Fic: Hey Kids, You Miss Me? (Torchwood Jack/Ianto M)
Title: Hey Kids, You Miss Me?
Author: magikalrhiannon
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: NC17
Spoilers: Major Episode spoilers for Season 2 Episode 1 “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and previous eps of season 1
Summary: “Hey kids, you miss me?”
Word Count: 4233
Disclaimer: All rights belong to BBC and Russell T Davies. I'm just finger-painting in someone else's masterpiece. No infringement intended.
Notes: For kajmere, cuz she owns me.
Prompt: by kajmere who asked for Ianto/Jack Ianto misses Jack while he's with the Doctor, and spends Jack's missing time living in Jack's Den. Upon Jack's return, and Jack's subsequent asking Ianto out on a date and the events of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” with Captain John Hart, Jack busts Ianto frantically removing any trace of him living in Jack's Den. Angst a must.
It had been two months since Jack had left them.
Owen had bitten off everyone's head before telling them all that Jack could go fuck himself and leaving the office for the nearest pub only to get himself smashed off his tits. Ianto ended up picking him up from the pub and carrying him up to his flat and dumping him on his bed fully clothed once he knew he wasn't going to choke on his own vomit.
Tosh had cried for four days, then buried herself in work. Every now and then she would stop working and stare off in the distance, then catch herself, shake her head and bury herself back in work again, muttering under her breath. More often than not, Ianto had to kick her out of the Hub so he could power the place down.
Gwen mothered everyone. She kicked Owen's arse when he was being a prick, she dried Tosh's tears when she was crying. She didn't know what to do about Ianto other than to pat him on the back and tell him to eat. Naturally, she became the leader by default - not that anyone would outrightly admit it. Oh, at first it was a game of drawing straws, or paper, rock, scissors to see who called the shots but it was only Owen who fought Gwen for leadership and only when she was being pigheaded.
They all had their roles to play.
Gwen was the mastermind of team tactics. Her confidence grew everyday. Owen was the medic and while his usual surly attitude remained it was aimed less at his teammates and more at the world at large. Toshiko, ever the tech expert, continued to expand on their growing collection of gadgets and programs, giving them new toys to try out every now and then in an effort to forget the hole that Jack's leaving had left in her life.
That left Ianto... and well, he wasn't there to fuck the boss anymore, that was for sure. No, he continued to care of the archives, the artefacts, the paperwork, the paper trails, and making sure no one knew that Jack wasn't there. He made coffee and provided food, fed the pteranodon and cleaned up after everyone.
And when everyone had gone, when everyone had left, when he was alone to wallow in his loneliness and grief he would make his way down to Jack's den. It was when he was alone that he would strip down to his boxers and pull on one of Jack's white shirts, slightly baggy on his leaner frame from not eating (though Gwen wouldn't give up trying to make him), and crawl into Jack's bed. It was then that his tears would well because he could no longer smell that unique spice of Jack on the pillow, in the sheets.
He would rise at four, rift alarm willing, to shower and return to his flat to change. Recently he'd started bringing a bag of clothes with him, or leaving his dry cleaning in Jack's office. No one mentioned it. He didn't think anyone else went near it. Tosh had had Jack's phone re-routed to Ianto's, so there was no reason for anyone to go in there to answer the phone. Ianto had been forging Jack's signature for nearly a year, so short of the Prime Minister getting cagey about continuously missing Jack due to mysterious alien activity in the Cardiff area, they had covered for him so far. Ianto didn't know that they could do it indefinitely. He was willing to be that it would be seen as treason against the crown if they were found out.
Not that he cared. He didn't care about much these days. Just keeping his teammates alive. Gwen had taken him down to the firing range, made sure he could hit a target. He shot five perfect rounds through a target's head before she believed him when he said he'd had practice.
“Sorry, Ianto, love,” she said apologetically. “You never know if firing range practice is a euphemism for something else with Jack Harkness.”
Ianto blinked, and Gwen blushed as she turned and walked out of the firing range. Ianto stared after her until she had closed the door. Then he calmly reloaded his weapon, pointed it at the target at the end of the range and emptied the entire clip. He ejected the clip, reloaded and inserted the clip back in before holstering his weapon. Then he walked over to the wall and behind him and removed the safety glasses and muffs, hanging them up. He pressed the button to bring the paper target forward and walked back to meet the fluttering paper outline clipped to a metal hanger on a motorised pulley system. As it clanged to a stop, Ianto inspected his work on the black and white outline of a human on the thin paper that served as their target. One hole slightly larger than a single round straight over the heart. He ripped the target off the metal holder and tore it in half, relishing the echoing sound as he beheaded the innocent paper victim before scrunching it into a ball and throwing it hard into the bin on his way out of the range.
The violence didn't change anything, and he wasn't sure it had made him feel any better either. It could have been a misinterpretation. It could have been a million things, and none of them would have mattered for two reasons. One, he was just a part-time shag. Two, he was no longer said part-time shag because Jack had left. It was a moot point.
It didn't make it sting any less.
When he couldn't sleep and being cooped up in the Hub was too much of a reminder about what he didn't have, his flat a reminder of what he had lost, Ianto hunted weevils on his own at night; much to Owen's dismay when he had to patch him up in the morning on his arrival at work. Aside from a few new scars, he didn't do too badly.
Ianto felt like he was starting to come to terms with Jack being gone after three months. He wasn't coming back. It was time to pick up, dust himself off, move on. Easier said than done. As much as he tried to go back to his flat, he couldn't sleep unless he was in one of Jack's white shirts that he had taken from the Hub, and even then, the mattress was too soft, it was too light with the moon streaming through the window.
He was thankful when Gwen called at eleven that night saying there was some rift activity. He suited up and Owen picked him up on the way, as it was apparently heading in his direction. Owen already had Gwen and Tosh, Ianto was last to be picked up. Tosh had scanned the DNA and determined it to be some sort of land fish. An alien blowfish.
He hadn't expected it to take a human hostage. He hadn't expected it to know all about them.
He hadn't expected Jack.
“Hey kids. Did you miss me?” he asked with a chuckle after shooting the Blowfish.
Ianto couldn't help but watch Jack all the time, now that he's back. Couldn't stop his eyes from following him.
The others asked where had he been? Did he find his Doctor? Did he fix him? Ianto didn't care about any of that.
“Are you going back to him?” he asked. That's what he needed to know. Was he going to be abandoned again. Should he get his hopes up, or should he just put a pin in the tiny bubble of hope that had, stupidly, grown in the pit of his stomach.
Jack looks directly at him. “I came back for you,” he said. Then he looked around at the others. “All of you.” The rift alert alarm interrupts before anything else can be said.
When they arrived at the location of the activity and Jack's wrist strap beeped, Ianto's stomach drops.
“Whoa, that never beeps.” Ianto looked at Jack, who looked back at him.
“That's what I was thinking,” Jack agreed. Everyone gathered around Jack as he pressed some buttons on his wrist strap and a hologram appeared.
“I can't believe I got the answer machine! What can you be doing that's more important than me? Anyway, you've probably traced the energy shift, found the body. All me, sorry about the mess. Bill me for the clean-up. Now ... ” The man in the hologram clapped and rubbed his hands together. “Drinks! Retrolock the transmission coordinates, that's where I am. And hurry up, work to do!” He then imitated Carrie Fisher's role of Princess Leia in 'Star Wars', “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!”
The image vanished. Jack looked concerned.
“Stay here,” he ordered. “Don't come after me.”
“Who was that?” Gwen asked as Jack started to walk away.
“Stay here!” Jack ordered again as he got into the SUV and drove off.
While Gwen, Owen and Tosh yell at Jack and argued amongst themselves about him taking off and leaving them - again - Ianto had his own idea.
Fuck Jack leaving them again. He turned on his heel and headed for the other end of the street. He put two fingers in his mouth and let out an ear piercing whistle. Everyone else turned.
“Taxi!” Ianto called out, and hailed a cab. His teammates caught up. Tosh tracked Jack down on her scanner.
As they sat in the taxi on the way to what seems to be a bar, everyone wondered why Jack didn't let them go with them. Ianto is more concerned about whether Jack knew the man in the hologram.
“He's supposed to be our boss,” Gwen complained. “We know nothing about him! It drives me crazy!”
There's silence.
Ianto couldn't help it when he said, “It is more fun when he's around though.”
The others readily agreed. At least it isn't just him.
When they reached the bar, Gwen sent Owen and Tosh around the back, while she and Ianto covered the front. Jack's 'friend' called them out though, and made fun of them. Worse, it's made clear that Jack and his 'friend' had been more than just friends.
They'd been lovers.
Ianto wanted to be sick when he heard John Hart confirm that they were partners in every way. And then some. He could have done without the witty play by play about who was the wife.
Fuck. Ianto felt stupid. The last three months of wallowing over a man who he'd probably meant nothing to. Less than nothing. If there was ever a time he wanted to go down to the shooting range and empty another clip at one of the targets, it was now.
Then Hart joined them back at the Hub as the team had to work out a way to help him. Ianto couldn't think of anything he wanted to do less. At least when Jack handed out the assignments for the night, he paired himself with Ianto. He had no idea why, but yet again, that little bubble of hope started to rise in his stomach.
Ianto said nothing on the drive over. Jack tried to make small talk, but Ianto was so busy trying to stop himself from saying something stupid that he wasn't really listening. Jack managed to get them past the security guard and Ianto knocked out the security cameras in the building. They took the elevator up to the top floor.
“Oh, yeah! Loving that office-y feel!" Jack said as they looked around the room. "I always get excited in these places. To me, they're exotic. Office romances ... photocopying your butt ... well, maybe not your butt, although as we're here, why don’t we ...” Jack rambled, as they wandered around the room between cubicles.
Ianto interrupted him. “The rift was active at these coordinates approximately two hundred feet above ground. That means this floor or the roof.” He continued to search, unaware that Jack was actually watching him.
“How are you, Ianto?” Jack asked, not looking for the technology anymore but concentrating on Ianto.
“All the better for having you back, sir...” Ianto turned away and checked one of the desks furtherest away from Jack. He didn't want the man to know how close to begging him to never leave him again he truly was.
“Can we maybe drop the sir, now? While I was away, I was thinking... maybe we could, you know, when this is all done... dinner? A movie?”
Ianto turned and looked at Jack. Was he asking what he thought he was? “Are you asking me out on a date?”
Jack gave him a hopeful smile. “Interested?”
Best not to seem to eager, Ianto told himself. “Well... as long as it's not in an office. Some fetishes should be kept to yourself.” He continued to look for the technology. If he didn't, he was afraid he would throw himself at Jack and never let go.
Jack halfheartedly attempted to help, “Looks like we're gonna have to go through every drawer, bin and plant pot.”
Ianto rolled his eyes to himself. May as well give him an out, he thought. “Right. Okay. I'll do this floor, don't want you getting overexcited, and you take the roof. You're good on roofs.” Jack smiled gratefully and starts for the door. Ianto turns around and puts his hands on his hips. “Jack?” Jack turned back. “Why are we helping him?” Why can't we just shoot him and be done with it?
“He's a reminder of my past. I want him gone.” Jack seemed pretty adamant about it to Ianto. He started to leave but turned back. “By the way... was that a yes?”
“Yes! Yes,” Ianto turned away, embarrassed by how eager he sounded. He didn't see Jack leave, but heard the door shut. He let out a breath of relief, and then smiled. Jack asked me out on a date. That has to mean something, right?. Then he reminded himself why they were there and popped that bubble of hope inside his stomach, just in in case. No point in getting too excited for no reason.
When he went to the elevator empty handed and came face to face with Hart, he knew his gut instinct was right. The arsehole was playing them from the get-go. All for the sake of money. Of course for money. Good old fashioned greed.
And how dare he call him eye-candy. It was... undignified.
Thankfully, he got to Owen and Tosh in time to find Gwen. By the time they got back to the Hub, Hart was already there, putting the contents of his cannisters together. The three of them aimed their guns at him and he had the nerve to taunt them. Of course he looked rather stunned when Jack turned up behind them.
Ianto couldn't help but take pleasure in John Hart's panic when the treasure he'd killed his lover, travelled across the galaxy, and blackmailed, killed Jack and attempted to kill them for turned out to be a bomb that attached itself to the DNA of the person who killed the maker rather than the diamond he'd been told it was. Diamond in the rough - very rough indeed.
“She can't be serious. Ten minutes,” Gwen scoffed, slightly impressed at the balls of the woman in question.
Hart panicked. “Get it off me!” he shouted.
Ianto held up his stopwatch. “Actually, nine minutes ... 50, 49, 48 ... always at the ready,” he said almost proudly.
John Hart begged for his life, but when he saw that none of them were going out of their way to help him, he took Gwen hostage. That got them moving. Gwen had the bright idea to take him to the rift. If they were inside it when it went off, they would at least save the world. Ianto saw the panic now reflected in Jack's eyes.
Tosh searched for a rift opening that had some activity. Owen had an idea, and dragged Jack towards autopsy. Ianto followed Hart and Gwen, who were handcuffed together, and Tosh to the rift spot which was on a parking building roof where Hart had entered Earth. Ianto kept the countdown going and watched in surprise as Owen and Jack came roaring up the driveway of the parking lot roof in Owen's car. Jack jumped out, tackled Hart and Gwen to the ground and stabbed a syringe needle into Hart's chest, injecting him with a blood mixture, true hero style. There had been a moment of confusion as everyone yelled at each other while they waited to see if Owen's idea to disrupt Hart's DNA by mixing his with a sample of everyone's blood from Torchwood worked, which it did. Once Hart unlocked the handcuffs he'd used to keep Gwen hostage, she slugged him right across the face.
“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” Ianto said to her. He liked his eyes exactly where they were.
John tried to talk his way into staying with Torchwood but Jack wouldn't hear of it. Instead, he kissed Jack and headed for the rift. Ianto felt his stomach drop, and looked at the ground.
“Oh! By the way... I meant to tell you. I found Gray,” John said before he disappeared.
Gwen asked him who Gray was, but after a few moments of silence Jack dismissed her question and told everyone to get back to work.
On the drive back to the Hub, Ianto realises that Jack is back. Jack is back. Meaning, Jack would be living at the Hub again. He would need his den back. And that meant that Ianto needed to remove his belongings, preferably without anyone knowing that he'd been living down there. As Jack drove, Ianto silently calculated how to get into Jack's office and down to the den without alerting the older man about what he was doing.
Gwen inadvertently did him a favour when they get back to the Hub. She cornered their fearless leader again about who Gray was.
Ianto took the opportunity for what it was and stealthily made his way into Jack's office and down into Jack's den. Frantically, Ianto raced around the room searching for his belongings. He rushed to strip the bed, tossing the sheets into a pile on the floor and replaced the sheets with clean ones. Then he pulled his three spare suits out of Jack's closet and tossed them on the bed, before checking under the bed for any stray socks or boxers. When he stood up, he was going to go to the chest of drawers on the far side of the room but came face to face with -
“Jack!” Ianto froze. He swallowed. “Uh.”
“Ianto.”
“Um. I-I. Um.”
Jack looked around him at the suits on the bed and raised an eyebrow. “That doesn't look like it's my drycleaning.”
Ianto blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Um. I can. I can explain.”
Jack crossed his arms over his chest, and smirked. “Oh yeah?”
“I.” Ianto sighed. “Forget it. I'll just get my things.” Ianto walked over to the chest of drawers and opened the drawer.
“Ianto.”
Ianto froze again. “Yes sir?”
“I thought we were dropping the sir?" Ianto didn't answer him. Jack tried again. "Were you living here?”
Ianto closed his eyes. “Um. N-no. Not. Not really. Not... not all the time.” He pulled his clothes out of the drawer he'd put them in. “I'll just go and be out of your way.”
“Ianto.” He felt the hand on his back, and realised that Jack now stood behind him.
“Sir?”
“Really? You were living here?” Ianto sighed and shoved the drawer shut. He hung his head and nodded. “Why?”
“Please, sir. Don't make me...” Ianto begged softly.
“Ianto, please. I need you to tell me why,” Jack's voice broke with emotion.
Ianto moved out of Jack's reach and over to the bed, where he tossed his clothes down on the suits. He needed some space between them if he was going to make a fool of himself.
“Did you really come back for me, Jack?” Ianto asked, his calm exterior cracking under Jack's intense stare. It was only Jack who managed to get past his shields, under his fucking skin and bury himself so deep that Ianto didn't know how to live, how to breathe without him. He thought he had been broken when Lisa had died, but that was nothing on Jack leaving. “Are you sure you didn't come back for Gwen?” Oh yes, I knew. I'm not stupid.
“Ianto...” Jack looked heartbroken, and made to walk over to Ianto but he just wrapped his arms around himself.
Ianto shook his head and looked at the ground. “We thought you weren't coming back, after Abaddon. You were out for days. And then you did. Only to run off with him. Your right Doctor.”
“Yan...” Jack's hand reached out for him but he pulled it back. “I'm sorry. I needed...”
Ianto nodded. “Yeah.” He let out a half laugh. “I fooled myself into thinking that kiss in front of everyone meant something.” He shook his head.
“It did! It still does,” Jack moved into his personal space and cupped his face, forcing him to lift his head. “Ianto, please. I didn't... I... I had to leave. I needed answers, and only the Doc could give them to me. Please, you have to believe me.”
Ianto reached up and pulled Jack's hands off his face. “The sad thing is, I'm not even mad at you.”
“Yan.”
“It doesn't even matter anymore.”
“It does matter, Ianto,” Jack reached up to cup his face again. “I... I can't tell you about what happened, why I was away so long, but I couldn't come back immediately. I tried... I tried,” Jack closed his eyes, and swallowed. “It... it was bad, Yan. And all I could think about was you. Ianto, the thought of you kept me going, coming back to you. To us. Do you know how many times I imagined asking you out on that date? None of the scenarios I came up with included an office,” Jack gave a watery chuckle, as he tried to keep his emotions in check. “Please... please tell me it's not too late. Please, Ianto.” Jack rested his forehead against Ianto's. “Please,” he whispered. “It can't be too late. It can't be.”
“I couldn't sleep without you,” Ianto whispered, his hands finding Jack's hips, curling around the belt loops of his pants. Ianto inhaled Jack's scent, his pheromones making him lightheaded as they wafted in the air. “I couldn't... being here was the closest to being with you.” Ianto pulled his head back a little and searched Jack's eyes.
“There was no one else, Ianto, I swear.”
Ianto broke. “I missed you, Jack,” he mumbled as he buried his head in Jack's neck, his fingers grappling for purchase on Jack's back. Jack wrapped his arms around Ianto, holding him tightly. “I missed you so fucking much.”
“Hey, hey it's okay. I got you, baby. I'm back, it's okay.” Ianto trembled in Jack's arms. “Stay,” Jack whispered. Ianto lifted his head from Jack's neck. “Stay with me. Please. Don't leave. Don't go. Just... stay. Stay here. Forever if you want.”
Ianto barked out a laugh. “Jack. Be reasonable. This dungeon you have here isn't really fit for one person let alone two.”
Jack sighed. “Then at least stay tonight?” Ianto nodded. “Okay. Good. I'm going to go and send everyone else home. You just... stay here and don't go anywhere. Okay?”
“Okay.” Ianto watched Jack moved towards the ladder, then he stopped and turned around. “Forget something, sir?”
“Yeah,” Jack said, and walked back over to Ianto, pulled him into his arms and covered his mouth in a searing kiss. Ianto gasped in surprise, and Jack licked his way inside. Ianto moaned as Jack's tongue teased his own, playfully twisting and stroking as they sucked and licked and nipped at each other's mouths. When Jack pulled away, Ianto's mouth was red and swollen. He grinned, pleased with himself. “Okay, now I'm going to tell the others to go home, before I forget my good manners and ravage you right here. I intend to take you on that date first. Why don't you get into bed?”
Jack hurried up the ladder. Ianto smiled as he moved the clothes from the bed, returned them to the closet before he got undressed and then sat down to write about the day's events in his diary while he waited for Jack's return.
It had certainly been one for the record books.
Author: magikalrhiannon
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: NC17
Spoilers: Major Episode spoilers for Season 2 Episode 1 “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and previous eps of season 1
Summary: “Hey kids, you miss me?”
Word Count: 4233
Disclaimer: All rights belong to BBC and Russell T Davies. I'm just finger-painting in someone else's masterpiece. No infringement intended.
Notes: For kajmere, cuz she owns me.
Prompt: by kajmere who asked for Ianto/Jack Ianto misses Jack while he's with the Doctor, and spends Jack's missing time living in Jack's Den. Upon Jack's return, and Jack's subsequent asking Ianto out on a date and the events of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” with Captain John Hart, Jack busts Ianto frantically removing any trace of him living in Jack's Den. Angst a must.
It had been two months since Jack had left them.
Owen had bitten off everyone's head before telling them all that Jack could go fuck himself and leaving the office for the nearest pub only to get himself smashed off his tits. Ianto ended up picking him up from the pub and carrying him up to his flat and dumping him on his bed fully clothed once he knew he wasn't going to choke on his own vomit.
Tosh had cried for four days, then buried herself in work. Every now and then she would stop working and stare off in the distance, then catch herself, shake her head and bury herself back in work again, muttering under her breath. More often than not, Ianto had to kick her out of the Hub so he could power the place down.
Gwen mothered everyone. She kicked Owen's arse when he was being a prick, she dried Tosh's tears when she was crying. She didn't know what to do about Ianto other than to pat him on the back and tell him to eat. Naturally, she became the leader by default - not that anyone would outrightly admit it. Oh, at first it was a game of drawing straws, or paper, rock, scissors to see who called the shots but it was only Owen who fought Gwen for leadership and only when she was being pigheaded.
They all had their roles to play.
Gwen was the mastermind of team tactics. Her confidence grew everyday. Owen was the medic and while his usual surly attitude remained it was aimed less at his teammates and more at the world at large. Toshiko, ever the tech expert, continued to expand on their growing collection of gadgets and programs, giving them new toys to try out every now and then in an effort to forget the hole that Jack's leaving had left in her life.
That left Ianto... and well, he wasn't there to fuck the boss anymore, that was for sure. No, he continued to care of the archives, the artefacts, the paperwork, the paper trails, and making sure no one knew that Jack wasn't there. He made coffee and provided food, fed the pteranodon and cleaned up after everyone.
And when everyone had gone, when everyone had left, when he was alone to wallow in his loneliness and grief he would make his way down to Jack's den. It was when he was alone that he would strip down to his boxers and pull on one of Jack's white shirts, slightly baggy on his leaner frame from not eating (though Gwen wouldn't give up trying to make him), and crawl into Jack's bed. It was then that his tears would well because he could no longer smell that unique spice of Jack on the pillow, in the sheets.
He would rise at four, rift alarm willing, to shower and return to his flat to change. Recently he'd started bringing a bag of clothes with him, or leaving his dry cleaning in Jack's office. No one mentioned it. He didn't think anyone else went near it. Tosh had had Jack's phone re-routed to Ianto's, so there was no reason for anyone to go in there to answer the phone. Ianto had been forging Jack's signature for nearly a year, so short of the Prime Minister getting cagey about continuously missing Jack due to mysterious alien activity in the Cardiff area, they had covered for him so far. Ianto didn't know that they could do it indefinitely. He was willing to be that it would be seen as treason against the crown if they were found out.
Not that he cared. He didn't care about much these days. Just keeping his teammates alive. Gwen had taken him down to the firing range, made sure he could hit a target. He shot five perfect rounds through a target's head before she believed him when he said he'd had practice.
“Sorry, Ianto, love,” she said apologetically. “You never know if firing range practice is a euphemism for something else with Jack Harkness.”
Ianto blinked, and Gwen blushed as she turned and walked out of the firing range. Ianto stared after her until she had closed the door. Then he calmly reloaded his weapon, pointed it at the target at the end of the range and emptied the entire clip. He ejected the clip, reloaded and inserted the clip back in before holstering his weapon. Then he walked over to the wall and behind him and removed the safety glasses and muffs, hanging them up. He pressed the button to bring the paper target forward and walked back to meet the fluttering paper outline clipped to a metal hanger on a motorised pulley system. As it clanged to a stop, Ianto inspected his work on the black and white outline of a human on the thin paper that served as their target. One hole slightly larger than a single round straight over the heart. He ripped the target off the metal holder and tore it in half, relishing the echoing sound as he beheaded the innocent paper victim before scrunching it into a ball and throwing it hard into the bin on his way out of the range.
The violence didn't change anything, and he wasn't sure it had made him feel any better either. It could have been a misinterpretation. It could have been a million things, and none of them would have mattered for two reasons. One, he was just a part-time shag. Two, he was no longer said part-time shag because Jack had left. It was a moot point.
It didn't make it sting any less.
When he couldn't sleep and being cooped up in the Hub was too much of a reminder about what he didn't have, his flat a reminder of what he had lost, Ianto hunted weevils on his own at night; much to Owen's dismay when he had to patch him up in the morning on his arrival at work. Aside from a few new scars, he didn't do too badly.
Ianto felt like he was starting to come to terms with Jack being gone after three months. He wasn't coming back. It was time to pick up, dust himself off, move on. Easier said than done. As much as he tried to go back to his flat, he couldn't sleep unless he was in one of Jack's white shirts that he had taken from the Hub, and even then, the mattress was too soft, it was too light with the moon streaming through the window.
He was thankful when Gwen called at eleven that night saying there was some rift activity. He suited up and Owen picked him up on the way, as it was apparently heading in his direction. Owen already had Gwen and Tosh, Ianto was last to be picked up. Tosh had scanned the DNA and determined it to be some sort of land fish. An alien blowfish.
He hadn't expected it to take a human hostage. He hadn't expected it to know all about them.
He hadn't expected Jack.
“Hey kids. Did you miss me?” he asked with a chuckle after shooting the Blowfish.
Ianto couldn't help but watch Jack all the time, now that he's back. Couldn't stop his eyes from following him.
The others asked where had he been? Did he find his Doctor? Did he fix him? Ianto didn't care about any of that.
“Are you going back to him?” he asked. That's what he needed to know. Was he going to be abandoned again. Should he get his hopes up, or should he just put a pin in the tiny bubble of hope that had, stupidly, grown in the pit of his stomach.
Jack looks directly at him. “I came back for you,” he said. Then he looked around at the others. “All of you.” The rift alert alarm interrupts before anything else can be said.
When they arrived at the location of the activity and Jack's wrist strap beeped, Ianto's stomach drops.
“Whoa, that never beeps.” Ianto looked at Jack, who looked back at him.
“That's what I was thinking,” Jack agreed. Everyone gathered around Jack as he pressed some buttons on his wrist strap and a hologram appeared.
“I can't believe I got the answer machine! What can you be doing that's more important than me? Anyway, you've probably traced the energy shift, found the body. All me, sorry about the mess. Bill me for the clean-up. Now ... ” The man in the hologram clapped and rubbed his hands together. “Drinks! Retrolock the transmission coordinates, that's where I am. And hurry up, work to do!” He then imitated Carrie Fisher's role of Princess Leia in 'Star Wars', “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!”
The image vanished. Jack looked concerned.
“Stay here,” he ordered. “Don't come after me.”
“Who was that?” Gwen asked as Jack started to walk away.
“Stay here!” Jack ordered again as he got into the SUV and drove off.
While Gwen, Owen and Tosh yell at Jack and argued amongst themselves about him taking off and leaving them - again - Ianto had his own idea.
Fuck Jack leaving them again. He turned on his heel and headed for the other end of the street. He put two fingers in his mouth and let out an ear piercing whistle. Everyone else turned.
“Taxi!” Ianto called out, and hailed a cab. His teammates caught up. Tosh tracked Jack down on her scanner.
As they sat in the taxi on the way to what seems to be a bar, everyone wondered why Jack didn't let them go with them. Ianto is more concerned about whether Jack knew the man in the hologram.
“He's supposed to be our boss,” Gwen complained. “We know nothing about him! It drives me crazy!”
There's silence.
Ianto couldn't help it when he said, “It is more fun when he's around though.”
The others readily agreed. At least it isn't just him.
When they reached the bar, Gwen sent Owen and Tosh around the back, while she and Ianto covered the front. Jack's 'friend' called them out though, and made fun of them. Worse, it's made clear that Jack and his 'friend' had been more than just friends.
They'd been lovers.
Ianto wanted to be sick when he heard John Hart confirm that they were partners in every way. And then some. He could have done without the witty play by play about who was the wife.
Fuck. Ianto felt stupid. The last three months of wallowing over a man who he'd probably meant nothing to. Less than nothing. If there was ever a time he wanted to go down to the shooting range and empty another clip at one of the targets, it was now.
Then Hart joined them back at the Hub as the team had to work out a way to help him. Ianto couldn't think of anything he wanted to do less. At least when Jack handed out the assignments for the night, he paired himself with Ianto. He had no idea why, but yet again, that little bubble of hope started to rise in his stomach.
Ianto said nothing on the drive over. Jack tried to make small talk, but Ianto was so busy trying to stop himself from saying something stupid that he wasn't really listening. Jack managed to get them past the security guard and Ianto knocked out the security cameras in the building. They took the elevator up to the top floor.
“Oh, yeah! Loving that office-y feel!" Jack said as they looked around the room. "I always get excited in these places. To me, they're exotic. Office romances ... photocopying your butt ... well, maybe not your butt, although as we're here, why don’t we ...” Jack rambled, as they wandered around the room between cubicles.
Ianto interrupted him. “The rift was active at these coordinates approximately two hundred feet above ground. That means this floor or the roof.” He continued to search, unaware that Jack was actually watching him.
“How are you, Ianto?” Jack asked, not looking for the technology anymore but concentrating on Ianto.
“All the better for having you back, sir...” Ianto turned away and checked one of the desks furtherest away from Jack. He didn't want the man to know how close to begging him to never leave him again he truly was.
“Can we maybe drop the sir, now? While I was away, I was thinking... maybe we could, you know, when this is all done... dinner? A movie?”
Ianto turned and looked at Jack. Was he asking what he thought he was? “Are you asking me out on a date?”
Jack gave him a hopeful smile. “Interested?”
Best not to seem to eager, Ianto told himself. “Well... as long as it's not in an office. Some fetishes should be kept to yourself.” He continued to look for the technology. If he didn't, he was afraid he would throw himself at Jack and never let go.
Jack halfheartedly attempted to help, “Looks like we're gonna have to go through every drawer, bin and plant pot.”
Ianto rolled his eyes to himself. May as well give him an out, he thought. “Right. Okay. I'll do this floor, don't want you getting overexcited, and you take the roof. You're good on roofs.” Jack smiled gratefully and starts for the door. Ianto turns around and puts his hands on his hips. “Jack?” Jack turned back. “Why are we helping him?” Why can't we just shoot him and be done with it?
“He's a reminder of my past. I want him gone.” Jack seemed pretty adamant about it to Ianto. He started to leave but turned back. “By the way... was that a yes?”
“Yes! Yes,” Ianto turned away, embarrassed by how eager he sounded. He didn't see Jack leave, but heard the door shut. He let out a breath of relief, and then smiled. Jack asked me out on a date. That has to mean something, right?. Then he reminded himself why they were there and popped that bubble of hope inside his stomach, just in in case. No point in getting too excited for no reason.
When he went to the elevator empty handed and came face to face with Hart, he knew his gut instinct was right. The arsehole was playing them from the get-go. All for the sake of money. Of course for money. Good old fashioned greed.
And how dare he call him eye-candy. It was... undignified.
Thankfully, he got to Owen and Tosh in time to find Gwen. By the time they got back to the Hub, Hart was already there, putting the contents of his cannisters together. The three of them aimed their guns at him and he had the nerve to taunt them. Of course he looked rather stunned when Jack turned up behind them.
Ianto couldn't help but take pleasure in John Hart's panic when the treasure he'd killed his lover, travelled across the galaxy, and blackmailed, killed Jack and attempted to kill them for turned out to be a bomb that attached itself to the DNA of the person who killed the maker rather than the diamond he'd been told it was. Diamond in the rough - very rough indeed.
“She can't be serious. Ten minutes,” Gwen scoffed, slightly impressed at the balls of the woman in question.
Hart panicked. “Get it off me!” he shouted.
Ianto held up his stopwatch. “Actually, nine minutes ... 50, 49, 48 ... always at the ready,” he said almost proudly.
John Hart begged for his life, but when he saw that none of them were going out of their way to help him, he took Gwen hostage. That got them moving. Gwen had the bright idea to take him to the rift. If they were inside it when it went off, they would at least save the world. Ianto saw the panic now reflected in Jack's eyes.
Tosh searched for a rift opening that had some activity. Owen had an idea, and dragged Jack towards autopsy. Ianto followed Hart and Gwen, who were handcuffed together, and Tosh to the rift spot which was on a parking building roof where Hart had entered Earth. Ianto kept the countdown going and watched in surprise as Owen and Jack came roaring up the driveway of the parking lot roof in Owen's car. Jack jumped out, tackled Hart and Gwen to the ground and stabbed a syringe needle into Hart's chest, injecting him with a blood mixture, true hero style. There had been a moment of confusion as everyone yelled at each other while they waited to see if Owen's idea to disrupt Hart's DNA by mixing his with a sample of everyone's blood from Torchwood worked, which it did. Once Hart unlocked the handcuffs he'd used to keep Gwen hostage, she slugged him right across the face.
“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” Ianto said to her. He liked his eyes exactly where they were.
John tried to talk his way into staying with Torchwood but Jack wouldn't hear of it. Instead, he kissed Jack and headed for the rift. Ianto felt his stomach drop, and looked at the ground.
“Oh! By the way... I meant to tell you. I found Gray,” John said before he disappeared.
Gwen asked him who Gray was, but after a few moments of silence Jack dismissed her question and told everyone to get back to work.
On the drive back to the Hub, Ianto realises that Jack is back. Jack is back. Meaning, Jack would be living at the Hub again. He would need his den back. And that meant that Ianto needed to remove his belongings, preferably without anyone knowing that he'd been living down there. As Jack drove, Ianto silently calculated how to get into Jack's office and down to the den without alerting the older man about what he was doing.
Gwen inadvertently did him a favour when they get back to the Hub. She cornered their fearless leader again about who Gray was.
Ianto took the opportunity for what it was and stealthily made his way into Jack's office and down into Jack's den. Frantically, Ianto raced around the room searching for his belongings. He rushed to strip the bed, tossing the sheets into a pile on the floor and replaced the sheets with clean ones. Then he pulled his three spare suits out of Jack's closet and tossed them on the bed, before checking under the bed for any stray socks or boxers. When he stood up, he was going to go to the chest of drawers on the far side of the room but came face to face with -
“Jack!” Ianto froze. He swallowed. “Uh.”
“Ianto.”
“Um. I-I. Um.”
Jack looked around him at the suits on the bed and raised an eyebrow. “That doesn't look like it's my drycleaning.”
Ianto blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Um. I can. I can explain.”
Jack crossed his arms over his chest, and smirked. “Oh yeah?”
“I.” Ianto sighed. “Forget it. I'll just get my things.” Ianto walked over to the chest of drawers and opened the drawer.
“Ianto.”
Ianto froze again. “Yes sir?”
“I thought we were dropping the sir?" Ianto didn't answer him. Jack tried again. "Were you living here?”
Ianto closed his eyes. “Um. N-no. Not. Not really. Not... not all the time.” He pulled his clothes out of the drawer he'd put them in. “I'll just go and be out of your way.”
“Ianto.” He felt the hand on his back, and realised that Jack now stood behind him.
“Sir?”
“Really? You were living here?” Ianto sighed and shoved the drawer shut. He hung his head and nodded. “Why?”
“Please, sir. Don't make me...” Ianto begged softly.
“Ianto, please. I need you to tell me why,” Jack's voice broke with emotion.
Ianto moved out of Jack's reach and over to the bed, where he tossed his clothes down on the suits. He needed some space between them if he was going to make a fool of himself.
“Did you really come back for me, Jack?” Ianto asked, his calm exterior cracking under Jack's intense stare. It was only Jack who managed to get past his shields, under his fucking skin and bury himself so deep that Ianto didn't know how to live, how to breathe without him. He thought he had been broken when Lisa had died, but that was nothing on Jack leaving. “Are you sure you didn't come back for Gwen?” Oh yes, I knew. I'm not stupid.
“Ianto...” Jack looked heartbroken, and made to walk over to Ianto but he just wrapped his arms around himself.
Ianto shook his head and looked at the ground. “We thought you weren't coming back, after Abaddon. You were out for days. And then you did. Only to run off with him. Your right Doctor.”
“Yan...” Jack's hand reached out for him but he pulled it back. “I'm sorry. I needed...”
Ianto nodded. “Yeah.” He let out a half laugh. “I fooled myself into thinking that kiss in front of everyone meant something.” He shook his head.
“It did! It still does,” Jack moved into his personal space and cupped his face, forcing him to lift his head. “Ianto, please. I didn't... I... I had to leave. I needed answers, and only the Doc could give them to me. Please, you have to believe me.”
Ianto reached up and pulled Jack's hands off his face. “The sad thing is, I'm not even mad at you.”
“Yan.”
“It doesn't even matter anymore.”
“It does matter, Ianto,” Jack reached up to cup his face again. “I... I can't tell you about what happened, why I was away so long, but I couldn't come back immediately. I tried... I tried,” Jack closed his eyes, and swallowed. “It... it was bad, Yan. And all I could think about was you. Ianto, the thought of you kept me going, coming back to you. To us. Do you know how many times I imagined asking you out on that date? None of the scenarios I came up with included an office,” Jack gave a watery chuckle, as he tried to keep his emotions in check. “Please... please tell me it's not too late. Please, Ianto.” Jack rested his forehead against Ianto's. “Please,” he whispered. “It can't be too late. It can't be.”
“I couldn't sleep without you,” Ianto whispered, his hands finding Jack's hips, curling around the belt loops of his pants. Ianto inhaled Jack's scent, his pheromones making him lightheaded as they wafted in the air. “I couldn't... being here was the closest to being with you.” Ianto pulled his head back a little and searched Jack's eyes.
“There was no one else, Ianto, I swear.”
Ianto broke. “I missed you, Jack,” he mumbled as he buried his head in Jack's neck, his fingers grappling for purchase on Jack's back. Jack wrapped his arms around Ianto, holding him tightly. “I missed you so fucking much.”
“Hey, hey it's okay. I got you, baby. I'm back, it's okay.” Ianto trembled in Jack's arms. “Stay,” Jack whispered. Ianto lifted his head from Jack's neck. “Stay with me. Please. Don't leave. Don't go. Just... stay. Stay here. Forever if you want.”
Ianto barked out a laugh. “Jack. Be reasonable. This dungeon you have here isn't really fit for one person let alone two.”
Jack sighed. “Then at least stay tonight?” Ianto nodded. “Okay. Good. I'm going to go and send everyone else home. You just... stay here and don't go anywhere. Okay?”
“Okay.” Ianto watched Jack moved towards the ladder, then he stopped and turned around. “Forget something, sir?”
“Yeah,” Jack said, and walked back over to Ianto, pulled him into his arms and covered his mouth in a searing kiss. Ianto gasped in surprise, and Jack licked his way inside. Ianto moaned as Jack's tongue teased his own, playfully twisting and stroking as they sucked and licked and nipped at each other's mouths. When Jack pulled away, Ianto's mouth was red and swollen. He grinned, pleased with himself. “Okay, now I'm going to tell the others to go home, before I forget my good manners and ravage you right here. I intend to take you on that date first. Why don't you get into bed?”
Jack hurried up the ladder. Ianto smiled as he moved the clothes from the bed, returned them to the closet before he got undressed and then sat down to write about the day's events in his diary while he waited for Jack's return.
It had certainly been one for the record books.