Jack Returns to the Hub

[capj_harkness]

Who: Jack and Ianto
When: Night, after Jack cleaned up the dead alien at the bar.
Where: The Hub
What: Jack returns to the Hub to talk to Ianto. He is both nervous and relieved.
Status: Complete

Comments

[tea_boy_x]

Cleaning. Yeah. It was distracting. And probably what he was gonna go back to now that Jack was back. Ianto still didn't know what to think about that. The rest seemed happy. Even Owen, though he'd been the most vocal about 'the bastard that ran out

[capj_harkness]

Jack's expression started to brighten hopefully for a moment when he saw Ianto, but that faded again at the aloofness in the younger man's tone.

"Oh," he said when Ianto spoke, remembering the mess that used to be his shirt and patting his chest absently. "I think it's just about dry." It was still pretty damp. He wouldn't say dripping, but he wasn't going to argue with Ianto over that. Not in that moment of all times.

He put his hands in his pockets, his coat still hanging over one arm. "And I have plenty more to say," he added a little awkwardly. "Just not... to everyone."

[tea_boy_x]

He didn't think it was possible, what with as pissed off as he was. But seeing that smile made his heart skip a beat. God, he was a fool. Ianto Jones was a fool who fell for the wrong people. Lisa, Jack..

"You think? But you're not sure," Ianto said, making sure the tone of his voice was neutral, emotionless, *professional*. And since he was the one who cleaned up after everyone's mess, including Jack again now, the dear captain better make damn sure there wasn't going to be a trail left.

Ianto sighed, turning around to continue his job... one which he had finished a while ago, to be honest. But for some reason he'd kept dwindling and now he found himself cleaning up things that really didn't need cleaning.

"If you say so, Sir," Ianto replied neutrally... possibly coolly as he turned his back on Jack.

[capj_harkness]

Jack put his coat down over the nearest chair and shrugged off the blue button-down shirt that was so badly soiled. The mess had soaked through to mar the white t-shirt underneath, but it wasn't saturated like the blue shirt.

He balled up the button-down shirt and stuffed it in the nearest workstation's rubbish bin.

"I..." He turned around and watched Ianto's back for a moment. "Are you okay?" finally asked.

[tea_boy_x]

Oh, he knew that sound. Oh yeah, Ianto knew that sound. Had heard plenty of times before. Down in that little manhole entrance bedroom. ...and various other place. Yup. He knew that sound. So he wasn't going to turn around and have the sight of a near naked Jack ruin his stubborn streak.

Not that he was stubborn. But if he was? He had every right to be so.

Thus instead of turning around, Ianto kept cleaning up nothing and everything. He shrugged one shoulder at Jack's question. There were so many sarcastic responses on tip of his tongue in reply to *that* question. Most of them along the line of 'of course he wasn't fine, damnit!'

All that came out instead was, "Yup. Why wouldn't I be?" Oops. Maybe the tone of voice had been just a *little* sarcastic there.

[capj_harkness]

Stupid. He was old and stupid. Had he mentioned stupid?

Gwen might (might) forgive him. Owen and Tosh might, in time, forgive him (Owen had been far less abrupt with him than he'd expected) but he'd been stupid to think he could come in here and mumble an apology and that would make everything alright with Ianto. He'd been hoping, when he'd made the decision to come home, that he could truly make things right with Ianto. It might mean starting over again, in a way, but it would allow... more. He'd given it considerable thought in the quieter moments of his imprisonment in the Valiant's engine room.

But it was clearly too late. He'd already ruined it. Ianto just kept working and wouldn't even look at him.

"I'm... interrupting," he surmised as he continued watching Ianto's back as he worked. "Do you want..." He stopped. "Is this a bad time?" He didn't wait for a response right away, soldiering on before he lost the nerve. One last attempt. "I thought maybe we could..." He made a vague gesture towards the cog door. "Let me buy you a

[tea_boy_x]

Inside, Ianto Jones was fuming. And running over all the scenario's he'd come up with. Things he was going to say once Jack would come back. If he would come back. All those times when he'd crawled down that stupid manhole, laid on that very bed where... Yeah. It still smelled of Jack even now

[capj_harkness]

"I didn't come over here to put you to work," Jack said, stepping forward, though a cup of Ianto's coffee would go down so nicely... not that he deserved it. As much as he'd thought about it while he was gone.

He watched the familiar sight of Ianto at the coffee machine and ached to touch him, but Ianto still wasn't even looking at Jack, so it seemed unlikely that that was going to happen any time soon... if at all. Ever again.

That feeling of loss, of inconsolable loneliness that he'd felt when reality - that they might not need him there anymore, that they might not want him anymore - began to set in, except moreso.

[tea_boy_x]

This was not the reunion he had imagined. Of course Jack most likely wasn't the hugs and roses and... sort of guy. Like Lisa had been. Funny how little he actually knew about his Captain. The. THE Captain. He'd never been his. That was obvious now.

"Never stopped you before." Ianto replied as he made his way over to the coffee maker. Shit. Was everything coming out of his mouth right now open for double interpretation? He was usually better then that. Crap.

Biting down on a sigh, Ianto started the ritual, as it were, of making coffee. He was certain the rest didn't understand but there was something calming about making coffee. Except now it seemed. Jack was *hovering*.

"Something keeping you from talking while I work, Sir? Never has before."

[capj_harkness]

Jack shrugged, though he wasn't sure why he kept making physical gestures when Ianto refused to look at him.

"I know I can be a little slow on the uptake," he joked weakly, "but I'm starting to get the impression that you don't particularly want to talk to me."

[tea_boy_x]

"You know what they say about assumptions, don't you, Sir?" Ianto asked as he finished making the coffee. By now he did it without even having to look. The English had their bloody tea ritual. Ianto Jones had his coffee making one.

Though, if it was so calming, then why did he have to take several breath's to make sure his hands weren't shaking, when he turned around to hand the Captain his coffee mug. *His* coffee mug. Damn. Ianto had grabbed it without even thinking about it. He should have just used a regular mug.

"Assuming makes and Ass out of You," he clarified his earlier words, leaning against a nearby desk, legs and arms crossed in what he hoped was a casually pose, sipping coffee while he steadily looked at Jack Harkness.

[capj_harkness]

Now that Ianto was actually looking at him, Jack held his gaze for a long moment, like it was a fleeting thing that might be gone again in an instant if he let it go.

Finally, he took a sip of his coffee. Ianto's brew was unique and it tasted like home. He'd suspected that maybe he was romanticizing it in his mind, when, chained in the Valiant, he'd begun to think he might never taste it again, or step inside the Hub or see any of the faces that had somehow become his family when he wasn't paying attention. The coffee tasted as good as he'd remembered. The Hub looked a little different. His family was trying to decide whether or not they hated him

[tea_boy_x]

No reaction at all to that little observation. Huh. The Jack he had know would have given a smart arse remark back to that one. But then, was this man still the Jack Ianto had known? Was he still the Jack who would even want Ianto. Or even the Jack Ianto would want

[capj_harkness]

Jack steeled himself and looked at Ianto again.

"Is that really so hard to believe?" he asked evenly, holding Ianto's gaze this time, trying not to think about what a horrible person he must have been a year ago (for him) that he'd been sleeping with this man for six months or so and the fact that Jack might have missed him stretched the bounds of credulity.

[tea_boy_x]

Was that so hard-- Did Jack just really ask him if that was so hard to believe? The captain ran out of them him, thinking they he weren't worth a word or even a bloody note as to state that he had? Left them behind, holding the bag, trying to make it on their own...

He left me. And fool that I was thought I meant something to him. But how could I when I'm not even worth a damn hastily scribbled note!

...And he just actually asked if that was so hard to believe.

Laughable, in a way. Painful, in another. Wow. So conflicted.

"Yeah," Ianto said, keeping his gaze locked with Jack's, "it sort of really is. You left, Jack. Not even a hastily written note. What am I supposed to think?" Aw. Shit! He wasn't supposed to say the latter out loud.

[capj_harkness]

Jack nodded. "Point taken," he said in all seriousness. "But I didn't mean it that way. And I honestly thought I could be right back. And then when things took a turn..."

He leaned heavily on the nearest workstation and looked at Ianto earnestly. "Harold Saxon was a hostile alien. He was going to destroy the world, enslave the human race... His office sent you to the Himilayas so I couldn't get in touch with you. Not about that... or anything else. I'm sorry. But I really... I didn't mean to just disappear for months. I didn't. I know you're mad at me - you have every right to be - but... I came back. The Doctor asked me to go with him, but I didn't. I wanted this life back."

He searched Ianto's eyes for some idea of what he was thinking for a moment.

"If you'll have me," he added quietly, his tone not making it entirely clear whether 'you' meant Ianto specifically or the team as a whole.