TW Fic: Intersecting Geodesics (3/5)
Title: Intersecting Geodesics (3/5)
Author: nancybrown
Rating: R (language, situations, violence)
Spoilers: up through CoE, brief mentions of events from "Pack Animals," "Almost Perfect" and "Lost Souls"
Characters: Ianto, Jack, John, (Eleven and announced companion)
Warnings: Various shades of dub-con, non-descriptive mentions of sex trafficking, character death. I am operating under the assumption that John Hart is Captain Bad Touch, and so should you for the duration of this story.
Wordcount: 36,000 overall, 6700 this section
Betas: Deepest thanks go out to 51stcenturyfox and amilyn for the Britpicking, beta work, and all those other little details that made this story stronger; anything that's still misplaced, misspelled, misplotted or just plain missing is my fault
Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my show. If they'd catch a clue and shut up in my head, we'd all be happier.
Summary: Stuck in the wrong time with a Jack who hasn't met him yet, all Ianto really wants is a way home.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
***
Chapter 3
***
"Come with me," Jack said one day, as he came home early from the Agency.
"What?" Ianto had been busy preparing some lunch, forgot it entirely in the wake of Jack's unexpected return.
"I'm going on a quick mission, five hundred years from now. Asteroid's going to wipe out a planet. Come with me to check it out."
"I'm not allowed, am I?"
"Strictly speaking, no. Are you going to tell?" That teasing smirk, and Ianto had fallen for it enough times not to bother cursing himself when he did so again. Jack already had clothes for him to change into.
They packed the few items they needed in a rucksack which Jack made Ianto carry, and then Jack held onto him, made him touch the wrist strap, as he activated his Vortex Manipulator.
Several painful and nauseating seconds later, they staggered onto a secluded beach at sunset. Once Ianto finished retching, found his legs, he caught his breath and appreciated the beauty. Golden sands nearly surrounded a pool of seawater the perfect blue-green of the Mediterranean. The trees weren't exactly palms, but they smelled sweet on the early evening breeze. He heard bird calls in the distance and nothing else. It was as if this beach, this sunset, was all for the two of them.
"This is your assignment?"
"This is one of the nicer ones. I did the research. Small population, easy to check, perfect location. Thought you might like a vacation."
To Ianto's delight, Jack took the opportunity to strip naked and take a dip in the shallow water at the sand's edge. Ianto paused, still a little unsure even with the emptiness all around them, and then Jack splashed him. He folded his clothes neatly before he waded in to splash Jack back.
Hours later, and more than a bit gritty in places sand wasn't meant to go, Ianto lay back on the still-warm beach, head resting on arms folded behind his head, bare toes brushing Jack's thigh. Jack was singing absently under his breath as he worked with a device he'd brought, and Ianto hummed along though the words were foreign to him. He couldn't see stars from the alien city where they lived, could only just make out the moons on good nights. Only now, as his brain failed to find a single constellation he knew, did he sense how very far from home he was. Aliens he could comprehend, but even the stars were different here.
Jack's face glowed in the light of the equipment. "The settlement isn't far, just further inland by the fresh water. I figure we can rest here a little longer, then walk in the night to get there before morning."
"When is the asteroid coming?"
"Six days. More than enough time."
"I can't believe all this will be gone in less than a week."
"The planet will survive. Most of the animal species will be wiped out, including the humans, and they barely got here." At Ianto's expression, he said, "It's already a colony world. Their ancestors arrived about two hundred years ago."
"Why don't they leave?"
"First, colony ships were designed to fly one way. Your ship is your transport, and then it converts to living quarters and a power plant upon arrival. Second, while they do have occasional off-world contact, it's not close enough to arrange escape for their entire population in time. Third, they don't know it's coming."
"And we're not going to tell them."
"We might. As soon as we know they're going to be useful."
They rinsed sand off each other and dressed. Jack was all business now, which Ianto took in with only a little regret. For a short while, it had felt like what he'd quietly wanted from old times.
Back home, Ianto had idly daydreamed about taking a few days with Jack someplace nice, where they could relax and not think about aliens or the Rift or Weevils or anything except what ornaments would come on the sticks with the next round of cocktails. Given a long enough stay, they might have even left their room. Instead, they'd spent too much time dancing around calling what they had a relationship. After Gray came and changed everything, there had only been the three of them and no chance for a getaway, romantic or otherwise. The closest they'd come was the trip to see Martha in Switzerland, but Gwen had been in the room right next door, and Ianto had been recovering from his run-in with the "ghosts," and Jack had been distant, and perhaps holidays were just a bad idea for them anyway.
But he still sighed a little as he shouldered the rucksack and followed Jack into the forest.
***
The villagers rose early, were already moving about when Jack and Ianto arrived at the crack of dawn. Jack introduced them both as travellers come from another island in the archipelago. Someone who seemed to be an official greeted them kindly, and Jack let him show them around the village, making noises about the impressive construction of the tiny wooden houses. As they walked, Ianto could just make out tilled fields growing in neat green lines beyond the far border. This wasn't a large village.
"Ah, the quamous patch," said the official, noticing Ianto's gaze. "We're expecting a good crop this year. Do they grow good quamous in your village?"
"We're always on the lookout for better," Jack said with a grin, and the official laughed.
"They speak English," Ianto marveled, when he had a private moment with Jack.
"No, they're being translated by this," Jack said, pointing to his wrist strap.
"Of course you've brought trade with you," said the official, cutting in, and Jack dropped his wrist strap as if it meant nothing.
"Of course." In the rucksack, he found intricate wooden shapes that fit easily into a man's hand. "You're familiar with these?"
The official's eyes lit up. "These will be perfect." He took one of the shapes, a sphere with carvings etched in the smooth surface, inspecting it gleefully before placing it back in Jack's hand. "Let me find you a place to stay."
"Thank you," Jack said.
They were led to a small house near the center of the village. The walls were thin and windowless, the floor was bare earth. A few broken pieces of furniture --- a table with only three legs, rickety chairs, dusty wooden bowls piled on the ground --- were all the room held, and the building was just the one room. Light streamed in from the roof, holes a touch too regular to be there by accident. Jack smiled as if they'd been taken to the finest suite at the Ritz-Carlton.
"I apologise for the sparse quarters," said the official, "but we don't often have guests. This is a storage room. I'll have someone bring beds shortly. You will of course eat with my family. Our morning fast has already broken, but you may join us for our midday meal."
"That would be lovely. Here," he said, and took out the sphere. "Allow me to thank you for your hospitality."
"Your generosity is appreciated. I will send my daughter to help you settle."
After he had left them there, Jack sat on the floor rather than a chair while Ianto poked around the room. "It's very … Spartan," he said, for something to say.
"It's a storage room. He's smart. Some people will toss me in the grain silo or in the barn. Never put a stranger in with your food." He pulled out his first scanner. "I'm getting plenty of electronic readings. Did you notice the solar threads in the linings of the buildings?" Ianto shook his head. "Simple tech, but effective, rates them as a Level Four Electronic society. Power right from the sun. Probably runs all their equipment."
"I didn't see any equipment."
"You didn't look. Their fields were being maintained by androids. Thought you would have noticed those at least."
"I was distracted by thoughts of good quamous."
"Never tasted it. The record says it's similar to bimpa fruit."
"That's not helpful."
"Not for you."
There was a light tap on the door, and Jack shoved his scanner back into the rucksack. A woman waited outside, dressed in the same loose clothing that Jack and Ianto wore, her long dark hair pulled back from a kind face.
"I am Kamb. My father said you needed help getting settled."
Jack was instantly on his feet, all charm as he took her hand. "Jix. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Her eyes glowed at the attention, and Ianto wondered if they could harness Jack's sexual magnetism to power a small city somewhere. He also wondered if sleeping with the official's daughter was going to land Jack, and any erstwhile companion he'd brought with him, in jail. This was followed by the thought that Jack had paid the man, who'd immediately suggested his daughter join them, so it was possible she'd been sent here for that very purpose. The way Jack was looking at Kamb, not touching her but practically living in her personal space with no objection from her, wasn't helping Ianto discard that last possibility.
And then he heard the children.
A boy and a girl, maybe eight and ten years old, piled into the room behind her. "Grandfather said there were strangers!" exclaimed the girl.
"Manners," Kamb said. "Jix, these are my children. Kie, Loren, please meet Jix and … " she paused, which Jack filled in smoothly, "My friend Jaym."
"Hello!" said the girl, while the boy stayed behind her, clearly excited and also clearly shy. Ianto smiled at them.
"Where are the twins?" Kamb said.
"Klay has them," said the girl. Kie. She moved past Kamb into the room and started examining the rucksack.
Moments later, an older girl, just as lovely as her mother, came to the doorway with two toddlers of indeterminate sex. "It is true," said Klay.
"Told you," Kie said, while Jack moved the rucksack away from her.
Kamb said, "Girls, tell your father to help you find beds for our guests." She took the toddlers' hands from her daughter's grasp. "Go on." Once they were gone, she turned back to Jack. "They are excited. Forgive them."
"They're children," Jack said. "There's nothing to forgive."
***
The midday meal was some kind of white fish and a tuber vegetable, both cooked over an electric stove by Kamb's husband Lan. Jack praised the food, their home (which was lit by skylights, and also had an earth floor, but was better furnished than Jack's flat back home and also had more books), and the loveliness of the village itself. He devoured his meal and asked for seconds, while Ianto found his own portion satisfying but not spectacular. Add some butter, a match on in the background, and his father's shouts at the telly, and it'd be like any dinner he could remember from his childhood.
Jack asked questions about the village. How long had they been there? (As long as they could remember.) How many people lived there? (Several dozens, and more in the two villages over the next rise.) Who was in charge? (Kamb's father, but mainly because he was willing to do the fiddly paperwork of the job, and no one listened to him unless they wanted to.)
After the meal and the questions, which Jack always kept pitched as "amazed traveller" vein rather than "auditor," they were allowed to wander. Ianto kept close to Jack so as not to lose the use of the translator, and Loren, who'd finally warmed to them after Jack let out a scandalous belch over lunch, called Ianto Jack's shadow and trailed after them.
"Better a shadow than a shade," Jack said, and this was apparently very funny in the local language.
They talked to people, or more precisely, Jack did. Twice he offered up gifts of the wooden carvings, both times to elderly members of the village. As word spread, they gathered more young followers, who were astonished when Jack started juggling random items as they stopped to chat.
No wonder Jack and John ran cons on these planets. The way he had the populace entranced, he could rob them blind and naked, and they'd probably thank him for the show.
Supper was a cold return of the midday meal, and Jack was even more enthusiastic about it, earning him a special place in Lan's heart, and Lan did not miss the opportunity to demonstrate to his children what proper appreciation meant. Kamb's father joined them for the meal, and appeared to live there with them. The adults talked long into the warm evening, as the little children and even the big children were eventually put to bed. Kamb led Jack and Ianto back through the dimly-lit street to their room.
"The beds are not the best," Kamb said by way of apology. "But they should suit you."
"Thank you for all your hospitality," Jack said, and he pressed another carving upon her until she accepted it with murmured thanks.
When she was gone and the door closed, Jack went back to his scanner as though the hours hadn't passed. Ianto sat on one of the narrow beds, happy not to be at work this evening, happy to be with Jack, happy to be among these people, on this world. He couldn't even find room for wistfulness tonight about being so far away from home.
After Jack finished whatever he was doing, he glanced up at Ianto. "So are you going to sit there all night or are you going to push those beds together already?"
He only fell through the gap between them once.
The next day was much like the first, as Jack continued to talk to the villagers. The people on this world had no crime, no wars, memories of old famines but nothing recent. Most families had three or four children apiece, although Ianto noticed the sad flash across one woman's face and asked her gently about it.
"They die," she said. "We don't give them names before their third birthdays. When they live, they get a name." Her sadness was for a baby she'd lost weeks ago. Ianto offered his sympathies.
Jack listened, and then questioned Kie about her siblings. Three others had died in infancy, she told him as she might tell him about clouds. The twins had no names yet, but would get them soon.
"That doesn't seem to fit," Ianto said when they were alone. "You're right, they have plenty of technology. That doctor you talked to this morning is better educated than the last one I saw in A&E." Jack looked confused. "Never mind."
"It's probably nothing," Jack said, and he put on a big smile for the kids who'd caught up with them.
In the late afternoon, Lan went to fix something special for supper. Jack invited Kamb politely back to their room.
Ianto gave him a worried look. Jack held up his hand. Wordlessly, he said, "I'm working here."
Wordlessly, Ianto shot back, "That's what I'm afraid of."
Nevertheless, Kamb went with them, allowed Jack to sit her in one of the chairs and run his scanner over her, a different one from what he had been using yesterday. "This might tickle," he said, and he gave her a smile that made her giggle, just a little.
"I'll tell you if it does. Then you can do it again."
He ran the scanner over her, careful not to touch her skin. A frown crossed Jack's face.
"What is it?"
"Genetic profile." He ran his scanner over Kamb again. "I need more samples. Kamb, please bring me someone who isn't a relative of yours."
She nodded, returning several minutes later with a young man who'd followed them around for a while that afternoon. Jack refused to respond to Ianto's questions while they waited, and then he was too busy. He scanned the boy twice.
"All right," he said too brightly. "Thank you. Jaym and I will freshen up and join you for supper." Kamb shook her head, smiling at their strange customs, and took the boy out.
"Tell me."
"They're all related; I can tell already. Genetic correlation is too high to make them viable candidates for colonisation. Small population, it's always a risk."
Ianto said, "They'll have to be split up."
"Nope," Jack said. "They're not going anywhere."
His words sunk in.
"But they'll be annihilated. That asteroid hits in a few days."
"Exactly. You and I need to get out of here." Jack started to make adjustments on his wrist strap.
"You can't just leave them to die."
"Better them than me." Gone was the kind, generous stranger who had flirted with their hostess and offered gifts to the village elders, and back was the calculating bastard.
Ianto had seen this side of Jack before, but he'd always set it aside, apart. Jack wasn't really that selfish. He'd just had a bad day. He had knowledge of something else that he wasn't sharing. He was pretending. He was testing them.
He was leaving.
Ianto's heart fell. "You can't."
"This is my job. I identify groups we can use and groups we can't. That's the point. We can't use these people. They'll screw up the gene pool we're trying to protect."
"What about the next village?"
"No good. The population won't be any bigger and the genes will be just as limited." Jack tapped his strap once more. "Ready to go?"
"No." He tried reason. "There are over six hundred people on this planet."
"I noticed. They would have made a perfect acquisition."
"You're going to kill them all."
"No," Jack said, and his voice was ice. "That asteroid is going to kill them. It happens. It has happened. We're not arguing with history. It's not worth it."
"Save a handful of them, then. Save Kamb's family. That's only eight people."
"Did you not get the point of the 'close relatives' issue? They've got time bombs lurking in their gene code. I saw them. That infant mortality rate you were so concerned about? Probably from inherited disorders. We're not dropping a family in the middle of a bottleneck to spread those around. Extinction events are bad enough as it is."
"Then send them all someplace else, someplace safe. Don't leave them here to die."
"The Agency controls the mass-transporting tech. I can barely take you." That wasn't a no. Ianto knew the signs of Jack fishing for a reason to give in without wanting to appear that he was relenting. He'd done it plenty of times with Gwen.
"Georgn is the one who finds Gray."
Jack went still. "Say that again."
"In your personal timeline, a long time from now, Georgn is the one who will find him. He's the one who frees Gray from his captors."
"Tell me when."
"For Georgn, it'll be about," he guessed, based on Hart's face, "ten years. He'll be starting to lose his hair."
"And he finds Gray."
Ianto nods. "I think he did it to impress you."
"That's pretty damned impressive." Jack's tongue darted out, touched his upper lip. "Why are you telling me?"
"A trade. Please."
Jack stared at him until Ianto had to look away. Then he walked to the doorway and looked out into the village. Kamb sat in the shade, watching as the twins toddled hand in hand. They'd all be dead in less than a week, and no one would be left to mourn them, only the Agency's records noting they'd ever existed.
"Where would we take them?" Jack asked. He wanted to do this. He just needed a nudge.
"The planet where they were going to send me. We could go a few years after the Thames House survivors arrive. In and out."
"It's a bad genetic mix to put there."
"Not if the rest of the planet is from somewhere else. Which they clearly are. How many are you planning on taking?"
Jack watched outside again. "I think we could carry two. If they were small."
***
Still reeling from the nausea, Ianto approached the large building at the center of the town. Five years was enough time for the Agency to stop keeping close watch on their charges, for the first batch who would never have made it anyway to die off, for the first children to be born.
The twins bawled, and he tried to soothe them, but they had to keep walking, their tiny feet covered in dust. He opened the door with one hand, holding them both with the other. Quickly, he said to the first person he saw inside, "Is this the colony from London? MI-5 building?" The man nodded, and Ianto thrust the kids at him, more roughly than he intended. "Take care of them."
Then he hurried out without looking behind him, blocking his ears to their cries for their mother and father. History had said its final word on their parents.
"Let's go," Jack said, as Ianto reached him.
***
His shift started in twenty minutes or so, and Ianto hadn't slept. He ate anyway, and when Jack set a large glass in front of him, Ianto took it gratefully and did not spit much when he tasted it.
"We saved two people," Ianto said, savoring the drink.
"According to you, we murdered three hundred times that many. Drink up." Jack took a deep draught of his drink, while Ianto stared into his and could not finish the food.
***
Jack did not invite him on another mission, and Ianto didn't ask. Every time Jack told him he'd be gone, Ianto thought of Kie and Loren and Klay, their bodies torn apart by a pressure wave they wouldn't even see coming. He couldn't meet Jack's eyes when he told him goodbye.
Work at the pub continued to be annoying but bearable. He was picking up more and more of the local language, enough to understand Tweedledee and Tweedledum sometimes as they bantered and gossiped about the patrons, enough to take instruction from Sir on how to operate the stove to boil water. Ianto was not permitted to make any of the food in the back, but he could work as sous chef, chopping and prepping for Sir, who was actually quite proud of the restaurant part of the business.
Ianto never saw any of his own pay, had to assume Sir was transferring everything to Jack, but he kept his tips, even swallowing his pride sometimes to swivel his hips just so around the customers he knew would take the opportunity to stick cash in his pockets. This was no more humiliating than the odd game he'd played with Jack once upon a time when Lisa had been hidden in the basement, trapped inside her own body. At least, he could convince himself of that. He had not given up hope of bribing another Time Agent to find passage back to where he belonged, and if that meant a little tarting about, so be it.
More upsetting were the times he came home after a long night to find Jack with someone, sometimes multiple someones. Jack only came to the pub some nights, and spent others in other clubs, possibly the same one where they'd met, and those nights were the ones Ianto tended to find him with a friend.
"You could join in," Jack told him one morning, aware of the annoyed look on Ianto's face.
"I don't want to join in." Ianto took a bite of the bland bread they were having for breakfast. "I want to have a place to sleep where I don't have to climb over naked strangers to get to a pillow." Especially when one of them was John Hart, who spent the night far more often than Ianto liked. Jack had fixated on John again after Ianto's revelation about Gray, which meant more than once Ianto had awakened to John's strong hands and wicked smile and had to shove him off.
"Then get your own place."
"Fine." Part of him had been expecting this for months. "I'll have Sir start giving me my pay."
"After you go, sure. There's still the matter of the money you owe me. Room and board, expenses."
"How much?"
"Two hundred seventy three." Jack's mouth was a slash.
"I see." That was the exact amount Ianto had privately saved from his tips. "You found it."
"Wasn't hard. You should hide your money better."
Ianto went to his no longer secret hiding place and took out the wrinkled bills. He handed them to Jack. "Fine. We should be even now, yeah?"
Jack took the money and put it away in his own wallet. "Yeah."
Ianto thought. He could probably convince Sir to let him sleep at the pub; he'd proven himself trustworthy enough. If he ate his meals there, he'd make less but he could save the little he did. He only felt a small twinge as he remembered how long it had taken him to save everything Jack had just taken.
As if reading his mind, Jack said, "If you're thinking about a place to stay, Georgn would be happy to take you in."
"I'd rather go back to the Agency and be turned into a farmer." He turned away from Jack, angry and tired, and began gathering his things. He owned the clothes now, and the few things that had been in his pockets when he'd died, and that was it. No money, no ID, and most of the language he spoke consisted of food and drink orders. He supposed he was still better off than when he'd arrived.
"See you," Jack said, and didn't watch him leave.
Ianto marched all the way to work, cloaked in his bad mood. Jack was Jack, and of course he'd prefer to continue his string of semi-anonymous shags rather than think about anyone else. And perhaps it had been unreasonable to expect him to give up the lifestyle that had served him so well for the sake of someone to whom he frankly didn't owe a thing.
It didn't matter. He was better off away from this Jack. Yes.
Sir wasn't in yet, but the early shift had opened the pub to get ready for the lunch service. Ianto let himself in the back. There was a corner where he could stash his belongings, such as they were. Table Three had the softest cushion, and if Sir was amenable, he could sleep there tonight.
With nothing better to do, he started chopping vegetables for the lunch cook.
Afternoon came and went, and he found time to wander the streets immediately surrounding the pub. He didn't go far, not trusting his own sense of direction. For all the time he'd spent in the future on an alien world whose name he still didn't know, he'd barely seen anything. Now that he had a chance, he found the experience depressing. Poverty surrounded him, in the cheap homes and businesses he walked past. Windows were made of a thick plastic here rather than glass, so instead of being broken, many were covered with indecipherable graffiti, while multi-hued aliens and humans loitered outside abandoned buildings. Jack lived in a palace compared to this.
Curiously, the signs in this area were lettered in multiple alphabets, and his heart gave a skip when he saw Indo-European letters. They were in no language he recognised but just the sight of the ABCs was comforting.
Once he had money of his own, not Jack's, not Sir's, he would try to find a room somewhere around here. The rent would be low enough that he could probably afford it. He'd worked out the monetary system, though he still wasn't sure what reasonable prices were for things.
Leaving the sign with the letters he knew behind, he felt very alone.
Jack didn't come to the pub that night, but at least neither did John. Sir scolded Ianto for asking to stay, but allowed him to do it anyway. He heard Sir lock the door, and immediately he undressed down to his underwear to sleep. The cushion at Table Three wasn't nearly as comfortable as he'd hoped.
Once upon a time when Ianto's life had made some kind of sense, his sister had teased him about being a crybaby. He'd have gladly taken the teasing all over again to see her now, but he had to make do with just the tears.
***
He woke sore and unrested, shrugging into a clean outfit before the early shift bustled inside. No one stopped him from cleaning or helping in the kitchen, though he doubted Sir would pay him extra for the time. He wanted to stay busy, show willing. If this was to be his only place from now on, he had to make himself indispensable.
The dead mobile stayed in his pocket, the weight reminding him that he had a plan. During the day, he touched it from time to time, an alien artifact with a hidden message: find me, save me, please.
Late in the evening, as he took a quick rest at an empty table after cleaning up someone's supper that had splattered the wall, Ianto closed his eyes. He heard a thump.
A handful of bills were on the table. He frowned and looked up at the arm that was holding them there.
"Jack?"
Jack slid into the booth next to him. "You know, that's a cute nickname. I might have to use it the next time I need an alias."
Ianto sat back. For a tiny fraction of a second, he'd hoped it was his Jack come to rescue him across time and space. For a tiny fraction of a second, he'd allowed himself to be very stupid.
"What do you want?"
"This is yours," Jack said, and slid the money over to him.
"Doesn't look like mine." He'd made his tips in very small bills. These were large. There were at least a couple of hundred credits in front of him.
"It's your cut."
"Of what?"
Jack smirked. "That was a great idea you had, saving a fuge or two when I can't save the group. Drop them somewhere out of the way, not get caught. Great scam."
"It wasn't a scam." Jack raised his eyebrows.
"Anyway, the highest bidder gets to go. Easy money, and they're not going to need it if they go or if they stay. The past three trips I've been on, I've made over five thousand." Yawning, he said, "Since it was your idea, and I felt bad about not telling you sooner, I figured you should have a cut."
"I don't want your money." He stared at the pile, saw Kamb's family again. "You are actually forcing people to pay you to survive?"
"No, I'm charging a transport fee. If you'd rather I leave them all to die, that's your problem. Are you taking it or not?"
The money would start him on his new life, would get him a place to sleep and meals, and maybe even a way home. But despite his growing doubts to its existence, Ianto wanted to believe his soul was worth more than a few hundred credits. "No."
"Fine," Jack said, and swept his arm out, taking it all back. "You're supposed to be working now, aren't you?"
"Just taking a break. Why do you care? I'm not working for your benefit anymore."
"Of course you are. I explained to the owner that you ran off yesterday, and thanked him for keeping an eye on you. I even gave him a small present to show my gratitude. That came out of your cut, by the way, though I suppose it doesn't matter."
"I'm not going back with you."
"You've got no money."
"I'll make more."
"You don't have anyplace else to stay."
"We're sitting on my bed from last night. It was perfectly comfortable."
"My room is a mess."
"Clean it yourself." On Ianto's private list of three word sentences he'd always wanted to say to Jack, this one ranked second.
"I like having you around."
"Then act like it," Ianto said, and the anger was back and he got up before he started shouting. His hands shook as he rinsed out his sponges. Ianto ignored Jack when he went back out to wipe down tables while the crowd cleared out. He kept ignoring him when Jack got up from the table, grabbed the broom, and helped clear up shards from a broken glass he'd missed earlier, then without a word, helped with the mopping up on the dance floor.
"I really don't like you," Ianto said, as Jack took the mops from him and rinsed out the sticky residue himself. Badly. Ianto was going to have to soak those to get them properly clean, but Sir was shooing them out now so he could close up.
Jack went directly to where Ianto had hidden his clothes and grabbed them. "You don't have to like me. Coming?"
Irritated, and still unsure if he'd won this round or lost it entirely, Ianto followed him home.
***
They greeted the morning with grumpy sex, and after, Ianto asked him why he'd come back for him.
"Told you. My place is messy, and I missed you."
"You think I have more to tell you about your brother."
"There's that."
Ianto rolled onto his back. "I don't. Nothing important, nothing I can tell you that would help."
He felt Jack stiffen beside him, and then relax. "So tell me the unimportant things."
"You don't want to hear them."
"If you have any idea where Georgn is when he finds him … "
"I don't know. It's after you … "
"After I what?"
"Nothing."
"Tell me."
"No."
"Then let me buy the information from you."
"I don't want your money, and you won't give me the thing I want."
"Then name something else you want." Jack rolled over onto his side and played with the hair on Ianto's chest. "I mean, I want to find my brother more than anything, but I can think of a hundred other things I want, too."
"I just want to get home."
"Are you sure?"
He closed his eyes and thought about it. Why did he want to go back? Obviously he belonged there, but what were his reasons? Jack, and to a lesser extent, Gwen needed him. He wanted to see Rhiannon and the children again. He wanted to watch David and Mica grow up, to be there for them. Ianto's odds of having children of his own were remote, but he could spoil and love Rhi's kids. Assuming they'd survived the 456.
"I want to know what happened to my family."
"Don't we all."
"Gray's mad. When Georgn finds him. From the torture. He blames you for everything, and he spends the rest of his life trying to make you pay for not saving him." Jack lay very still beside him. Ianto rolled over to face him, entwined his fingers in Jack's. "I'm so sorry."
"So am I."
***
In the afternoon, Jack came in and without a word, dropped a stack of papers on the table.
"What's that?"
"Records. There are duplicate names so I brought what I could find."
"I can't read these."
"I know."
It took about fifteen minutes until Jack read out Rhi's birthday. "That one."
"March 14, 1981 to July 7, 2040. Married Jonathon Davies, June 26, 1999. She was young."
"Yeah. They started dating right after … " He paused, and a sad smile came to his lips. "Her boyfriend before Jonny was Jonny's best friend Owain. Rhi caught Owain messing about with a very pretty girl named Mary. Jonny bitched him out for it, and Owain gave him a black eye." He took a deep breath. "Mary was my girlfriend. Rhi was the one who fixed us up. Bad idea all around but I suppose it worked out well for Rhi in the end."
"She married again," Jack said, ignoring Ianto's trip down memory lane. "Brian Evans, May 14, 2022."
"I know him! He lived the next street over. Does it say what happened to Jonny?"
"No. Too many men with his name."
"Pity." He couldn't imagine the two of them divorcing. Perhaps Jonny had died. For all that they'd been dead for years, he was sad at the thought.
"David Davies, born October 2, 1999. Died September 9, 2078."
"Did he get married?"
"It doesn't say."
"Any kids?"
"It doesn't say."
"Can you tell me anything?"
"You read it," Jack said, pushing the paper at him irritably.
"Sorry. Anything on Mica?"
"One marriage, three kids. Geraint, Sian, and Ianto."
His hand went to his mouth. "Really?"
"No, I'm making this all up. You've got better intel than I ever do and you're complaining?"
"I'm not complaining. I just … I wasn't expecting to know anything."
"Just because she named her kid after you doesn't mean you know anything."
Ianto's head snapped over and met Jack's laughing eyes. "How did you … "
"Went through your wallet, remember?"
"You shouldn't know my name." His lips went numb. He'd been contaminating the timeline. Ianto stood up. "I need to leave."
"Relax. You said we're not going to meet for a long time. I'll have forgotten you by then."
Ianto glanced at the corner with his belongings, with the Retcon he'd nearly forgotten himself. "I suppose you will." He sat back down, and let Jack tell him the little they had on the births and deaths of Mica's children.
***
Ianto was trying to take an order from Table One when the alien came into the pub. Tweedledum immediately came out from where he'd been tending bar to get in the alien's way.
The alien was the size of a small elephant, with four arms, light greenish fur, and a mad, intelligent gaze that covered the room until it settled on Jack, who was dancing between two human women.
"Knee-rock!" shouted the green-elephant-alien, and Jack's head turned. The happy expression on his face was replaced by annoyance.
"Curr-en." Then he rolled his eyes and went back to dancing.
Tweedledum put a hand on the alien's third shoulder, and said. "Bokka." Leave. Dum's second job was as bouncer, and he was big enough for arguments not to be an issue usually. The alien swatted him aside, and Dum flew into the counter under the bar.
Sir and Tweedledee rushed out from the back, where they'd been filling orders. Sir shouted while Dee went for their laser rifle under the bar.
The alien ignored them, drew two long, curved blades from his belt, and roaring, went straight for Jack.
Panic and horror froze Ianto to the spot, and then as if in very slow motion, he knew that if the alien killed Jack, everything Ianto had ever known would fall apart. Jack was mortal here. Jack could die here.
Ianto rushed the alien with a cry to stop him, to buy Jack time to get to a defensive position or to get the hell away. He punched and kicked and swore, anything to distract the alien, anything to keep him away from Jack. For a moment, it seemed to be working, as the monster drew back in surprise at the unexpected attack.
Then …
The knives were cold, like ice, and so sharp he almost didn't feel either one until they were halfway though his shoulders and hit bone.
No pain, only cold, no pain, only grey light in front of his eyes, no pain, and the stink of the green fur, and then pain, oh yes. Pain.
The alien began to draw his arms back, and the knives ground as they retreated, and the pain was worse, and there was a sharp thud.
The alien stopped moving. Then it collapsed, and Ianto fell with it, eyes drifting across the screaming crowd, seeing Jack with his gun out, already pulling it back from where he'd shot, and the cold had given to warmth now and Ianto closed his eyes.
***
Chapter 4
Author: nancybrown
Rating: R (language, situations, violence)
Spoilers: up through CoE, brief mentions of events from "Pack Animals," "Almost Perfect" and "Lost Souls"
Characters: Ianto, Jack, John, (Eleven and announced companion)
Warnings: Various shades of dub-con, non-descriptive mentions of sex trafficking, character death. I am operating under the assumption that John Hart is Captain Bad Touch, and so should you for the duration of this story.
Wordcount: 36,000 overall, 6700 this section
Betas: Deepest thanks go out to 51stcenturyfox and amilyn for the Britpicking, beta work, and all those other little details that made this story stronger; anything that's still misplaced, misspelled, misplotted or just plain missing is my fault
Disclaimer: Not my characters, not my show. If they'd catch a clue and shut up in my head, we'd all be happier.
Summary: Stuck in the wrong time with a Jack who hasn't met him yet, all Ianto really wants is a way home.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
***
Chapter 3
***
"Come with me," Jack said one day, as he came home early from the Agency.
"What?" Ianto had been busy preparing some lunch, forgot it entirely in the wake of Jack's unexpected return.
"I'm going on a quick mission, five hundred years from now. Asteroid's going to wipe out a planet. Come with me to check it out."
"I'm not allowed, am I?"
"Strictly speaking, no. Are you going to tell?" That teasing smirk, and Ianto had fallen for it enough times not to bother cursing himself when he did so again. Jack already had clothes for him to change into.
They packed the few items they needed in a rucksack which Jack made Ianto carry, and then Jack held onto him, made him touch the wrist strap, as he activated his Vortex Manipulator.
Several painful and nauseating seconds later, they staggered onto a secluded beach at sunset. Once Ianto finished retching, found his legs, he caught his breath and appreciated the beauty. Golden sands nearly surrounded a pool of seawater the perfect blue-green of the Mediterranean. The trees weren't exactly palms, but they smelled sweet on the early evening breeze. He heard bird calls in the distance and nothing else. It was as if this beach, this sunset, was all for the two of them.
"This is your assignment?"
"This is one of the nicer ones. I did the research. Small population, easy to check, perfect location. Thought you might like a vacation."
To Ianto's delight, Jack took the opportunity to strip naked and take a dip in the shallow water at the sand's edge. Ianto paused, still a little unsure even with the emptiness all around them, and then Jack splashed him. He folded his clothes neatly before he waded in to splash Jack back.
Hours later, and more than a bit gritty in places sand wasn't meant to go, Ianto lay back on the still-warm beach, head resting on arms folded behind his head, bare toes brushing Jack's thigh. Jack was singing absently under his breath as he worked with a device he'd brought, and Ianto hummed along though the words were foreign to him. He couldn't see stars from the alien city where they lived, could only just make out the moons on good nights. Only now, as his brain failed to find a single constellation he knew, did he sense how very far from home he was. Aliens he could comprehend, but even the stars were different here.
Jack's face glowed in the light of the equipment. "The settlement isn't far, just further inland by the fresh water. I figure we can rest here a little longer, then walk in the night to get there before morning."
"When is the asteroid coming?"
"Six days. More than enough time."
"I can't believe all this will be gone in less than a week."
"The planet will survive. Most of the animal species will be wiped out, including the humans, and they barely got here." At Ianto's expression, he said, "It's already a colony world. Their ancestors arrived about two hundred years ago."
"Why don't they leave?"
"First, colony ships were designed to fly one way. Your ship is your transport, and then it converts to living quarters and a power plant upon arrival. Second, while they do have occasional off-world contact, it's not close enough to arrange escape for their entire population in time. Third, they don't know it's coming."
"And we're not going to tell them."
"We might. As soon as we know they're going to be useful."
They rinsed sand off each other and dressed. Jack was all business now, which Ianto took in with only a little regret. For a short while, it had felt like what he'd quietly wanted from old times.
Back home, Ianto had idly daydreamed about taking a few days with Jack someplace nice, where they could relax and not think about aliens or the Rift or Weevils or anything except what ornaments would come on the sticks with the next round of cocktails. Given a long enough stay, they might have even left their room. Instead, they'd spent too much time dancing around calling what they had a relationship. After Gray came and changed everything, there had only been the three of them and no chance for a getaway, romantic or otherwise. The closest they'd come was the trip to see Martha in Switzerland, but Gwen had been in the room right next door, and Ianto had been recovering from his run-in with the "ghosts," and Jack had been distant, and perhaps holidays were just a bad idea for them anyway.
But he still sighed a little as he shouldered the rucksack and followed Jack into the forest.
***
The villagers rose early, were already moving about when Jack and Ianto arrived at the crack of dawn. Jack introduced them both as travellers come from another island in the archipelago. Someone who seemed to be an official greeted them kindly, and Jack let him show them around the village, making noises about the impressive construction of the tiny wooden houses. As they walked, Ianto could just make out tilled fields growing in neat green lines beyond the far border. This wasn't a large village.
"Ah, the quamous patch," said the official, noticing Ianto's gaze. "We're expecting a good crop this year. Do they grow good quamous in your village?"
"We're always on the lookout for better," Jack said with a grin, and the official laughed.
"They speak English," Ianto marveled, when he had a private moment with Jack.
"No, they're being translated by this," Jack said, pointing to his wrist strap.
"Of course you've brought trade with you," said the official, cutting in, and Jack dropped his wrist strap as if it meant nothing.
"Of course." In the rucksack, he found intricate wooden shapes that fit easily into a man's hand. "You're familiar with these?"
The official's eyes lit up. "These will be perfect." He took one of the shapes, a sphere with carvings etched in the smooth surface, inspecting it gleefully before placing it back in Jack's hand. "Let me find you a place to stay."
"Thank you," Jack said.
They were led to a small house near the center of the village. The walls were thin and windowless, the floor was bare earth. A few broken pieces of furniture --- a table with only three legs, rickety chairs, dusty wooden bowls piled on the ground --- were all the room held, and the building was just the one room. Light streamed in from the roof, holes a touch too regular to be there by accident. Jack smiled as if they'd been taken to the finest suite at the Ritz-Carlton.
"I apologise for the sparse quarters," said the official, "but we don't often have guests. This is a storage room. I'll have someone bring beds shortly. You will of course eat with my family. Our morning fast has already broken, but you may join us for our midday meal."
"That would be lovely. Here," he said, and took out the sphere. "Allow me to thank you for your hospitality."
"Your generosity is appreciated. I will send my daughter to help you settle."
After he had left them there, Jack sat on the floor rather than a chair while Ianto poked around the room. "It's very … Spartan," he said, for something to say.
"It's a storage room. He's smart. Some people will toss me in the grain silo or in the barn. Never put a stranger in with your food." He pulled out his first scanner. "I'm getting plenty of electronic readings. Did you notice the solar threads in the linings of the buildings?" Ianto shook his head. "Simple tech, but effective, rates them as a Level Four Electronic society. Power right from the sun. Probably runs all their equipment."
"I didn't see any equipment."
"You didn't look. Their fields were being maintained by androids. Thought you would have noticed those at least."
"I was distracted by thoughts of good quamous."
"Never tasted it. The record says it's similar to bimpa fruit."
"That's not helpful."
"Not for you."
There was a light tap on the door, and Jack shoved his scanner back into the rucksack. A woman waited outside, dressed in the same loose clothing that Jack and Ianto wore, her long dark hair pulled back from a kind face.
"I am Kamb. My father said you needed help getting settled."
Jack was instantly on his feet, all charm as he took her hand. "Jix. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Her eyes glowed at the attention, and Ianto wondered if they could harness Jack's sexual magnetism to power a small city somewhere. He also wondered if sleeping with the official's daughter was going to land Jack, and any erstwhile companion he'd brought with him, in jail. This was followed by the thought that Jack had paid the man, who'd immediately suggested his daughter join them, so it was possible she'd been sent here for that very purpose. The way Jack was looking at Kamb, not touching her but practically living in her personal space with no objection from her, wasn't helping Ianto discard that last possibility.
And then he heard the children.
A boy and a girl, maybe eight and ten years old, piled into the room behind her. "Grandfather said there were strangers!" exclaimed the girl.
"Manners," Kamb said. "Jix, these are my children. Kie, Loren, please meet Jix and … " she paused, which Jack filled in smoothly, "My friend Jaym."
"Hello!" said the girl, while the boy stayed behind her, clearly excited and also clearly shy. Ianto smiled at them.
"Where are the twins?" Kamb said.
"Klay has them," said the girl. Kie. She moved past Kamb into the room and started examining the rucksack.
Moments later, an older girl, just as lovely as her mother, came to the doorway with two toddlers of indeterminate sex. "It is true," said Klay.
"Told you," Kie said, while Jack moved the rucksack away from her.
Kamb said, "Girls, tell your father to help you find beds for our guests." She took the toddlers' hands from her daughter's grasp. "Go on." Once they were gone, she turned back to Jack. "They are excited. Forgive them."
"They're children," Jack said. "There's nothing to forgive."
***
The midday meal was some kind of white fish and a tuber vegetable, both cooked over an electric stove by Kamb's husband Lan. Jack praised the food, their home (which was lit by skylights, and also had an earth floor, but was better furnished than Jack's flat back home and also had more books), and the loveliness of the village itself. He devoured his meal and asked for seconds, while Ianto found his own portion satisfying but not spectacular. Add some butter, a match on in the background, and his father's shouts at the telly, and it'd be like any dinner he could remember from his childhood.
Jack asked questions about the village. How long had they been there? (As long as they could remember.) How many people lived there? (Several dozens, and more in the two villages over the next rise.) Who was in charge? (Kamb's father, but mainly because he was willing to do the fiddly paperwork of the job, and no one listened to him unless they wanted to.)
After the meal and the questions, which Jack always kept pitched as "amazed traveller" vein rather than "auditor," they were allowed to wander. Ianto kept close to Jack so as not to lose the use of the translator, and Loren, who'd finally warmed to them after Jack let out a scandalous belch over lunch, called Ianto Jack's shadow and trailed after them.
"Better a shadow than a shade," Jack said, and this was apparently very funny in the local language.
They talked to people, or more precisely, Jack did. Twice he offered up gifts of the wooden carvings, both times to elderly members of the village. As word spread, they gathered more young followers, who were astonished when Jack started juggling random items as they stopped to chat.
No wonder Jack and John ran cons on these planets. The way he had the populace entranced, he could rob them blind and naked, and they'd probably thank him for the show.
Supper was a cold return of the midday meal, and Jack was even more enthusiastic about it, earning him a special place in Lan's heart, and Lan did not miss the opportunity to demonstrate to his children what proper appreciation meant. Kamb's father joined them for the meal, and appeared to live there with them. The adults talked long into the warm evening, as the little children and even the big children were eventually put to bed. Kamb led Jack and Ianto back through the dimly-lit street to their room.
"The beds are not the best," Kamb said by way of apology. "But they should suit you."
"Thank you for all your hospitality," Jack said, and he pressed another carving upon her until she accepted it with murmured thanks.
When she was gone and the door closed, Jack went back to his scanner as though the hours hadn't passed. Ianto sat on one of the narrow beds, happy not to be at work this evening, happy to be with Jack, happy to be among these people, on this world. He couldn't even find room for wistfulness tonight about being so far away from home.
After Jack finished whatever he was doing, he glanced up at Ianto. "So are you going to sit there all night or are you going to push those beds together already?"
He only fell through the gap between them once.
The next day was much like the first, as Jack continued to talk to the villagers. The people on this world had no crime, no wars, memories of old famines but nothing recent. Most families had three or four children apiece, although Ianto noticed the sad flash across one woman's face and asked her gently about it.
"They die," she said. "We don't give them names before their third birthdays. When they live, they get a name." Her sadness was for a baby she'd lost weeks ago. Ianto offered his sympathies.
Jack listened, and then questioned Kie about her siblings. Three others had died in infancy, she told him as she might tell him about clouds. The twins had no names yet, but would get them soon.
"That doesn't seem to fit," Ianto said when they were alone. "You're right, they have plenty of technology. That doctor you talked to this morning is better educated than the last one I saw in A&E." Jack looked confused. "Never mind."
"It's probably nothing," Jack said, and he put on a big smile for the kids who'd caught up with them.
In the late afternoon, Lan went to fix something special for supper. Jack invited Kamb politely back to their room.
Ianto gave him a worried look. Jack held up his hand. Wordlessly, he said, "I'm working here."
Wordlessly, Ianto shot back, "That's what I'm afraid of."
Nevertheless, Kamb went with them, allowed Jack to sit her in one of the chairs and run his scanner over her, a different one from what he had been using yesterday. "This might tickle," he said, and he gave her a smile that made her giggle, just a little.
"I'll tell you if it does. Then you can do it again."
He ran the scanner over her, careful not to touch her skin. A frown crossed Jack's face.
"What is it?"
"Genetic profile." He ran his scanner over Kamb again. "I need more samples. Kamb, please bring me someone who isn't a relative of yours."
She nodded, returning several minutes later with a young man who'd followed them around for a while that afternoon. Jack refused to respond to Ianto's questions while they waited, and then he was too busy. He scanned the boy twice.
"All right," he said too brightly. "Thank you. Jaym and I will freshen up and join you for supper." Kamb shook her head, smiling at their strange customs, and took the boy out.
"Tell me."
"They're all related; I can tell already. Genetic correlation is too high to make them viable candidates for colonisation. Small population, it's always a risk."
Ianto said, "They'll have to be split up."
"Nope," Jack said. "They're not going anywhere."
His words sunk in.
"But they'll be annihilated. That asteroid hits in a few days."
"Exactly. You and I need to get out of here." Jack started to make adjustments on his wrist strap.
"You can't just leave them to die."
"Better them than me." Gone was the kind, generous stranger who had flirted with their hostess and offered gifts to the village elders, and back was the calculating bastard.
Ianto had seen this side of Jack before, but he'd always set it aside, apart. Jack wasn't really that selfish. He'd just had a bad day. He had knowledge of something else that he wasn't sharing. He was pretending. He was testing them.
He was leaving.
Ianto's heart fell. "You can't."
"This is my job. I identify groups we can use and groups we can't. That's the point. We can't use these people. They'll screw up the gene pool we're trying to protect."
"What about the next village?"
"No good. The population won't be any bigger and the genes will be just as limited." Jack tapped his strap once more. "Ready to go?"
"No." He tried reason. "There are over six hundred people on this planet."
"I noticed. They would have made a perfect acquisition."
"You're going to kill them all."
"No," Jack said, and his voice was ice. "That asteroid is going to kill them. It happens. It has happened. We're not arguing with history. It's not worth it."
"Save a handful of them, then. Save Kamb's family. That's only eight people."
"Did you not get the point of the 'close relatives' issue? They've got time bombs lurking in their gene code. I saw them. That infant mortality rate you were so concerned about? Probably from inherited disorders. We're not dropping a family in the middle of a bottleneck to spread those around. Extinction events are bad enough as it is."
"Then send them all someplace else, someplace safe. Don't leave them here to die."
"The Agency controls the mass-transporting tech. I can barely take you." That wasn't a no. Ianto knew the signs of Jack fishing for a reason to give in without wanting to appear that he was relenting. He'd done it plenty of times with Gwen.
"Georgn is the one who finds Gray."
Jack went still. "Say that again."
"In your personal timeline, a long time from now, Georgn is the one who will find him. He's the one who frees Gray from his captors."
"Tell me when."
"For Georgn, it'll be about," he guessed, based on Hart's face, "ten years. He'll be starting to lose his hair."
"And he finds Gray."
Ianto nods. "I think he did it to impress you."
"That's pretty damned impressive." Jack's tongue darted out, touched his upper lip. "Why are you telling me?"
"A trade. Please."
Jack stared at him until Ianto had to look away. Then he walked to the doorway and looked out into the village. Kamb sat in the shade, watching as the twins toddled hand in hand. They'd all be dead in less than a week, and no one would be left to mourn them, only the Agency's records noting they'd ever existed.
"Where would we take them?" Jack asked. He wanted to do this. He just needed a nudge.
"The planet where they were going to send me. We could go a few years after the Thames House survivors arrive. In and out."
"It's a bad genetic mix to put there."
"Not if the rest of the planet is from somewhere else. Which they clearly are. How many are you planning on taking?"
Jack watched outside again. "I think we could carry two. If they were small."
***
Still reeling from the nausea, Ianto approached the large building at the center of the town. Five years was enough time for the Agency to stop keeping close watch on their charges, for the first batch who would never have made it anyway to die off, for the first children to be born.
The twins bawled, and he tried to soothe them, but they had to keep walking, their tiny feet covered in dust. He opened the door with one hand, holding them both with the other. Quickly, he said to the first person he saw inside, "Is this the colony from London? MI-5 building?" The man nodded, and Ianto thrust the kids at him, more roughly than he intended. "Take care of them."
Then he hurried out without looking behind him, blocking his ears to their cries for their mother and father. History had said its final word on their parents.
"Let's go," Jack said, as Ianto reached him.
***
His shift started in twenty minutes or so, and Ianto hadn't slept. He ate anyway, and when Jack set a large glass in front of him, Ianto took it gratefully and did not spit much when he tasted it.
"We saved two people," Ianto said, savoring the drink.
"According to you, we murdered three hundred times that many. Drink up." Jack took a deep draught of his drink, while Ianto stared into his and could not finish the food.
***
Jack did not invite him on another mission, and Ianto didn't ask. Every time Jack told him he'd be gone, Ianto thought of Kie and Loren and Klay, their bodies torn apart by a pressure wave they wouldn't even see coming. He couldn't meet Jack's eyes when he told him goodbye.
Work at the pub continued to be annoying but bearable. He was picking up more and more of the local language, enough to understand Tweedledee and Tweedledum sometimes as they bantered and gossiped about the patrons, enough to take instruction from Sir on how to operate the stove to boil water. Ianto was not permitted to make any of the food in the back, but he could work as sous chef, chopping and prepping for Sir, who was actually quite proud of the restaurant part of the business.
Ianto never saw any of his own pay, had to assume Sir was transferring everything to Jack, but he kept his tips, even swallowing his pride sometimes to swivel his hips just so around the customers he knew would take the opportunity to stick cash in his pockets. This was no more humiliating than the odd game he'd played with Jack once upon a time when Lisa had been hidden in the basement, trapped inside her own body. At least, he could convince himself of that. He had not given up hope of bribing another Time Agent to find passage back to where he belonged, and if that meant a little tarting about, so be it.
More upsetting were the times he came home after a long night to find Jack with someone, sometimes multiple someones. Jack only came to the pub some nights, and spent others in other clubs, possibly the same one where they'd met, and those nights were the ones Ianto tended to find him with a friend.
"You could join in," Jack told him one morning, aware of the annoyed look on Ianto's face.
"I don't want to join in." Ianto took a bite of the bland bread they were having for breakfast. "I want to have a place to sleep where I don't have to climb over naked strangers to get to a pillow." Especially when one of them was John Hart, who spent the night far more often than Ianto liked. Jack had fixated on John again after Ianto's revelation about Gray, which meant more than once Ianto had awakened to John's strong hands and wicked smile and had to shove him off.
"Then get your own place."
"Fine." Part of him had been expecting this for months. "I'll have Sir start giving me my pay."
"After you go, sure. There's still the matter of the money you owe me. Room and board, expenses."
"How much?"
"Two hundred seventy three." Jack's mouth was a slash.
"I see." That was the exact amount Ianto had privately saved from his tips. "You found it."
"Wasn't hard. You should hide your money better."
Ianto went to his no longer secret hiding place and took out the wrinkled bills. He handed them to Jack. "Fine. We should be even now, yeah?"
Jack took the money and put it away in his own wallet. "Yeah."
Ianto thought. He could probably convince Sir to let him sleep at the pub; he'd proven himself trustworthy enough. If he ate his meals there, he'd make less but he could save the little he did. He only felt a small twinge as he remembered how long it had taken him to save everything Jack had just taken.
As if reading his mind, Jack said, "If you're thinking about a place to stay, Georgn would be happy to take you in."
"I'd rather go back to the Agency and be turned into a farmer." He turned away from Jack, angry and tired, and began gathering his things. He owned the clothes now, and the few things that had been in his pockets when he'd died, and that was it. No money, no ID, and most of the language he spoke consisted of food and drink orders. He supposed he was still better off than when he'd arrived.
"See you," Jack said, and didn't watch him leave.
Ianto marched all the way to work, cloaked in his bad mood. Jack was Jack, and of course he'd prefer to continue his string of semi-anonymous shags rather than think about anyone else. And perhaps it had been unreasonable to expect him to give up the lifestyle that had served him so well for the sake of someone to whom he frankly didn't owe a thing.
It didn't matter. He was better off away from this Jack. Yes.
Sir wasn't in yet, but the early shift had opened the pub to get ready for the lunch service. Ianto let himself in the back. There was a corner where he could stash his belongings, such as they were. Table Three had the softest cushion, and if Sir was amenable, he could sleep there tonight.
With nothing better to do, he started chopping vegetables for the lunch cook.
Afternoon came and went, and he found time to wander the streets immediately surrounding the pub. He didn't go far, not trusting his own sense of direction. For all the time he'd spent in the future on an alien world whose name he still didn't know, he'd barely seen anything. Now that he had a chance, he found the experience depressing. Poverty surrounded him, in the cheap homes and businesses he walked past. Windows were made of a thick plastic here rather than glass, so instead of being broken, many were covered with indecipherable graffiti, while multi-hued aliens and humans loitered outside abandoned buildings. Jack lived in a palace compared to this.
Curiously, the signs in this area were lettered in multiple alphabets, and his heart gave a skip when he saw Indo-European letters. They were in no language he recognised but just the sight of the ABCs was comforting.
Once he had money of his own, not Jack's, not Sir's, he would try to find a room somewhere around here. The rent would be low enough that he could probably afford it. He'd worked out the monetary system, though he still wasn't sure what reasonable prices were for things.
Leaving the sign with the letters he knew behind, he felt very alone.
Jack didn't come to the pub that night, but at least neither did John. Sir scolded Ianto for asking to stay, but allowed him to do it anyway. He heard Sir lock the door, and immediately he undressed down to his underwear to sleep. The cushion at Table Three wasn't nearly as comfortable as he'd hoped.
Once upon a time when Ianto's life had made some kind of sense, his sister had teased him about being a crybaby. He'd have gladly taken the teasing all over again to see her now, but he had to make do with just the tears.
***
He woke sore and unrested, shrugging into a clean outfit before the early shift bustled inside. No one stopped him from cleaning or helping in the kitchen, though he doubted Sir would pay him extra for the time. He wanted to stay busy, show willing. If this was to be his only place from now on, he had to make himself indispensable.
The dead mobile stayed in his pocket, the weight reminding him that he had a plan. During the day, he touched it from time to time, an alien artifact with a hidden message: find me, save me, please.
Late in the evening, as he took a quick rest at an empty table after cleaning up someone's supper that had splattered the wall, Ianto closed his eyes. He heard a thump.
A handful of bills were on the table. He frowned and looked up at the arm that was holding them there.
"Jack?"
Jack slid into the booth next to him. "You know, that's a cute nickname. I might have to use it the next time I need an alias."
Ianto sat back. For a tiny fraction of a second, he'd hoped it was his Jack come to rescue him across time and space. For a tiny fraction of a second, he'd allowed himself to be very stupid.
"What do you want?"
"This is yours," Jack said, and slid the money over to him.
"Doesn't look like mine." He'd made his tips in very small bills. These were large. There were at least a couple of hundred credits in front of him.
"It's your cut."
"Of what?"
Jack smirked. "That was a great idea you had, saving a fuge or two when I can't save the group. Drop them somewhere out of the way, not get caught. Great scam."
"It wasn't a scam." Jack raised his eyebrows.
"Anyway, the highest bidder gets to go. Easy money, and they're not going to need it if they go or if they stay. The past three trips I've been on, I've made over five thousand." Yawning, he said, "Since it was your idea, and I felt bad about not telling you sooner, I figured you should have a cut."
"I don't want your money." He stared at the pile, saw Kamb's family again. "You are actually forcing people to pay you to survive?"
"No, I'm charging a transport fee. If you'd rather I leave them all to die, that's your problem. Are you taking it or not?"
The money would start him on his new life, would get him a place to sleep and meals, and maybe even a way home. But despite his growing doubts to its existence, Ianto wanted to believe his soul was worth more than a few hundred credits. "No."
"Fine," Jack said, and swept his arm out, taking it all back. "You're supposed to be working now, aren't you?"
"Just taking a break. Why do you care? I'm not working for your benefit anymore."
"Of course you are. I explained to the owner that you ran off yesterday, and thanked him for keeping an eye on you. I even gave him a small present to show my gratitude. That came out of your cut, by the way, though I suppose it doesn't matter."
"I'm not going back with you."
"You've got no money."
"I'll make more."
"You don't have anyplace else to stay."
"We're sitting on my bed from last night. It was perfectly comfortable."
"My room is a mess."
"Clean it yourself." On Ianto's private list of three word sentences he'd always wanted to say to Jack, this one ranked second.
"I like having you around."
"Then act like it," Ianto said, and the anger was back and he got up before he started shouting. His hands shook as he rinsed out his sponges. Ianto ignored Jack when he went back out to wipe down tables while the crowd cleared out. He kept ignoring him when Jack got up from the table, grabbed the broom, and helped clear up shards from a broken glass he'd missed earlier, then without a word, helped with the mopping up on the dance floor.
"I really don't like you," Ianto said, as Jack took the mops from him and rinsed out the sticky residue himself. Badly. Ianto was going to have to soak those to get them properly clean, but Sir was shooing them out now so he could close up.
Jack went directly to where Ianto had hidden his clothes and grabbed them. "You don't have to like me. Coming?"
Irritated, and still unsure if he'd won this round or lost it entirely, Ianto followed him home.
***
They greeted the morning with grumpy sex, and after, Ianto asked him why he'd come back for him.
"Told you. My place is messy, and I missed you."
"You think I have more to tell you about your brother."
"There's that."
Ianto rolled onto his back. "I don't. Nothing important, nothing I can tell you that would help."
He felt Jack stiffen beside him, and then relax. "So tell me the unimportant things."
"You don't want to hear them."
"If you have any idea where Georgn is when he finds him … "
"I don't know. It's after you … "
"After I what?"
"Nothing."
"Tell me."
"No."
"Then let me buy the information from you."
"I don't want your money, and you won't give me the thing I want."
"Then name something else you want." Jack rolled over onto his side and played with the hair on Ianto's chest. "I mean, I want to find my brother more than anything, but I can think of a hundred other things I want, too."
"I just want to get home."
"Are you sure?"
He closed his eyes and thought about it. Why did he want to go back? Obviously he belonged there, but what were his reasons? Jack, and to a lesser extent, Gwen needed him. He wanted to see Rhiannon and the children again. He wanted to watch David and Mica grow up, to be there for them. Ianto's odds of having children of his own were remote, but he could spoil and love Rhi's kids. Assuming they'd survived the 456.
"I want to know what happened to my family."
"Don't we all."
"Gray's mad. When Georgn finds him. From the torture. He blames you for everything, and he spends the rest of his life trying to make you pay for not saving him." Jack lay very still beside him. Ianto rolled over to face him, entwined his fingers in Jack's. "I'm so sorry."
"So am I."
***
In the afternoon, Jack came in and without a word, dropped a stack of papers on the table.
"What's that?"
"Records. There are duplicate names so I brought what I could find."
"I can't read these."
"I know."
It took about fifteen minutes until Jack read out Rhi's birthday. "That one."
"March 14, 1981 to July 7, 2040. Married Jonathon Davies, June 26, 1999. She was young."
"Yeah. They started dating right after … " He paused, and a sad smile came to his lips. "Her boyfriend before Jonny was Jonny's best friend Owain. Rhi caught Owain messing about with a very pretty girl named Mary. Jonny bitched him out for it, and Owain gave him a black eye." He took a deep breath. "Mary was my girlfriend. Rhi was the one who fixed us up. Bad idea all around but I suppose it worked out well for Rhi in the end."
"She married again," Jack said, ignoring Ianto's trip down memory lane. "Brian Evans, May 14, 2022."
"I know him! He lived the next street over. Does it say what happened to Jonny?"
"No. Too many men with his name."
"Pity." He couldn't imagine the two of them divorcing. Perhaps Jonny had died. For all that they'd been dead for years, he was sad at the thought.
"David Davies, born October 2, 1999. Died September 9, 2078."
"Did he get married?"
"It doesn't say."
"Any kids?"
"It doesn't say."
"Can you tell me anything?"
"You read it," Jack said, pushing the paper at him irritably.
"Sorry. Anything on Mica?"
"One marriage, three kids. Geraint, Sian, and Ianto."
His hand went to his mouth. "Really?"
"No, I'm making this all up. You've got better intel than I ever do and you're complaining?"
"I'm not complaining. I just … I wasn't expecting to know anything."
"Just because she named her kid after you doesn't mean you know anything."
Ianto's head snapped over and met Jack's laughing eyes. "How did you … "
"Went through your wallet, remember?"
"You shouldn't know my name." His lips went numb. He'd been contaminating the timeline. Ianto stood up. "I need to leave."
"Relax. You said we're not going to meet for a long time. I'll have forgotten you by then."
Ianto glanced at the corner with his belongings, with the Retcon he'd nearly forgotten himself. "I suppose you will." He sat back down, and let Jack tell him the little they had on the births and deaths of Mica's children.
***
Ianto was trying to take an order from Table One when the alien came into the pub. Tweedledum immediately came out from where he'd been tending bar to get in the alien's way.
The alien was the size of a small elephant, with four arms, light greenish fur, and a mad, intelligent gaze that covered the room until it settled on Jack, who was dancing between two human women.
"Knee-rock!" shouted the green-elephant-alien, and Jack's head turned. The happy expression on his face was replaced by annoyance.
"Curr-en." Then he rolled his eyes and went back to dancing.
Tweedledum put a hand on the alien's third shoulder, and said. "Bokka." Leave. Dum's second job was as bouncer, and he was big enough for arguments not to be an issue usually. The alien swatted him aside, and Dum flew into the counter under the bar.
Sir and Tweedledee rushed out from the back, where they'd been filling orders. Sir shouted while Dee went for their laser rifle under the bar.
The alien ignored them, drew two long, curved blades from his belt, and roaring, went straight for Jack.
Panic and horror froze Ianto to the spot, and then as if in very slow motion, he knew that if the alien killed Jack, everything Ianto had ever known would fall apart. Jack was mortal here. Jack could die here.
Ianto rushed the alien with a cry to stop him, to buy Jack time to get to a defensive position or to get the hell away. He punched and kicked and swore, anything to distract the alien, anything to keep him away from Jack. For a moment, it seemed to be working, as the monster drew back in surprise at the unexpected attack.
Then …
The knives were cold, like ice, and so sharp he almost didn't feel either one until they were halfway though his shoulders and hit bone.
No pain, only cold, no pain, only grey light in front of his eyes, no pain, and the stink of the green fur, and then pain, oh yes. Pain.
The alien began to draw his arms back, and the knives ground as they retreated, and the pain was worse, and there was a sharp thud.
The alien stopped moving. Then it collapsed, and Ianto fell with it, eyes drifting across the screaming crowd, seeing Jack with his gun out, already pulling it back from where he'd shot, and the cold had given to warmth now and Ianto closed his eyes.
***
Chapter 4