Hitting the Ground Running: Chapter Thirty-One
Title: Hitting the Ground Running
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: Adult
Pairing: Primarily Jack/Ianto, with other secondary pairings mentioned
Chapter: 31/?
Word Count: 3203
Summary: AU. Majorly AU. Ianto Jones first encountered Torchwood as a teenager trying to leave his old life behind. However, when Torchwood Three gets rather violently restructured at the start of the millennium, he’s got a new assignment in Cardiff. The only thing he wasn’t prepared for was his new boss.
Disclaimer: …You really think it’s mine? Much as I might wish it was, it isn’t. I will go on the record and say that, unlike the show’s creative team, I firmly believe in happy endings.
Notes: …You’re all going to hate me for this…
Chapter Thirty-One
In Which Owen is Suspicious, Jack is Oblivious, and Ianto Voluntarily Agrees to a Day Off
“So, you feel alright letting Jack and Gwen take this one together?” Owen asked as they were driving out to the abattoir, and Ianto gave him a sideways glance before focusing on the road again. He had to admit that technically ‘giant alien whale’ didn’t exactly fall into the ‘dangerous and threatening to humans’ category, but ironically it unfortunately fell under the ‘humans are dangerous to it’ category.
“I trust him,” he finally replied, as they turned down the dusty road that led to the old warehouses.
“Right,” Owen shrugged. “Hate to tell you, mate, but 150 plus years of promiscuity can’t be broken that easily.”
“Say what you want, Dr. Harper, but I have to believe he’s changed,” Ianto tapped out a meaningless rhythm on the dash as they pulled up on the back side of the compound. Jack, we’re here.
Good, came the instant response. Look around; see if anything can give us a way in without attracting too much attention. We’ll be there in ten.
“Jack wants us to find a way in,” Ianto told Owen, who groaned.
“I’d ask how you know when you’re not wearing your comm, and then I remember your freaky psychic thing,” he drew out his gun as he spoke, pressing his back to the wall and peeking around the corner. “Clear.”
“I somehow doubt we’re dealing with a group of masterminds, here,” Ianto commented as he strolled around the corner. “I think it’s more along the lines of disgruntled hauling company employees who’ve found a way to make quick cash. I’ve no doubt they’ll be desperate, but I don’t think we’re dealing with an army here.”
“I agree, but we still hafta be careful,” Owen reprimanded him, sneaking around the building, eyes darting back and forth.
“Owen, I hate to tell you this, but sneaking around wearing all-black in broad daylight isn’t the greatest way to go about being inconspicuous.”
“Bugger off,” Owen told him sharply, and Ianto sighed.
“I’m just letting you know.”
“Well, when I want to know your opinion, I’ll ask for it,” Owen stopped in front of a rather inconspicuous door. “This is as good a spot as any, I’ll wager.”
“Yes, but in case you’ve forgotten, we’ve left our lock-picking devices…” Ianto flinched as Owen shot the lock off. “Yes, I think we’ve quite blown our cover.”
“C’mon,” Owen pushed the door open and had a foot over the threshold when Jack spoke to Ianto again.
Ianto, get out of there. We’re heading back.
Right after we found a way in, too. Is there an issue, sir?
…It’s Gwen’s fiancée. He’s here.
Rhys? Ianto was sure even his mind-voice sounded incredulous. Rhys wouldn’t be involved in anything like this.
How certain are you?
Almost completely. Are you sure he didn’t follow you and Gwen? You and Owen seem to have the same issue with being subtle.
…He may have. But we have to question him all the same, so until we figure out what he was doing here, we’re pulling back to the Hub. Meet you there.
Will do, sir. “Owen, we’re leaving.”
“Bloody mind-voice,” was the reply, and Owen came back out, looking surly as he and Ianto walked over to where he’d parked his Honda.
“You’re in a right mood today. What’s set you off?”
“Bloody alien meat,” Owen continued to mutter, hopping into the driver’s seat and starting the car; gravel flew out from under the tyres as he turned in a tight circle before blasting off back toward the city, and Ianto hurriedly strapped himself in, fearing a little for his safety.
“Owen, really, what is it?”
“Tosh and I had a date planned for today. A real one. But now that this happened, I guess we can call it off,” he finally shouted, staring at the road and finally slowing down to a more acceptable speed.
“There’ll be other days,” Ianto told him quietly, now that he was able to talk without yelling over the howl of the wind.
“I know, mate. It’s just…I keep feeling like everything’s a sign. Like fate is trying to keep us apart,” Owen sighed. “And I don’t even believe in that drivel usually.”
“Well, fate’s not doing too good of a job, because Jack and I have had trouble since the beginning. You just have to work through it; it’s called ‘being in a relationship,’” Ianto nodded.
“Har-har,” Owen snarked. “You’re right; I’m just being a cynic.”
“Nothing new there,” Ianto settled back in his seat for the drive home.
000
“Well, this is unprecedented: the fiancée finding out,” Ianto took a sip of his beer and glanced at Tosh, seated on the sofa with a glass of wine.
Owen came up from the autopsy room with a plate of leftover pizza (Ianto had decided to be kind and buy him his mini-fridge anyway, if only to stop random alien parts from appearing in the kitchen) that he was already munching on before he dropped down beside Tosh.
“So they’re coming here?” Tosh asked.
“Sounds like it,” Ianto nodded, looking up at Jack who was pacing rather disconcertingly through Owen’s hothouse.
“What’s up with him?” Owen jerked his head in Jack’s general direction as Ianto stopped looking at him and turned back to the others.
“He’s trying to convince me to join him up there until Gwen and Rhys arrive. I’m rather snappishly reminding him of our ‘not on company time’ policy,” Ianto replied, shooting another glare in Jack’s direction. “It’s not happening, needless to say,” he added, taking another drink from his beer bottle.
A couple of minutes later Jack tromped down the stairs and over to the kitchen, coming back with a glass of water. “You’re no fun,” he informed Ianto.
“We agreed, sir,” Ianto let out a long-suffering sigh.
“No fun,” Jack repeated, leaning in as Ianto relented and let him steal a quick kiss. “Now we have to get ready for Gwen and her special guest.”
“Oi, Jack, are we Retconning him when this is over?” Owen asked casually.
“Of course. Nobody gets away from the rules, not even Gwen’s fiancée,” Jack looked confused that Owen had to ask, and the other man merely shrugged.
“Just checking, is all.”
Jack stared at him for a while longer before shrugging and changing the subject, forgetting all about the other man’s question.
000
“You’ve got a pterodactyl in your base,” Rhys said, eyes wide as he stared at Gwen who hopped off of the lift and beckoned him down.
“Technically she’s a pteranodon,” Ianto put in, coming to join her. “Nice to see you, Rhys.”
“Ianto? You…all work here?” he looked around, Tosh waving perkily to him and Owen giving him a nod. “Well, I have to say, I could never have imagined this being under the ground.”
“And that’s the way we want to keep it,” Jack told him, coming into view. “Welcome to the Hub, Rhys.”
“So. Aliens,” Rhys looked at him for confirmation.
“Aliens,” Jack replied with a grin. “Come into the boardroom and you can tell me what you were doing at the abattoir.”
“Followed you and Gwen, that’s what I was bloody doing,” he muttered on his way past Ianto, and the younger man sighed. While Rhys and Jack had never really gotten along, Jack had at least managed to keep the flirting with Gwen to a minimum whenever they went out for a drink or something (Ianto had even convinced Jack to go to a rugby match with them once), but he knew that Rhys had always felt intimidated by Jack.
He just hoped they could get through the meeting without the two of them getting into it too badly.
000
Ianto had always heard that, when you died, your life flashed before your eyes. He took a little bit of comfort in the fact that so far it didn’t look like that was happening, but then maybe that was only when you were falling…maybe when you were staring down the barrel of a gun things worked a little differently, and he had a fleeting thought that, even though he knew Jack had done the right thing by letting him handle getting free from the ropes on his own, he wished that Jack, like Gwen, had broken form just once and rushed out there.
The gunshot seemed to echo in his mind as he attempted to roll away, knowing that he couldn’t get completely clear, and he felt the bullet rip through his shoulder; a sharp, searing pain that he had to ignore a second later when Jack ordered him to follow the brothers (both verbally and mentally, and Ianto tried to send back a flash of emotion that amounted to ‘pain’ down the link, but Jack already had his shields up).
He reflected, as he walked wearily back to the main hangar, that he had perhaps been a bit too enthusiastic with his stunning (especially on the one that shot him; but then, he deserved it). He managed to get drag himself back into the warehouse, leaning against the wall as he watched Owen tend to Rhys (who, in all fairness, was probably hurt worse than he himself was, but Rhys had the advantage of being unconscious at that particular moment).
He slid down the wall, landing with a soft ‘thump’ on the floor, and lost track of time until Owen was shaking his shoulder (thankfully the one without the bullet wound) and muttering to him. “Oi, Tea-boy; no time to rest up yet. We’ve gotta get that space cow taken care of.”
The medic sounded strangely subdued, and Ianto knew that killing such an innocent creature couldn’t have been easy for him, but Ianto had to admit that the poor thing was in such pain that there really wasn’t another option. But Owen was talking to him again, and he forced himself to focus, although he really, really wanted to pass out.
“Owen…” he slurred, cutting the doctor off.
“What?”
“I…”
It was hard to speak all of a sudden, the words not coming out right, and Tosh (who had come over to see what was taking so long), dropped to her knees. “Owen, he’s bleeding!”
Owen, predictably, let loose a string of profanities before he realized that Tosh was right; what he had taken to be water-stains on Ianto’s dark jacket was actually blood, and he quickly peeled the fabric away before sighing in obvious relief. “Surface graze; the bullet nicked his shoulder and went on its way. Easy enough to clean, but I bet it hurts like nothing else, hey?”
“You c’d say tha’ again,” Ianto replied.
“Well, hang in there for me; I’ll get it cleaned and wrapped and you’ll be right as rain, okay, mate?”
“Trying,” Ianto said, trying desperately to get Jack’s attention but the other man was well and truly blocking him, so he clenched his teeth and rode out the pain while Owen fixed him up as best he could.
“You okay to walk?”
“Walked all over before,” Ianto shrugged, realizing a moment later that moving his shoulder probably wasn’t the greatest idea, and Owen helped him to his feet, steadying him as Jack came in, coat fluttering behind him.
“What’s taking so long? We’ve got a major clean-up operation, folks, so let’s get moving,” he ordered before heading back out.
“But Jack, Ianto’s…” Tosh started before realizing he wasn’t stopping.
“Leave it, Tosh,” Ianto said wearily as Owen passed him a couple of painkillers; Ianto knew that normally a pill wouldn’t be able to mask the pain of a gunshot wound, but Owen had come up with a formula that he swore up and down was safe which combined advanced alien technology with normal painkillers, and Ianto was thankful that, strong as it was, at least the future humans had found a way to get rid of pain without the added drowsiness of modern formulas.
Evidently humans in the future could afford to slow down even less than humans in the present.
“But Ianto…” she protested, and he finished swallowing the pills and looked at her.
“It’s fine. He’s got a lot on his mind. Just…don’t mention anything, okay? He’ll find out when he finds out,” Ianto told them, and Owen looked at him sympathetically.
“But can’t you…y’know…do that freaky psychic thing?”
“I tried,” Ianto told him sharply. “He’s blocked himself off.”
Owen gave him a calculating stare after that, pursing his lips before remarking, “Remember that conversation we had yesterday?”
“It’s not like that, Owen.”
“Right. So no coincidence that, right after he shags you, he starts pining for Gwen again.”
“Owen, please,” Ianto must have sounded pained enough that the medic stopped and shrugged.
“I just…don’t want you to get hurt, thinking this is something it isn’t,” he finally admitted.
“He called me his partner, Owen. Unless the definition of that word has drastically changed in his time, I would consider that pretty serious,” Ianto said tersely, starting to head for the door, and Owen caught up with him as he staggered.
“Easy, Ianto. I’m not saying it is like that…I’m just telling you to be careful.”
“I am, Owen,” Ianto assured him. “But thank you for caring.”
“Right,” Owen cleared his throat, suddenly awkward, and Tosh stifled a laugh.
“Seriously, Ianto, if you ever need anything…”
“I know you’ll always listen to me, Tosh,” he nodded to her.
“Now take it easy. Tosh ‘n I will clean up here; you find someplace to sit down for a while,” Owen gave him a stern look.
“You’re sure?”
“We’ll be fine,” Tosh put a hand on his arm. “Really.”
Ianto smiled at her and went to sit, trying not to think about Owen’s words and how close they actually were to his own thoughts.
000
“Bloody Harkness!” Owen kicked the coffee table on his way by, and Ianto flinched as he heard the ominous sound of wood cracking.
“Owen, please destroy your own furniture,” he pleaded, and the doctor huffed, ran a hand through his hair, and plopped beside Ianto on the sofa.
“So, wait, go over this again: you got shot, Jack didn’t notice, he mooned after Gwen all day and then…”
“Then,” Tosh put in, “Gwen said she wasn’t giving Rhys the drug to make him forget what he saw, and that she’d take it as well if Jack didn’t agree, citing she wouldn’t know any different.”
“And then he said, ‘I would,’” Owen scoffed. “Sounding like he was about to cry, and he let her go without giving Rhys the Retcon.”
“Well,” Andy cleared his throat and glanced around the room. “I think I can see the problem. We’re assuming that, if Ianto told him that I knew, I wouldn’t remember this conversation tomorrow, but Gwen can tell him just about anything and get away with it.”
“Exactly,” Tosh nodded.
“That’s a little unfair, isn’t it?”
“Unfair isn’t the half of it!” Owen snarled, getting up and pacing again.
“Owen, please,” Ianto said, rather loudly, but the medic stopped and stood in one place. “Look, I appreciate the concern from all of you; truly I do, but I don’t think it concerns you. No, Owen, I’m not done,” Ianto held up a hand as Owen opened his mouth and then shut it again. “I knew getting into this that Jack and I would never have a conventional relationship. It just isn’t in him to stay monogamous forever, and I can’t blame him for that: it’s how he was raised. I had hoped that maybe, for the no doubt brief amount of time we’ll have, that maybe he could make an exception for me, but I understand if he can’t.”
“But you shouldn’t have to put up with that, Ianto,” Tosh leant closer and put an arm on his knee. “You deserve to be happy, so why stay with him if you know he’ll only hurt you?”
“Because he’s safe? Because the sex is good?” Ianto laughed and shook his head. “I have a lot of reasons, Tosh, but I think the biggest one is…” he paused, biting his bottom lip, before giving a resigned sigh and admitting, “Because I love him. I’m in love with him.”
“We know,” Tosh admitted. “It’s obvious, and I think that, if he’d ever admit it, he loves you just as much as you love him.”
“So you know why I can’t just give up on him,” Ianto said softly, shifting his shoulder a bit.
“Any pain?”
“No. Just a little stiff,” Ianto told Owen with a nod. “You and Tosh should head on home. 6:00 comes early.”
“And you’re not coming in tomorrow,” Owen ordered.
“I’m not even going to argue with you on that,” Ianto shook his head. “I’ll gladly take the day off, if you think you can live without my coffee.”
“It won’t be easy, but we’ll try,” Tosh assured him, looking around for a few moments before hesitantly asking, “When Jack asks why you’re gone…”
“Tell him that if he wants to know he can come find out for himself,” Ianto snorted. “I said I’m not giving up on him; I didn’t say I was forgiving him immediately.”
“Good on you. We’ll tell the Captain,” Owen gave him a salute and sauntered out while Tosh kissed his cheek, nodded to Andy, and followed him out.
“You kicking me out as well?” Andy looked at Ianto who rolled his eyes.
“You’re always welcome here, Andy; you know that.”
“I’m just kidding, Ianto,” Andy gave him a reassuring smile. “How about I get us some movies and some food?”
“Sounds good.”
“You’re okay for painkillers?” he asked hesitantly.
“Owen gave me what I need and…I hate to say it…I’m almost used to things like this by now. Although I have to say that getting shot is a new one,” he tried to lighten the mood, but Andy was staring at him in shock. “Sorry. I know it’s nothing to joke about, but it’s over and done with, so can we move on?”
“Yeah. Right,” Andy nodded. “I’ll be back soon, yeah?”
000
“Thanks for this,” Ianto said later, holding up his chopsticks as Andy shrugged.
“Least I could do,” he replied, setting down his own container of food and turning back to the DVD. “And you know he’ll come around, Ianto.”
“I can only hope,” Ianto nodded, unable to keep the disappointment out of his voice.
Andy obviously heard it and shifted closer, looking horribly awkward until Ianto gave him a smile and he settled his arm around Ianto, careful not to jostle his injured arm. “He will, Ianto. I don’t know him that well and I can tell he’s smitten.”
“Thank you,” Ianto said gratefully, letting himself lean against the other man. “I think this is all finally catching up with me, so don’t take offense if I fall asleep on you, okay?”
“Of course not. Sleep if you want,” Andy told him quietly.
Ianto sighed and closed his eyes, feeling warm and safe.
And while it didn’t take much for him to admit that he wished it was Jack sharing the evening with him, he also had to admit that he didn’t mind this at all.
Additional Notes:
Yes, Jack’s being a complete and utter jerk, but bear with me; it’s necessary to set up the plot for the next couple of chapters. Other than that, I start school again next week (yay?), and while I only have one more year of my program left, there will inevitably be more to come after that. I hope it doesn’t cut into my writing time too much, though!
Previous ChaptersHERE