Taken - 8/8
Series: Taken
Part: Eight - Taken Back
Word Count: 1600
Characters: The staff of Torchwood Three, The Doctor, Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Rhys Williams, Tom Milligan.
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Martha/Tom, Gwen/Rhys.
Rating: PG
Genre: Angst!!! Drama. AU.
Warning: Spoilers up the Adrift.
Disclaimer: Alas the Torchwood character's are not mine, they belong to other more fabulous people. Which makes me sad.
Un-beta'ed, sorry. Any and all mistakes are my own (i'm known as the typo queen around friends), and i apologize for them.
Authors Ramble: Well this is it guys, the very last chapter of Taken. About time i got it up eh? I know, i'm really bad when it comes to posting quickly. Which most likely pisses people off, and i'm sorry for that. But unfortunately life does take precedence over my fics, which is just oh so very sad because fics are so much more fun than real life. But anyway, this is now done, yay! I hope you all enjoy it, i hope you've enjoyed the whole thing. Yes, the angst was heavy but what can i say, i'm just a sucker for the angst. Next i shall get posting I need you safe, since i seem to be neglecting that one. Bad me!
Summary: Jack was sure that the Rift was out to muck up his life completely.
- Give us more time to be this way -
we can't stay like this forever
but I can have you next to me today
"Oh wow, look. Coffee and mints, I told you we'd get to this part of the dinner one day." Jack said with a grin as Ianto chuckled from where he sat across the table.
"True, you did say that." Jack just continued smiling, staring at the other man. "Jack." Ianto said in an amused tone. "You've got to stop doing that."
"Doing what?" The older man asking with mock innocence.
"Staring at me like you haven't seen me in years."
"Who says i have too?" Jack asked, much like a child would say to a parent when told to tidy their room.
"Well, no one. But it'll make it rather difficult to work when all you do is stare at me."
"I'll manage." Jack assured. "About that."
"About what?"
"Work. Are you sure you're ready to go back? Because if you want more time, i bet i could swing that. It just so happens that i know your boss pretty well." He winked.
Ianto rolled his eyes at Jack. "I'm sure. I can't sit around my flat all day watching the telly."
"Sure you could, i know i could."
"Jack." Ianto laughed. "It's been a month, i'm ready to go back to work."
Jack just sighed, reluctant to send the younger man back to a job that had essentially kill him. "Okay, but you're on restricted duty." He said, pointing at Ianto.
After Ianto had returned, Jack defiantly and unequivocally refused to allow him right back to work. In the days following his return Ianto stayed at Tosh's, since his flat had be cleared out by the Torchwood staff almost two years before hand.
It had only taken Jack a few days to reinstate all of Ianto's company IDs, as well as get his things out of storage. Ianto eventually got back to his place, after a few very good mother hen impressions from both Tosh and Gwen. Only to find the flat full of brown cardboard boxes, each with the Torchwood 'T' stamped on the side of them.
It took him about a week to get the place back in working order, even with Jack's help. Not that the other man's help really proved all that, well... helpful. But he meant well, and that's all that mattered in the end.
The only time Ianto had been back in the hub, was for the welcome home party that the girls insisted on throwing his third week back. It was a bit over powering at first, what with facing all his emotional friends. He was genuinely surprised when Rhys hugged him, telling him he was glad to see him back. Apparently Gwen's husband had known everything that had gone on, thanks to his very talkative wife.
Ianto was happy to see Martha again, who must have hugged him for a good twenty minutes whilst crying. He was also introduced to her future husband, who looked as flustered about being there as Ianto was. He was pleased to see Donna, who he had grown rather fond of after spending some time with the fiery red head his first few days back. And of course the Doctor was there, who just beamed at him brightly. Ianto had quickly learned why Jack had been so taken by the man, he was like a force of nature. Sweeping in, changing things and then leaving without so much as a look back. Ianto finally understood the pull of the Time Lord, and in a way that helped him understand Jack a bit more.
"So, where to next?" Jack asked from where he sat at the table.
"I know exactly where i want to go." Ianto told him as the two got ready to leave the very same restaurant they had been at right before the young Welshman was taken.
####
"Ianto this is morbid." Jack said as they drove to the cemetery.
"Says the man who shot himself in the head just to have a conversation with me." Ianto quipped dryly.
"Well, good conversation is hard to find." Jack smirked, but continued driving.
It was after the 'welcome home' party, back at Ianto's flat when Jack finally told him that they had had a funeral for him. Ianto was touched, which he knew most people wouldn't be. Finding out what your own burial was like is not usually something that fulls a person with warm and fuzzy feelings, and yet it did with Ianto because he understood just what it had meant. Torchwood employees were kept, yet Jack had allowed him to have a proper resting place. That was a luxury that past staff members had never gotten, or ever would again.
"What's in it?" Ianto asked, standing in front of the polished tombstone that marked were he was supposedly laying.
"Just mementos." Jack said softly, slipping his hand into Ianto's. "A suit, some pictures. Trinkets from the girls, Owen stuck a coffee cup in." Jack chuckled. "Oh! And a UNIT cap." He laughed as Ianto made an embarrassed noise, rolling his eyes.
"I am so getting both you and Martha back for that." Ianto assured.
"I've no doubt."
"What did you put in?"
Jack looked at his young lover. "Your stopwatch." He smirked softly, his eyes looking a little sad. It bothered Ianto how sad Jack still looked at times.
"Hey." He squeezed Jack's hand slightly. "You don't have to worry anymore, i'm back."
"Are you?"
Ianto quirked an eyebrow. "Okay, you've lost me." He smiled, but couldn't stop the knot that turned in this stomach from the somber expression Jack wore.
"I sometimes worry that my mind is playing a cruel trick on me, that i'll wake up one morning and you'll be gone again."
"I'm here Jack, it's not a trick."
"But it is." Jack stared off into space as he spoke, unable to look at Ianto as he essentially bore his heart to the other man. "One day i'll wake up, and you will be gone again. Maybe not right away, it could be years from now. But one day, you won't come back."
"Jack, look at me." Ianto said softly yet firmly, causing Jack to look into his bright blue eyes. "You're right, one day my time with you will end. One day my life will end, and i won't come back. I don't have forever, that's a burden only you bare. Which is why you can't spend your time with me thinking like that, or you'll spend my entire life worrying when you're going to lose me again. And when it finally happens, it won't have much of an impact because you never really let go of the first time you lost me. You're keeping me dead inside your mind Jack, please don't do that."
Jack smiled softly, placing his free hand against the other man's cheek for a moment. "How'd you get so smart?"
Ianto gave a little shrug, smirking. "Natural talent." He said flippantly.
"Humble as well i see." Jack smirked before turning his attention back to the headstone. "I'll make a call in the morning, i'll get them to yank this sucker up." He tapped the edge of the stone with the toe of his boot.
They were quiet for a moment before Ianto spoke up again. "Leave it."
"What?"
"The headstone, leave it."
Jack stared at Ianto with a puzzled look on his face. "You're a very complicated man Ianto. Here you are telling me not to keep you dead, and yet you don't want me to get rid of the tombstone. Which, correct me if i'm wrong, but that usually signifies dead."
"Jack, no Torchwood employee gets one. We get a drawer and a file number, nothing else. All our belongings are packed up and hidden away, we disappear. There's nothing to mark our passing, nothing to remind anyone that any one of us were ever here."
Jack idly thought back to Toshiko, and how she had tried to explain just that to him when she first tried to broach the subject of a funeral. He had never really understood the need for funerals, but he guessed that was because he didn't have the same sense of mortality as the rest of the human existence. Their urge to be remembered, their need to have their lives mean something. The desperate want to be more than, more than a blip on the cosmic radar.
"Leave it, please. Just change the dates when the time comes."
"I will, i promise." Jack assured with a nod of his head. "You know, you're a very morbid date." They both chuckled. "Come on, we should get going. You're going to need to get some sleep, you're not gonna want be late for your first day back. Especially since i heard your boss can be a complete ass sometimes, gorgeous, ravishing even. But an ass none the less." Jack said in a playful manner, smirking.
Ianto laughed, turning to face Jack fully as he wrapped his arms around his waist. "Hmmm, i do so hate being late. Which reminds me, someone owes me a new a new stopwatch." He arched an eyebrow, smirking slyly at Jack.
"Well..." Jack pulled Ianto close, grinning brightly. "I wouldn't be the first time i did."
Ianto let out a short laugh before leaning in and kissing Jack lovingly. "Take me home." He said against the older man's lips.
"Gladly." Jack said, feeling content for the first time in almost two years.
FIN
Comments are love. Love it? Hate it? Want to beat me over the head with the J/I hockey stick of doom? Let me know ^_^
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7
I know i said in part 6 that i'd post where i got the quotes i use at the start of each chapter from, so here they are. All are from songs since i'm such a music dork.
Chapter One - Shadow of the Day by Linkin Park
Chapter Two - Gorecki by Lamb
Chapter Three - Somewhere by Within Temptation
Chapter Four - Too where you are by Josh Groban
Chapter Five - Hope there's someone by Antony and the Johnsons
Chapter Six - It's only love by Heather Nova
Chapter Seven - Flow by Transister
Chapter Eight - Awake by Josh Groban
Part: Eight - Taken Back
Word Count: 1600
Characters: The staff of Torchwood Three, The Doctor, Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Rhys Williams, Tom Milligan.
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Martha/Tom, Gwen/Rhys.
Rating: PG
Genre: Angst!!! Drama. AU.
Warning: Spoilers up the Adrift.
Disclaimer: Alas the Torchwood character's are not mine, they belong to other more fabulous people. Which makes me sad.
Un-beta'ed, sorry. Any and all mistakes are my own (i'm known as the typo queen around friends), and i apologize for them.
Authors Ramble: Well this is it guys, the very last chapter of Taken. About time i got it up eh? I know, i'm really bad when it comes to posting quickly. Which most likely pisses people off, and i'm sorry for that. But unfortunately life does take precedence over my fics, which is just oh so very sad because fics are so much more fun than real life. But anyway, this is now done, yay! I hope you all enjoy it, i hope you've enjoyed the whole thing. Yes, the angst was heavy but what can i say, i'm just a sucker for the angst. Next i shall get posting I need you safe, since i seem to be neglecting that one. Bad me!
Summary: Jack was sure that the Rift was out to muck up his life completely.
- Give us more time to be this way -
we can't stay like this forever
but I can have you next to me today
"Oh wow, look. Coffee and mints, I told you we'd get to this part of the dinner one day." Jack said with a grin as Ianto chuckled from where he sat across the table.
"True, you did say that." Jack just continued smiling, staring at the other man. "Jack." Ianto said in an amused tone. "You've got to stop doing that."
"Doing what?" The older man asking with mock innocence.
"Staring at me like you haven't seen me in years."
"Who says i have too?" Jack asked, much like a child would say to a parent when told to tidy their room.
"Well, no one. But it'll make it rather difficult to work when all you do is stare at me."
"I'll manage." Jack assured. "About that."
"About what?"
"Work. Are you sure you're ready to go back? Because if you want more time, i bet i could swing that. It just so happens that i know your boss pretty well." He winked.
Ianto rolled his eyes at Jack. "I'm sure. I can't sit around my flat all day watching the telly."
"Sure you could, i know i could."
"Jack." Ianto laughed. "It's been a month, i'm ready to go back to work."
Jack just sighed, reluctant to send the younger man back to a job that had essentially kill him. "Okay, but you're on restricted duty." He said, pointing at Ianto.
After Ianto had returned, Jack defiantly and unequivocally refused to allow him right back to work. In the days following his return Ianto stayed at Tosh's, since his flat had be cleared out by the Torchwood staff almost two years before hand.
It had only taken Jack a few days to reinstate all of Ianto's company IDs, as well as get his things out of storage. Ianto eventually got back to his place, after a few very good mother hen impressions from both Tosh and Gwen. Only to find the flat full of brown cardboard boxes, each with the Torchwood 'T' stamped on the side of them.
It took him about a week to get the place back in working order, even with Jack's help. Not that the other man's help really proved all that, well... helpful. But he meant well, and that's all that mattered in the end.
The only time Ianto had been back in the hub, was for the welcome home party that the girls insisted on throwing his third week back. It was a bit over powering at first, what with facing all his emotional friends. He was genuinely surprised when Rhys hugged him, telling him he was glad to see him back. Apparently Gwen's husband had known everything that had gone on, thanks to his very talkative wife.
Ianto was happy to see Martha again, who must have hugged him for a good twenty minutes whilst crying. He was also introduced to her future husband, who looked as flustered about being there as Ianto was. He was pleased to see Donna, who he had grown rather fond of after spending some time with the fiery red head his first few days back. And of course the Doctor was there, who just beamed at him brightly. Ianto had quickly learned why Jack had been so taken by the man, he was like a force of nature. Sweeping in, changing things and then leaving without so much as a look back. Ianto finally understood the pull of the Time Lord, and in a way that helped him understand Jack a bit more.
"So, where to next?" Jack asked from where he sat at the table.
"I know exactly where i want to go." Ianto told him as the two got ready to leave the very same restaurant they had been at right before the young Welshman was taken.
####
"Ianto this is morbid." Jack said as they drove to the cemetery.
"Says the man who shot himself in the head just to have a conversation with me." Ianto quipped dryly.
"Well, good conversation is hard to find." Jack smirked, but continued driving.
It was after the 'welcome home' party, back at Ianto's flat when Jack finally told him that they had had a funeral for him. Ianto was touched, which he knew most people wouldn't be. Finding out what your own burial was like is not usually something that fulls a person with warm and fuzzy feelings, and yet it did with Ianto because he understood just what it had meant. Torchwood employees were kept, yet Jack had allowed him to have a proper resting place. That was a luxury that past staff members had never gotten, or ever would again.
"What's in it?" Ianto asked, standing in front of the polished tombstone that marked were he was supposedly laying.
"Just mementos." Jack said softly, slipping his hand into Ianto's. "A suit, some pictures. Trinkets from the girls, Owen stuck a coffee cup in." Jack chuckled. "Oh! And a UNIT cap." He laughed as Ianto made an embarrassed noise, rolling his eyes.
"I am so getting both you and Martha back for that." Ianto assured.
"I've no doubt."
"What did you put in?"
Jack looked at his young lover. "Your stopwatch." He smirked softly, his eyes looking a little sad. It bothered Ianto how sad Jack still looked at times.
"Hey." He squeezed Jack's hand slightly. "You don't have to worry anymore, i'm back."
"Are you?"
Ianto quirked an eyebrow. "Okay, you've lost me." He smiled, but couldn't stop the knot that turned in this stomach from the somber expression Jack wore.
"I sometimes worry that my mind is playing a cruel trick on me, that i'll wake up one morning and you'll be gone again."
"I'm here Jack, it's not a trick."
"But it is." Jack stared off into space as he spoke, unable to look at Ianto as he essentially bore his heart to the other man. "One day i'll wake up, and you will be gone again. Maybe not right away, it could be years from now. But one day, you won't come back."
"Jack, look at me." Ianto said softly yet firmly, causing Jack to look into his bright blue eyes. "You're right, one day my time with you will end. One day my life will end, and i won't come back. I don't have forever, that's a burden only you bare. Which is why you can't spend your time with me thinking like that, or you'll spend my entire life worrying when you're going to lose me again. And when it finally happens, it won't have much of an impact because you never really let go of the first time you lost me. You're keeping me dead inside your mind Jack, please don't do that."
Jack smiled softly, placing his free hand against the other man's cheek for a moment. "How'd you get so smart?"
Ianto gave a little shrug, smirking. "Natural talent." He said flippantly.
"Humble as well i see." Jack smirked before turning his attention back to the headstone. "I'll make a call in the morning, i'll get them to yank this sucker up." He tapped the edge of the stone with the toe of his boot.
They were quiet for a moment before Ianto spoke up again. "Leave it."
"What?"
"The headstone, leave it."
Jack stared at Ianto with a puzzled look on his face. "You're a very complicated man Ianto. Here you are telling me not to keep you dead, and yet you don't want me to get rid of the tombstone. Which, correct me if i'm wrong, but that usually signifies dead."
"Jack, no Torchwood employee gets one. We get a drawer and a file number, nothing else. All our belongings are packed up and hidden away, we disappear. There's nothing to mark our passing, nothing to remind anyone that any one of us were ever here."
Jack idly thought back to Toshiko, and how she had tried to explain just that to him when she first tried to broach the subject of a funeral. He had never really understood the need for funerals, but he guessed that was because he didn't have the same sense of mortality as the rest of the human existence. Their urge to be remembered, their need to have their lives mean something. The desperate want to be more than, more than a blip on the cosmic radar.
"Leave it, please. Just change the dates when the time comes."
"I will, i promise." Jack assured with a nod of his head. "You know, you're a very morbid date." They both chuckled. "Come on, we should get going. You're going to need to get some sleep, you're not gonna want be late for your first day back. Especially since i heard your boss can be a complete ass sometimes, gorgeous, ravishing even. But an ass none the less." Jack said in a playful manner, smirking.
Ianto laughed, turning to face Jack fully as he wrapped his arms around his waist. "Hmmm, i do so hate being late. Which reminds me, someone owes me a new a new stopwatch." He arched an eyebrow, smirking slyly at Jack.
"Well..." Jack pulled Ianto close, grinning brightly. "I wouldn't be the first time i did."
Ianto let out a short laugh before leaning in and kissing Jack lovingly. "Take me home." He said against the older man's lips.
"Gladly." Jack said, feeling content for the first time in almost two years.
FIN
Comments are love. Love it? Hate it? Want to beat me over the head with the J/I hockey stick of doom? Let me know ^_^
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7
I know i said in part 6 that i'd post where i got the quotes i use at the start of each chapter from, so here they are. All are from songs since i'm such a music dork.
Chapter One - Shadow of the Day by Linkin Park
Chapter Two - Gorecki by Lamb
Chapter Three - Somewhere by Within Temptation
Chapter Four - Too where you are by Josh Groban
Chapter Five - Hope there's someone by Antony and the Johnsons
Chapter Six - It's only love by Heather Nova
Chapter Seven - Flow by Transister
Chapter Eight - Awake by Josh Groban