told, crashing into Ianto’s outstretched arms and holding the younger man tight. Ianto kissed his head repeatedly until the captain raised it enough for Ianto to get to his lips.
‘Love you,’ Jack murmured against the side of his mouth, his breath warm across Ianto’s cheek.
‘You too,’ the Welshman replied automatically.
It was only later, after Jack had made his dramatic exit, coat billowing around him despite the distinct lack of wind, that Ianto realised it was the first time Jack had ever said the words aloud. He knew, he’d known for months, that Jack loved him. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work that one out. But it was the first time Jack had ever voiced the words.
Ianto liked it.
It had come so easily, to accept and reply accordingly. It was so normal. And he loved it.
--
The nest day dragged on slowly, with nothing happening other than Jack calling each member up to his office at intervals - no doubt to give them a key of their own. When it came Ianto’s turn to go up, he sat at Jack’s desk silently for a full three minutes before the captain reached out and took up his hand, absently playing with it - bending his fingers this way and that, tapping them against his chin, holding it flat between his own palms - while he chewed his bottom lip nervously.
‘So you said you’d come to my house today.’
‘And I will.’
Jack let out a shaky breath. ‘That’s good. I missed you last night, it was… cold.’
Ianto laughed at Jack’s clear attempt to be romantic or domestic or whatever it was normal boyfriends should attempt to be.
‘I’m not very good at this stuff, I know.’
Ianto hummed and they lapsed into another period of silence until Jack cleared his throat and asked, ‘Have you had your fun with the Gooifyer yet?’
‘Not yet, sir. My boss distracted me from it with a pointless meeting.’
Jack frowned. ‘I had a purpose for calling you up here.’
‘Oh?’ Ianto raised an eyebrow and the captain smiled, tapping two fingers against his own lips. ‘Oh, I see,’ Ianto chuckled, moving around the desk so he could give Jack a good, proper kiss.
‘Love you,’ Ianto said when he pulled away, and the older man looked startled. It was obviously the first time Ianto had ever said it, either.
‘Love you,’ Jack repeated, a fine line of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
At the time, Ianto mistook it for nerves, which was his first mistake. Jack Harkness did not sweat - ever - and it was a rare day when he got really nervous. However, it was only when Jack disappeared that Ianto recalled these small abnormalities.
--
‘Oi Jones, where’s your boyfriend?’
‘Owen, for the last time…’ Ianto closed his eyes and breathed in heavily, suppressing the urge to hurt the team’s medic. ‘I don’t know. Probably his office.’
‘He’s not.’
‘Well did you actually check?’
‘I…’ Owen swivelled his jaw guiltily. ‘I yelled, and if he was in his office he would have come.’
‘For Christ’s sake, Owen. Go and look then, before you come running to me.’
Owen fixed Ianto with a dark glare before sauntering off, muttering under his breath all the while.
‘Are you looking for Jack?’ a small voice piped up from behind Ianto, and he turned to find Tosh staring at him worriedly.
‘Owen is.’ Ianto smiled gently. ‘Coffee, Tosh?’
‘He left,’ Tosh said, completely ignoring his question. ‘About two hours ago, I watched him on CCTV. Didn’t tell anyone, just… left.’
‘What do you mean?’ Ianto narrowed his eyes, reaching out to steady Tosh’s shaking hands. ‘I’m sure he just popped off to get something. He’ll come back. Tosh, Tosh, look at me. He’s coming back.’
Tosh nodded slowly. ‘I know, yeah.’
‘IANTO!’
It took all of eight seconds to get from where he was standing to Jack’s office where Owen was standing, pale faced and a tissue in his hand.
‘What the hell is this?’ he shook the tissue at Ianto. ‘Did you know about this? What the hell is it?’
‘It’s a tissue,’ Ianto replied calmly. ‘Owen, what--?’
‘Look,’ Owen thrust the tissue into Ianto’s hand, where he could clearly see the blood and saliva splattered over it.
‘Oh god...’
‘The room’s full of them. Did he tell you anything about this? Where the hell has he gone?’
‘He left, he…he left. Owen,’ Ianto grabbed hold of the doctor’s wrist as he made to exit the office. ‘Earlier, when I was talking to him, he was… pale, sweating a lot. What do you think is wrong with him?’
‘I don’t know,’ Owen ran a frustrated hand through his hair. ‘I won’t know until I examine him. Where did he go?’
‘No idea. Tosh!’ Ianto called across the Hub. ‘Did he take the SUV?’
‘No,’ Tosh shook her head as the two men approached her desk, tapping wildly at the keyboard. ‘But I think I can track him by the amount of Rift energy in that wristband thing of his… If I just…’
‘How long will it take?’ Owen demanded.
‘I don’t know. You guys go, follow close to the bay. I’ll direct you as I narrow it down.’
‘Thanks Tosh. Comms open, okay?’ Ianto was off at a sprint before the words were even out of his mouth. He barely heard Owen’s instructions for Tosh to put Gwen on stand-by as soon as the former policewoman got back from lunch.
He waited in the SUV for twenty-seven seconds before the doctor appeared by the door.
‘Alright?’ Owen asked as he slid into the driver’s seat, Ianto already buckled into the passenger side and staring straight ahead.
‘Yep, just go.’
--
‘’Okay, this is it,’ Tosh’s tinny voice crackled in both men’s ears. ‘Third house on your right.’
‘Sick bugger’s sodding off to someone else’s house in the middle of the day,’ Owen grumbled as he threw the car into park.
Ianto shook his head, fumbling with the seatbelt. ‘It’s his house, he bought it.’
‘Shit, he bought this house? It’s massive!’
‘Not really the time, Owen.’
‘Yeah sorry,’ Owen tugged on the front doorknob, twisting and pulling to no avail. ‘Locked.’
‘Well use your bloody key, then!’
‘What key?’
‘Didn’t Jack… give you a key, this morning?’
‘No, just told me that I’m getting sloppy with my work and I have to pull my act together. Did he give you one?’
‘Yeah but--’
‘For Christ’s sake, don’t just stand there, open the damn door!’
Ianto shakily patted his pockets for his ring of keys, flipping past the one for his car, his apartment, until he got to a small silver one.
‘Sodding hell…’ Owen breathed once they got inside. ‘He’s not honestly going to live here by himself, is he?’
‘Well… oh. Oh no…’
Owen chose to ignore Ianto’s words, and the faint blush that tinted his cheeks, instead wandering around the house yelling, ‘Jack! Jack?’
Ianto took the stairs two at a time so they could search the house quicker. At the end of the hallway to his left, the door was slightly ajar and he immediately went straight to it, figuring it to be the bedroom.
He was not wrong, and curled up on top of the bed covers, having not even taken his boots off, was a sleeping Jack Harkness. As Ianto got closer, he noticed Jack’s awkward breathing pattern as well as the small spots of blood over the pillow, made damp from his sweating face.
Jack sighed and his eyes flicked open when Ianto brushed the hair back from his forehead.
‘Hey,’ Ianto smiled. ‘You okay?’
‘Sick,’ Jack breathed, barely louder than a whisper.
‘You don’t get sick.’ The bed dipped as Ianto crawled onto it, kicking his shoes off before sitting cross-legged and pulling Jack’s head onto his lap.
He more felt than heard Jack’s repeated, ‘Sick,’ against his stomach as the captain tried to burrow into it.
‘So this is your house?’ Ianto asked softly, and Jack replied by clutching weakly at his knee. ‘And you gave me a key to your house…’ Another squeeze.
‘Jack, you idiot,’ Ianto stroked the captain’s hair affectionately. ‘That’s not how you’re supposed to ask me to move in with you.’
Jack breathed out heavily, and it took Ianto a while to realise there was a, ‘Will you?’ somewhere in amongst that.
‘Yeah, yes. Of course.’
‘Bloody hell, Ianto. Thanks for calling me when you found him.’
Owen angrily pushed Ianto off the bed, sending Jack into a fit of coughing, wiping his bloodied hand on his pants when he was done.
‘Alright, mate?’ Owen asked, not really expecting an answer as he peeled Jack’s eyelids back, shining a small torch into each respectively.
‘Fine,’ Jack mumbled, although whether it was to humour Owen or try to maintain that aura of brave leader, they’d never know.
‘I know, buddy. Alright, I’m going to put something on your tongue. It’s not going to be pleasant but I need you to swallow it, okay?’
He placed two small green pills on Jack’s tongue and pushed the captain’s chin up to close his mouth. He was just packing the torch back into his medical bag when Jack dribbled both pills out of his mouth.
‘Christ, Jack. Don’t be a child, just swallow the damn pills.’
He pushed the tablets back between Jack’s lips, grimacing at the saliva on his fingers, only for that grimace to turn into a scowl as the pills were dribbled back onto his hand.
‘Jones, your turn,’ Owen demanded, dumping the glob of spit containing two green tablets into Ianto’s palm before wiping his own hand furiously on his jeans.
‘Jack?’ Ianto leant over the older man’s still body, gently tapping at his jaw to open his mouth again. ‘They’ll make you feel better, please?’ He carefully plucked the tablets one by one from his hand and placed them on Jack’s tongue, drying his palm on Jack’s shoulder before closing the captain’s mouth.
‘For me?’ He rested his fingers against Jack’s cheek, smiling proudly as the older man swallowed and shuddered at the taste. ‘Good boy,’ Ianto rubbed his shoulder. ‘Good.’
‘Unbelievable,’ Owen breathed irritably. ‘I’m his doctor but no, let’s only do as the tea boy says.’
‘Said please,’ Jack sighed, his breathing starting to even out already.
Owen laughed and shook his head ‘Of course that’s the reason.’
‘What do the pills do?’ Ianto asked quietly.
Owen shrugged. ‘Make him unconscious and help speed up the healing process. That’s what Jack told me when he gave them to me last year.’
Ianto nodded and hesitantly pressed his fingers against Jack’s steadily rising and falling shoulder. ‘Shall we get him back to the Hub, then?’
‘Not much else I can do here,’ Owen agreed. ‘Alright, pick him up on three, then. One, two, three.’
--
The pills did not speed up the healing process - if anything, they made it worse. And Jack’s had been unconscious for twenty-seven hours with Owen still having no idea what was wrong with him when Ianto finally cracked.
Although for Ianto, “cracking” really wasn’t much of a show. He merely began pacing until he got annoyed enough to dig through the archives for a box labelled “Explosives - Minimal Damage”.
With a small red ball looking much like a Christmas tree decoration clenched firmly in his hand, he resumed his pacing around the Autopsy bay where Owen was merely poking and prodding Jack’s arm - clearly at a loss of what to do.
‘What the hell is that?’ he asked when he noticed the flash of red in Ianto’s hand.
‘Bomb,’ Ianto replied calmly. ‘Deciding what to blow up.’
‘Christ,’ Owen got to his feet and stepped into Ianto’s pacing-line, placing his hands gently on the Welshman’s chest. ‘Stop, no blowing up.’ He gently prised the explosive from Ianto’s hand. ‘Bombs are bad, bad, yes?’
Ianto scowled - ‘I’m not a child,’ - but allowed Owen to take the device from him anyway.
‘Let’s just put this… somewhere… ah, excellent.’ Owen grinned as he lifted the lid from the battered and grimy garbage can.
‘Owen, what are you doing?’ Ianto sighed.
‘I’m gooifyin--’
He was cut off by a large explosion as the bomb was dropped into the can, sending small pieces of shrapnel flying in all directions.
Ianto was immediatly aware of three things: Owen ducking, a sharp pain in his right arm and Jack gasping awake.
‘God,’ Jack hissed through clenched teeth. ‘Ahh, ow, god, Christ, ahh…’
‘Jack! Hey,’ Ianto was by is side in a second, touching his face gently. ‘You okay? Sorry, Owen’s fault. Did it hit you anywhere?’
‘No,’ Jack’s voice sounded immensely relieved. ‘Oh… feels better… chest, better…’ He latched onto Ianto’s hand, closing his eyes and breathing heavily through his nose.
‘Better? Owen!’
Owen looked up from beneath the shelter of his arms, grinning sheepishly. ‘Sorry, what was - shit.’
‘What?’ Ianto frowned at Owen’s wide-eyed stare.
‘Ian’o?’ Jack murmured from the autopsy table, the hand was wasn’t holding Ianto’s coming up to trace his upper arm.
‘Oh,’ Ianto swallowed heavily as he realised Jack was tracing his fingers around a large piece of metal producing from his arm, slowly dribbling thick red blood. ‘I’m fine. Are you okay?’
‘Yeah,’ Jack breathed. ‘Just tired. Hurt?’
‘No,’ Ianto lied as Owen went about checking all Jack’s vitals, steadily ignoring the pain of metal ripping through his muscle.
‘He’s fine,’ Owen announced as he again checked Jack’s pupils. ‘He’s absolutely fine. What the hell happened?’
‘That thing,’ Ianto began as Owen turned his attention to the Welshman’s arm, tugging Jack’s fingers away so he could swab antiseptic around it. ‘That goo trash can thing,’
‘The Gooifyer?’ Owen asked.
‘Yeah, I think it was having some sort of affect on Jack. I think the Rift energy in it was reacting to something in Jack’s bloodstream.’
‘That’d make sense. Yeah, oh!’ Owen threw his hands up into the air and grinned. ‘And I destroyed it! I am Jack’s saviour!’
Ianto’s smile didn’t last for long as Owen yanked the metal from his arm, causing him to gasp and swear under his breath as the doctor applied pressure to it, injecting him with a syringe before his brain could even process what the long pointy thing was and taping gauze over the wound.
‘You ‘kay?’ Jack asked, eyes still closed and looking almost asleep on the table.
‘Yeah,’ Ianto squeezed his hand as Owen began wrapping a crisp bandage around his bicep.
‘Alright, you know the deal, Jones. No heavy lifting, no strenuous activity, no antibiotics other than the ones I prescribe and no complaining about stiff muscles because that annoys the shit out of me. You’ll be right in a few days, you and Jack both.’
‘Good,’ Ianto nodded his head toward Owen, the closest he’d ever get to saying “thank you”.
‘H’me?’ Jack mumbled, staring at Ianto while patting Owen’s arm in thanks.
‘Home,’ Ianto agreed.
‘No strenuous activity!’ Owen called after them as Ianto supported Jack up the stairs.
Ianto moved his hand lower around Jack’s waist, just to spite the doctor.
--
Jack slept for the whole night and most of the next morning, waking up at about one o’clock in an empty bed. He felt a brief stab of disappointment before he started noticing things around the room. Like the watch and thick novel sitting on the opposite bedside table, and the way that despite half the bed being made neatly, it still maintained the distinct smell of Ianto’s aftershave.
Jack rolled over and sniffed the pillow deeply, before deeming himself a sappy idiot and rolling back onto his side.
‘Awake then?’ asked a voice from the doorway, and Jack didn’t even bother looking up. He knew who it was.
‘Just,’ he replied as he heard the squeak of shoes being removed and the slide of a tie being undone before a heavy weight crawled over his legs.
‘Feeling better?’ Ianto’s voice asked, a lot louder this time.
Jack shifted so he could better accept Ianto into his arms, humming contentedly in his throat as the Welshman settled against his chest. ‘Good as new,’ he affirmed.
‘Thank god.’
‘Hub doing okay without me?’
‘Quiet and peaceful.’
‘No more allergies to space trash cans?’
Ianto laughed, and Jack relished the warm, shaking feeling against his torso.
‘No, all safe there.’
‘And you’ve finished for the day?’
‘I’m afraid not,’ Ianto subconsciously tapped his fingers against the small of Jack’s back. ‘Just came home for lunch and to check on you. I’m due back in an hour… What?’ He raised an eyebrow at Jack’s smug smile.
‘You said home,’
‘Yeah well I have a week to move out of my apartment before the new tenants move in so you’d better get used to having me around.’
‘So you’re staying? Here, with me?’
‘No,’ Ianto replied sarcastically, drawing his cold fingers back around and tucking them under the warmth of Jack’s t-shirt. ‘Are you really that insecure?’
‘I just… I’ve never done this before.’
‘Pardon?’ Ianto looked up at him.
‘I mean, I’ve lived with a lot of people in my life but… they’ve always asked me. Or it’s just gone without saying. I’ve never actually asked someone to live with me before.’
‘Well,’ Ianto scoffed quietly, ‘You didn’t exactly ask me.’
‘Ianto Jones,’ Jack pulled back slightly so he could look at Ianto’s face properly. ‘If I give you a key, will you move in with me?’
Ianto scrabbled around in his pocket for a moment before drawing out a small silver key and tucking it into his breast pocket instead, where Jack could see it.
‘If I have to,’ he smiled. ‘Up for some lunch?’
‘What, with no kiss, first?’
Ianto pressed his mouth fiercely to the captain’s for a good minute before breathing heavily against his chin and asking again, ‘Lunch?’
Jack tightened his grip around the younger man, pulling him under the duvet and twining his legs with the trouser-clad ones.
‘Not yet.’