A Matter of Time (15/20)
Rating: R
Summary: In which there are too many Jacks.
A/N: Made it through the sore sore sore wrist! And now I have a brace, so that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Thanks to my betas, thaddeusfavour andbacchae777 for their help!
Previous chapters here.
~
"Jack?" said Ianto, pressing a palm to the glass, either to get closer and be sure or to steady himself.
"Me?" said Kethan.
~
"Oh my God," Ianto breathed, staring into the cell. It was Jack; there was no question about that. Older than Kethan, but more than that he couldn't tell from here. He looked around frantically for the lock. "Open it. Now."
Kethan nodded, apparently speechless, and pulled him back by the arm before tapping his wristband. The door slid open with a hiss and Ianto rushed in.
"Jack," he said again, his mind racing. Ianto knelt down beside him and tugged at the cuffs where they were bolted to the wall. "Kethan, can you--"
"Yep," said Kethan, pushing him away from the wall, and starting in on the cuffs, leaving Ianto kneeling in front of Jack.
"Do you--" he started, staring at Jack's face. He looked older, but not a lot. Maybe forty-five, if he had to guess, but of course, that didn't mean anything. Not with Jack.
"Hello, Ianto," Jack said, and if Ianto hadn't been standing he might have crumpled with relief. Jack knew him. Jack smiled and looked over to where Kethan was unlocking the second cuff. "What is it with people and bondage, seriously? It's really ruining the kink for me."
Ianto laughed, more out of hysteria than humour, and touched a hand to Jack's face, running it through the sweat and grime. "How are you here? Why are you here?"
"Later. Right now, Kethan needs to go back to Opal."
Kethan sat back on his haunches with a frown. "Why?"
"Because," Jack said, not moving from where he was propped against the wall, "They're about to be ambushed, and they could really use some back-up."
Ianto half-expected Kethan to protest, but he didn't, just gave Jack a hard look and then a sharp nod. He stood up, unholstered his blaster, and exited the cell, leaving Ianto alone with Jack. Ianto took a deep breath and turned back to Jack, his mind racing with the impossibility of it all. Two Jacks. Any other time and he might have thought he was asleep and having a very good dream.
"How old are you?"
"Pass me your blaster."
Ianto blinked. "That wasn't an answer."
"No, it wasn't, and I'll make it an order if it needs to be, but please, just do it," Jack said, his voice level as he reached out a hand. Ianto shuffled back, just out of reach. Something wasn't right.
"Why?" he asked, suspicious.
Jack rolled his eyes. "Because my legs are broken, and the only way I'm going to walk out of here is if I shoot myself. I don't think you want to do it, so pass me your blaster."
"What?" Ianto said sharply. He knew Jack healed fastest when dead, but killing himself seemed awfully drastic. "Can't we just help you out of here?"
"No, not if what I remember is right," Jack said, shaking his head. His hair was too long, and he blew it out of his eyes. "Ianto, Kethan can't know I'm immortal. He's going to come back in five minutes, really annoyed because I lied to him. If I'm not alive again by then, time will go to hell. Please don't let your scruples destroy the fabric of the universe."
Ianto was silent, watching Jack's outstretched hand. Logically, Ianto knew Jack’s plan was a rational one, and that it would be hard to move him out of here, but he had always made a point of not treating Jack's life (lives) as expendable. He looked out of the cell, into the bright corridor, and considered his options. If Jack remembered himself walking out of here, well...
The blaster was cool and sleek in his hand as he eased it out of his holster and passed it to Jack. Jack smiled, and turned the barrel on himself. Ianto barely shut his eyes before hearing the whine that followed. When he opened them again, Jack was slumped against the wall, blaster slipping from the hand on his lap. Ianto reached over and unwound the warm fingers from the trigger and put it away, before finding a comfortable seat on the floor. Waiting would always be the worst part.
Ianto spent the next two minutes examining Jack. His hair was longer than his own Jack's, much longer than Kethan's, and he spared a moment to brush it back from Jack’s face. He was dressed in a grey jumpsuit that looked to be prison issue and black boots. His face was grimy, covered in sweat and flecks of blood, and his eyes - Ianto couldn't bear to reach out and shut them - were the same bright blue. How old was he? He could be any age over a couple of centuries, Ianto presumed, but that hardly narrowed it down. He remembered Ianto, at least, so he couldn't be millions of years old; for all his age, Ianto knew that he had a better memory than Jack.
The minutes crawled by, Ianto keeping nervous watch for Kethan until he remembered what Jack had said about his legs being broken. If his body was trying to heal them, it would be easier if the bones were aligned. He reached out and pressed his hands on either side of Jack's outstretched legs, making sure they weren't bent at any odd angles. He was partway up the second leg when it twitched under him, and hands came up to his shoulders.
"That was quieter than normal," Ianto observed, feeling irrationally relieved that Jack hadn't chosen that death as his final one.
"Practice makes perfect," Jack said with a grin as he hauled himself up. "Oh, standing. Very nice, I like this."
"Been a while?" Ianto asked, amused.
"I wouldn’t tell them how to fly the TARDIS," Jack said, shrugging as he strolled out of the cell. "Their interrogator was a bit old-fashioned."
"I suppose they didn't anticipate you rescuing yourself," Ianto said, following Jack down the corridor.
Jack stopped and turned to him. "If I recall correctly - and I might not - it was your idea to come for me.
"I thought you were the Doctor," Ianto said, slipping into a grin as they rounded a corner. "If I'd known it was you, I might have warned them away."
"Should I be worried?" said Kethan, who was standing in the corridor, arms crossed. "My future self isn't above lying to me, apparently."
Jack walked over and clapped Kethan - himself - on the shoulder. "Sorry, kiddo. I needed a few minutes alone with Ianto. Timelines and all that, you know the deal."
"Did you just call me 'kiddo'?" Kethan asked, looking skeptical. "And what do I call you? Me? Kethan age... whatever age you are?"
"Jack will do fine," Jack said. "It's how Ianto knows me and I'll answer to it. Calling you Kethan will be strange, but it's straightforward enough."
"You've never met yourself before?" Ianto asked, mostly of Kethan. "Doesn't that happen sometimes?"
"Nope. It's generally considered a bad thing to cross your own timeline." He pointed a finger at Jack. "Which makes me wonder exactly what you're doing here."
Jack shrugged, and urged them onward. "Bit inevitable, really. Besides, I was locked up. Not as if I could run away from myself."
Kethan nodded, considering. "So you must be having major déjà-vu, right now. You've had all these conversations before, only from the other side. Unless..." he trailed off, looking thoughtful. "Unless I do lose these memories and you don't have them back?"
"I don't remember the details of every conversation," Jack admitted. "But I do remember what happens. And what happens right now, is you stop asking me questions and we go up to the roof."
Ianto started. "The roof?"
"Yep. I'm good on roofs, remember?" He flashed Ianto a broad grin, and Ianto resisted the urge to kiss him. If he remembered that, he couldn't be too old.
“And, do tell, what are we going to do once we’re on the roof?” Kethan asked. Ianto could tell he wasn’t completely at ease, that he was still uncertain about how much to trust Jack.
“You’ll see,” Jack replied, stepping around his younger self and heading for the exit. Kethan and Ianto trailed after him, exchanging a skeptical glace.
“Are you sure we can trust him?” Kethan whispered to Ianto.
‘He’s you!” Ianto hissed back.
“That doesn’t mean anything!”
Ianto rolled his eyes and pushed Kethan forward. “You can trust him. Besides, you get out of this alive no matter what, so what have you got to lose?”
Kethan shot him a look, but before he could say anything, Jack reached the cellblock exit and called back to them.
“Gentlemen! Stop gossiping about me and get your blasters out.”
“Am I actually going to need it this time?” Kethan grumped, but did as he was told. The three of them left the cellblock, where Opal and Ashild were waiting, tense and ready, on the other side. Ashild gave Jack a long look.
“Guess you weren’t lying,” she said slowly. Opal had a sort of funny look on her face, but she quickly schooled her features back into an impassive, professional mask.
“Out?”
“Up,” Jack said, shaking his head. “With any luck, we’ve got a ride waiting for us.”
Opal nodded, shrugging. “If you say so.”
They went back to the lift and waited for it to arrive in silence, Jack leaning nonchalantly against the wall, watching the numbers count up while the rest of them exchanged surreptitious glances with each other. Ianto wished he knew how old this Jack was; he had absolutely no idea how much he could assume he knew about this man. He had told Kethan that this Jack could be trusted, but could he even be sure? It’s how Ianto knows me. Did that mean that wasn’t what he went by anymore? He’d changed his name once; there was no reason to assume he wouldn’t do it again.
The lift dinged, and they got on, Jack asking aloud for the roof as the doors slid shut. They’d made it to the forty-eighth floor when the car shuddered to a halt.
“That’s not good,” Ashild said, after twice requesting that the doors open.
“Nope,” said Jack, reaching over and grabbing Kethan’s hand, pulling it towards him. Kethan protested for a moment, before realizing that Jack was accessing his wristband.
“Where’s yours?”
“Storage, probably,” Jack muttered, and then the doors to the lift slid open. They weren’t quite aligned with either floor, and a couple inches of what Ianto presumed was the forty-ninth floor was visible at the top of the lift. They ducked under the ceiling and jumped to the forty-eighth, looking down the empty hall.
“No guards, yet?”
“This isn’t a prison floor,” Kethan said, breaking into a jog. “It’ll take them a moment-”
The sound of weapons’ fire cut him off, and they threw themselves against the wall, weapons ready.
“Thanks for the warning,” Kethan breathed at Jack, who was pressed shoulder-to-shoulder, next to him. It was a bit bizarre, seeing their identical builds and faces side-by-side, but Ianto focused down the hall instead. Ashild and Opal were already firing in opposite directions, towards the turns in the hall, and Ianto picked a direction and aimed his blaster, firing when a uniformed guard stepped around a corner. The man dropped.
“Both sides,” Opal said in the sudden quiet. “We’re cornered.”
“Which way?” Kethan asked Jack.
“I don’t know!” Jack said with a - really, too cheerful for the situation - laugh. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“You’ve been here before!” Kethan protested, flipping open his wristband and calling up the building blueprints anyway. There was a shot as Ashild and Opal took out another guard.
“It’s been a while,” Jack said, pointing to an area on the three-dimensional map. “There are the nearest stairs - to the left, then?”
“Fine,” Kethan grumbled, turning off the blueprint and shooting the next guard to brave the corner. “If I didn’t know that they’d just keep sending people, I’d say we could stay here until we’ve taken them all out. Us first? I’m not going to die, apparently.”
“Apparently. Stand down if you feel the timeline bending,” Jack insisted as they moved towards the left.
“Yes sir,” Kethan drawled, falling into position just behind Jack’s shoulder. Ianto followed the two of them, and Ashild and Opal brought up the rear. When they reached the corner, Jack motioned for silence and made some gestures at the group that Ianto couldn’t quite make sense of. The others, apparently, understood fine, and they moved up beside Jack and Kethan, pushing Ianto back. He started to protest, but Ashild elbowed him in the side, glaring at him.
At Jack’s nod, Opal tossed something out into the hall and Ashild slapped her hand over Ianto’s eyes. When she uncovered them, the four of them had moved around the corner, firing their blasters.
“Photonic grenade,” Ashild explained as they moved quickly through the corridor. “Blinds anyone foolish enough to keep their eyes open.”
“Lessons later, here’s the stairs,” Jack called, skidding to a stop in front of a door. “Kethan?”
Kethan had opened his wristband, but he looked up and shook his head. “I’m locked out.”
Varelle drew her blaster and fired at the door. It melted down the middle, leaving a hole just large enough for them to fit through. “Not locked out anymore.”
Jack laughed and clapped her on the shoulder. “Good to see you again, Opal.”
“I’d say likewise," she said, stepping through the hole in the door, “but I have to say I wasn’t really missing you.”
“No,” Jack said, ushering the rest of them through and then following them. “I would hope not - ack!” He dove through the wall just as blaster fire flew past him. “I don’t suppose you can seal that up?”
“Not if I want to be able to fire this again,” she said, holding up the sonic blaster that had made the hole. “How many floors do we have to go up?”
“Twelve,” answered Kethan, leaning over the rail in the middle of the square staircase. “About ten too many, I’d say.” Ashild and Jack were holding off the guards outside their floor, but Ianto could hear voices shouting above, and feet on the stairs.
“Not if you have a grappling gun,” Ashild said.
“Yes, but we don’t,” Kethan said impatiently, sniping off a guard coming up the stairs below.
“You don’t,” she said, dropping her rucksack onto the floor and kicking it towards him. “But I do. Jotir suggested I take it, and I’ve learned to trust his whims. Five zip ties, too, because I can count.”
Kethan looked at her with wide eyes, and then laughed. “Have I mentioned I love you recently?” He dug into the rucksack and pulled out a weapon of some sort, turning it over in his hands. “Oh, invisible line, nice.”
“Considering there are five of us, we’ll need it,” Ashild said.
Kethan nodded and turned to Varelle. “Cover me, I’m going to try and get it in the centre.”
Varelle leaned over the banister and started firing up and down, alternating. Ianto caught on and joined her, firing down to the lower floors so she could focus on up. Kethan, meanwhile, leaned as far out into the centre of the staircase as possible and shot the grappling gun straight up. There was a faint whirr, and Ianto could just barely make out a shimmering line heading up from the gun to the ceiling, twelve floors away. After wrapping the gun around the banister, Kethan dug back into the rucksack, tossing each of them a small grey handle-shaped object.
“I’m guessing we’re going up?” Ianto said, wrapping his fingers through the handhold and trying to focus on the shimmering line.
“Yep. Opal, you first.” Opal nodded, and stepped over, bringing her handle up and somehow attaching it to the line. She swung her feet over the banister and let go. Before Ianto could process anything, she was flying up the line towards the ceiling.
“Go, Ianto, now. They know we’re coming, so I suggest you shoot the whole way up. Here,” Kethan said, taking his hand, still wrapped in the handle-thing - zip tie - and brought it over to the line out of the gun. There was a faint hiss and Ianto could feel the zip tie latch onto the line. He gave it an experimental tug - it didn’t move.
“As soon as you put any weight on it, you’ll go up. It’ll slow down enough for you not to crash into the ceiling, but I suggest you get off it as quickly as possible, since we’ll be following. And for God’s sake, don’t let go.”
Ianto nodded and, taking a deep breath, jumped over the banister. For a second, Ianto thought it hadn’t worked, that he was going to fall forty-eight floors to his death, but then there was a sharp tug and he was zipping upwards. Blaster at hip, he held down on the trigger, but he went by the other floors so fast he could barely register the occasional guard. He came to a halt just before the ceiling, and then hands gripped his waist and pulled him over to the floor.
“Gotcha,” Varelle said, making sure he was steady. She didn’t have a chance to say anything more before Ashild appeared and Varelle was pulling her over as well.
“Won’t they just shoot the line?” Ianto asked, watching as Kethan, and then Jack appeared.
“It’s not physical. Just energy,” Ashild explained, finding the door. “Hard to shoot. Guys, here’s the roof exit.” She brought out her blaster and fired, melting another hole in the door and climbing through. Ianto followed her out, and they were on the roof. Buildings rose up around them still - apparently sixty stories wasn’t very high, for London. The flat expanse of the roof stretched out before them, broken only by a few entrances to the other staircases and lifts. The other three stepped onto the roof, and Jack reached over for Kethan’s wristband again.
“You really need your own,” Kethan grumped, but Jack ignored him, tapping dramatically on the wristband before closing it.
“Watch the exits, our ride should be here in a minute.”
“Who’s our ride?” Ashild asked. “And how do they know they need to come here?”
Jack just shook his head, taking up a position beside the staircase and waiting for guards. Ashild shrugged, and trained her blaster on another exit, taking out several guards who stepped out of it. They were silent for the next five minutes, and then there was a low rumbling overhead. Ianto spotted what looked like a small shuttle coming down from the sky. Varelle let out a low noise.
“Kethan - Jack - whomever you are - is that my shuttle?”
“Yep,” Jack said with a grin, watching the shuttle land in the middle of the roof. “Sure is.”
“Who’s flying it?” Ashild demanded. Jack didn’t answer, just ran across the tarmac. Ashild and Kethan exchanged glances, and then ran after him, Varelle and Ianto trailing behind. The hatch to the shuttle had lifted up, and Ianto followed them inside just soon enough to hear Kethan’s exclamation of “You bastard.”
“If you’d close the hatch, Captain, we can get out of here,” Jotir said calmly from the helm, not turning around. Ianto watched in surprise as Varelle stood, motionless, for a few seconds before turning to a control panel and closing the hatch.
“How did you know?” Ashild demanded as they squished into the bench seats at the back of the shuttle.
“Let’s just say Jotir’s known me a lot longer than he’s known Kethan,” Jack said smugly, legs stretched out, taking up most of the floor space as he sprawled on the bench next to Ianto and across from Ashild and Kethan.
“That makes no sense,” Ashild grumbled, giving him a sideways look.
“Well, it does,” Kethan admitted, looking thoughtful. “Did you tell him that he needed to come get us, before he ever joined the Evening Star?”
“Yes,” Jotir said, stepping back to join them; Varelle had taken the helm. “Actually he told me the first time we met that we would meet again and before in a couple decades.”
Ianto blinked. “The English language really isn’t designed to properly explain time travel, is it?”
Kethan gave him an odd look, “We’re not speaking English - oh. Well, Galactic A accommodates it fine, but the fish is probably doing the best it can, translation wise.” He shrugged. “Anyway, why didn’t Jotir just tell us we’d find you?”
“You didn’t know,” Jack said placidly. “Besides, you might have been suspicious, what with him feeding you the data trail.”
Varelle made a noise of surprise and turned back from the helm. “Kareh did tell me he couldn’t trace the static properly. You planted it?” she asked Jotir, who shook his head.
“No, I just found it, because I knew what I was looking for. I just made it a little easier for Kareh to locate.”
Ashild shook her head. “But - you don’t like Kethan!”
“No, I don’t,” Jotir said over Kethan’s noise of protest, ridges fanning out and then bunching in as he took a seat. “I like - are we calling you Jack?” Jack nodded. “I like Jack just fine.”
“He’s me!” Kethan pouted, but he didn’t seem interested in arguing the point, just slouched back in the chair, eerily matching Jack’s pose.
Ianto observed the two of them. He still had no idea what to think about Jack’s age - one moment he thought that maybe, just maybe he wasn’t far from his own Jack, and the next he was convinced he was unthinkably older. The conversation was odd on the return to the Evening Star, the crew trying to determine exactly how planned Jotir’s actions were - not that planned, apparently he’d joined the crew by accident, not because Jack had asked him to - and Jack and Kethan having bizarre ‘remember the - yes - when I - and then - exactly’ conversations that generally ended with the two of them grinning like maniacs.
“So weird,” Ashild muttered, watching the Kethan and his older, dirtier version.
“Yep,” Ianto agreed.
She shot him a look. “I dunno. If I were you, I’d be pretty thrilled. Isn’t he almost your Kethan? Two versions of your lover? Not bad.”
“Um,” Ianto said noncommittally. “Yeah, I guess. But wouldn’t that be, I don’t know, like incest?”
“More like masturbation,” Kethan injected, turning from his conversation with himself. “Except, you know, with two dicks and four hands.”
Ianto blushed, and sunk back into the bench, trying to make himself invisible as the rest of them - Jotir excluded - discussed what they’d do with themselves, given the opportunity.
~
According to Kethan, they broke several transport laws getting off the planet surface, so when they reached the station the Evening Star was docked at, they abandoned the shuttle and snuck past security to get to the ship. Apparently, traffic around Earth was so bad they had a hard time tracking individuals who broke the law, and as long as they left the shuttle behind, authorities wouldn’t be able to - or at least be interested in - tracking them.
“But the Time Agency? Won’t they want Jack back?” Ianto had asked.
“Yeah, but it’s not like the Ministry of Interplanetary Transport and the Time Agency get along.” Jack had explained.
Jack had given Varelle some coordinates, and the Evening Star had left Earth behind, much to Ashild’s annoyance; she’d wanted to see a little more of the mother planet, but as Varelle pointed out again, this hadn’t been a sightseeing mission.
Eventually, Varelle shooed Jack off to the showers, and Kethan and Ianto returned to their quarters to change and stow their weapons. Jack joined them, wrapped in a towel, his still too-long hair plastered to his head, and Kethan tossed him some clothes.
“I’m getting sort of tired of sharing my clothes,” Kethan pointed out, slipping a new shirt over his head.
Jack grimaced. “Sorry. At least I won’t stretch them out. No middle-age pudge here.” He wasn’t lying; his stomach was as toned as ever, and Ianto wanted to touch it, just to make sure he was real. “I sort of wanted to talk to Ianto alone. But take your time, please,” he said, taking a seat on the bed and wiggling into a pair of trousers.
Kethan stood in the middle of the room for a moment, and then shrugged, taking Ianto by the wrist and giving him a firm kiss before stepping out of the room. Ianto watched him go before turning back to Jack.
“How old are you?”
Jack sighed. “You’re not going to let that one go, are you?”
Ianto shook his head and folded his arms across his chest. Jack scrubbed a hand across his face.
“I - mostly - haven’t left linear time since I landed on Earth in the 1860’s.”
Ianto’s stomach dropped as he did the math. “So, that makes you… Thirty-five and three thousand and…”
“Well, just under two hundred years,” Jack finished. “I’ve missed a decade here or there, so I tend to round to thirty-two hundred.”
Ianto didn’t know what to say to that. He started to say something a couple of times; what, he wasn’t exactly sure, before eventually settling on; “but you have a TARDIS; why stay in linear time?”
Jack shrugged. “I have forever. It’s still going to be forever if I jump around. Besides,” he continued, gesturing around. “It’s hard to make friends if you don’t stick around.”
“You make friends?” Ianto asked, skeptically. The Jack he knew didn’t seem to be too interested in long-term attachments, Torchwood Three or no. They seemed to be more accidental than anything.
“Yep. Best way to pass the time, really - and no,” he said with a grin, “I don’t just mean sex.”
“Good,” Ianto said, faintly, trying to process everything. He shook his head and took a seat next to Jack on the bed.
“I’m surprised you remember me,” he said quietly, not looking at Jack. “Three millennia is a long time.”
Jack reached out and took his hand. “Do you want the truth?”
“Yep,” Ianto said in a low voice, not sure if he was being entirely honest.
“I have forgotten a lot. I could have told someone you looked Welsh, but I didn’t remember how tall you were, or what colour your eyes were, or those things. I have pictures, somewhere, but I haven’t taken them out in a couple of centuries.”
“Easier to forget?”
“Easier not to dwell,” Jack said, and it sort of hurt, except Ianto knew he was right.
“You remembered the roof thing,” Ianto said after a bit, trying to resist tracing patterns on the back of Jack’s hand with his thumb. This wasn’t his Jack, and he needed to remember that.
Jack shrugged. “Some things stick with you. That conversation was… a turning point, for me. I have a lot of strong memories from that time, I just forget a lot of the in-between details.”
They sat in awkward silence until Jack let go of his hand and twisted to face him, bringing up his own hand to touch Ianto’s face and running his thumb down Ianto’s jaw, calluses catching on Ianto’s stubble.
“It’s good to see you,” Jack said, smiling at him fondly. “Really, you have no idea. You get…” he trailed off, touching Ianto’s lips and then tracing down his throat. Ianto shivered as Jack continued. “You get used to it, after a while. Losing people. I didn’t think I would, at first, but I guess you can adapt to anything, in the end. But that doesn’t mean I’m not absolutely thrilled to get to see you again.” He said the last bit fiercely, and he pressed his hand to Ianto’s heart, his other one coming up to grip Ianto’s knee.
Neither of them moved. Ianto stared at Jack, looking everywhere but his eyes. Not his Jack, not his Jack he chanted to himself, but in a way, he was. Unlike Kethan, to whom Ianto was a stranger, this Jack knew him, remembered him, however faintly. Ianto didn’t know what to do, until Jack started to pull away, and Ianto grabbed his hand and pulled him in, kissing him hard. Jack didn’t respond for a moment, but then his hand wrapped around Ianto’s neck, pulling him in tighter until he was almost in Jack’s lap.
“Oh, god,” Jack groaned as they pulled apart to breathe. “I haven’t kissed anyone in two years.”
Ianto pressed a kiss to his jaw and slipped a hand under his shirt. “You were in prison that long?”
“Yep,” Jack said, arching into his touch and pressing a palm against the small of Ianto’s back. Ianto pushed against him, urging him back against the wall.
“I shouldn’t be doing this,” Ianto breathed, pulling Jack’s shirt over his head. Jack raised his arms obligingly, smiling when he emerged, his hair sticking up at odd angles.
“Why?”
“Because - ugh,” he grunted as Jack ran the tips of his fingers up Ianto’s sides under his shirt, tugging it over his head as well. “Kethan.”
“I won’t care,” Jack said, pressing his hand to the bulge in Ianto’s trousers and squeezing wickedly. “Well, he won’t care once he finds out he has to go two years without sex. I might be a little annoyed at first.” He looked a little apologetic. “I don’t really remember.”
“Okay, whatever,” Ianto said, lifting his hips up to encourage Jack to move. “Jack, Kethan, you, you’re all the same person. Fine. Not cheating. Touch me.”
“As responsive as ever, I see,” Jack smirked, pushing Ianto off him and onto his back.
“You remember that?” Ianto asked, faking a scandalized tone, or as scandalized as he could manage with Jack running his hands up his legs and to his belt.
“All the important things,” Jack laughed, leaning down to tongue at Ianto’s naval. “Funny what you remember in the right situation. Like, I just remembered that you loved it when I did this.” He licked a wet stripe across Ianto’s hipbone, and Ianto jerked up in response.
“And I remember that you loved it when I did this,” he said, pressing his fingers into Ianto’s thighs, pushing them apart as he mouthed Ianto’s cock through his trousers.
“Fuck,” Ianto yelped, twisting his hands into Jack’s hair. “How about you stop telling me what I used to love and just do it?”
Jack crawled back up and rested his weight on his elbows, watching Ianto with a serious expression.
“I’m not Jack,” he said, and for a confused moment Ianto thought he was saying he was somebody else entirely.
“I know,” Ianto replied, just as seriously. “Should I call you something else in case I forget?”
Jack considered, and then shook his head. “No, Jack’s fine. I still use it often enough. I just don’t want to confuse you.”
Ianto laughed and gripped Jack’s hips. “I’m in the fifty-first century, sleeping with a man who will be my lover, about to have sex with a man who used to be my lover, trying to get back to the man who is. And they’re all the same man. I think a little confusion is inevitable.” He ground his hips into Jack’s, who dropped his head into Ianto’s neck, breathing hotly against sensitive skin. “Unless you aren’t interested, that is.”
Jack bit his neck in response. “I’m game if you are.”
“Good,” said Ianto, flipping them over so he was on top. He sat up and started in on Jack’s trousers before looking up at Jack with a grin. Jack was watching him steadily, and at first Ianto thought he caught a glimpse of something like pain in Jack’s eyes, but it was gone before he could be sure.
~
Read Chapter 16.
Summary: In which there are too many Jacks.
A/N: Made it through the sore sore sore wrist! And now I have a brace, so that shouldn't be a problem anymore. Thanks to my betas, thaddeusfavour andbacchae777 for their help!
Previous chapters here.
~
"Jack?" said Ianto, pressing a palm to the glass, either to get closer and be sure or to steady himself.
"Me?" said Kethan.
~
"Oh my God," Ianto breathed, staring into the cell. It was Jack; there was no question about that. Older than Kethan, but more than that he couldn't tell from here. He looked around frantically for the lock. "Open it. Now."
Kethan nodded, apparently speechless, and pulled him back by the arm before tapping his wristband. The door slid open with a hiss and Ianto rushed in.
"Jack," he said again, his mind racing. Ianto knelt down beside him and tugged at the cuffs where they were bolted to the wall. "Kethan, can you--"
"Yep," said Kethan, pushing him away from the wall, and starting in on the cuffs, leaving Ianto kneeling in front of Jack.
"Do you--" he started, staring at Jack's face. He looked older, but not a lot. Maybe forty-five, if he had to guess, but of course, that didn't mean anything. Not with Jack.
"Hello, Ianto," Jack said, and if Ianto hadn't been standing he might have crumpled with relief. Jack knew him. Jack smiled and looked over to where Kethan was unlocking the second cuff. "What is it with people and bondage, seriously? It's really ruining the kink for me."
Ianto laughed, more out of hysteria than humour, and touched a hand to Jack's face, running it through the sweat and grime. "How are you here? Why are you here?"
"Later. Right now, Kethan needs to go back to Opal."
Kethan sat back on his haunches with a frown. "Why?"
"Because," Jack said, not moving from where he was propped against the wall, "They're about to be ambushed, and they could really use some back-up."
Ianto half-expected Kethan to protest, but he didn't, just gave Jack a hard look and then a sharp nod. He stood up, unholstered his blaster, and exited the cell, leaving Ianto alone with Jack. Ianto took a deep breath and turned back to Jack, his mind racing with the impossibility of it all. Two Jacks. Any other time and he might have thought he was asleep and having a very good dream.
"How old are you?"
"Pass me your blaster."
Ianto blinked. "That wasn't an answer."
"No, it wasn't, and I'll make it an order if it needs to be, but please, just do it," Jack said, his voice level as he reached out a hand. Ianto shuffled back, just out of reach. Something wasn't right.
"Why?" he asked, suspicious.
Jack rolled his eyes. "Because my legs are broken, and the only way I'm going to walk out of here is if I shoot myself. I don't think you want to do it, so pass me your blaster."
"What?" Ianto said sharply. He knew Jack healed fastest when dead, but killing himself seemed awfully drastic. "Can't we just help you out of here?"
"No, not if what I remember is right," Jack said, shaking his head. His hair was too long, and he blew it out of his eyes. "Ianto, Kethan can't know I'm immortal. He's going to come back in five minutes, really annoyed because I lied to him. If I'm not alive again by then, time will go to hell. Please don't let your scruples destroy the fabric of the universe."
Ianto was silent, watching Jack's outstretched hand. Logically, Ianto knew Jack’s plan was a rational one, and that it would be hard to move him out of here, but he had always made a point of not treating Jack's life (lives) as expendable. He looked out of the cell, into the bright corridor, and considered his options. If Jack remembered himself walking out of here, well...
The blaster was cool and sleek in his hand as he eased it out of his holster and passed it to Jack. Jack smiled, and turned the barrel on himself. Ianto barely shut his eyes before hearing the whine that followed. When he opened them again, Jack was slumped against the wall, blaster slipping from the hand on his lap. Ianto reached over and unwound the warm fingers from the trigger and put it away, before finding a comfortable seat on the floor. Waiting would always be the worst part.
Ianto spent the next two minutes examining Jack. His hair was longer than his own Jack's, much longer than Kethan's, and he spared a moment to brush it back from Jack’s face. He was dressed in a grey jumpsuit that looked to be prison issue and black boots. His face was grimy, covered in sweat and flecks of blood, and his eyes - Ianto couldn't bear to reach out and shut them - were the same bright blue. How old was he? He could be any age over a couple of centuries, Ianto presumed, but that hardly narrowed it down. He remembered Ianto, at least, so he couldn't be millions of years old; for all his age, Ianto knew that he had a better memory than Jack.
The minutes crawled by, Ianto keeping nervous watch for Kethan until he remembered what Jack had said about his legs being broken. If his body was trying to heal them, it would be easier if the bones were aligned. He reached out and pressed his hands on either side of Jack's outstretched legs, making sure they weren't bent at any odd angles. He was partway up the second leg when it twitched under him, and hands came up to his shoulders.
"That was quieter than normal," Ianto observed, feeling irrationally relieved that Jack hadn't chosen that death as his final one.
"Practice makes perfect," Jack said with a grin as he hauled himself up. "Oh, standing. Very nice, I like this."
"Been a while?" Ianto asked, amused.
"I wouldn’t tell them how to fly the TARDIS," Jack said, shrugging as he strolled out of the cell. "Their interrogator was a bit old-fashioned."
"I suppose they didn't anticipate you rescuing yourself," Ianto said, following Jack down the corridor.
Jack stopped and turned to him. "If I recall correctly - and I might not - it was your idea to come for me.
"I thought you were the Doctor," Ianto said, slipping into a grin as they rounded a corner. "If I'd known it was you, I might have warned them away."
"Should I be worried?" said Kethan, who was standing in the corridor, arms crossed. "My future self isn't above lying to me, apparently."
Jack walked over and clapped Kethan - himself - on the shoulder. "Sorry, kiddo. I needed a few minutes alone with Ianto. Timelines and all that, you know the deal."
"Did you just call me 'kiddo'?" Kethan asked, looking skeptical. "And what do I call you? Me? Kethan age... whatever age you are?"
"Jack will do fine," Jack said. "It's how Ianto knows me and I'll answer to it. Calling you Kethan will be strange, but it's straightforward enough."
"You've never met yourself before?" Ianto asked, mostly of Kethan. "Doesn't that happen sometimes?"
"Nope. It's generally considered a bad thing to cross your own timeline." He pointed a finger at Jack. "Which makes me wonder exactly what you're doing here."
Jack shrugged, and urged them onward. "Bit inevitable, really. Besides, I was locked up. Not as if I could run away from myself."
Kethan nodded, considering. "So you must be having major déjà-vu, right now. You've had all these conversations before, only from the other side. Unless..." he trailed off, looking thoughtful. "Unless I do lose these memories and you don't have them back?"
"I don't remember the details of every conversation," Jack admitted. "But I do remember what happens. And what happens right now, is you stop asking me questions and we go up to the roof."
Ianto started. "The roof?"
"Yep. I'm good on roofs, remember?" He flashed Ianto a broad grin, and Ianto resisted the urge to kiss him. If he remembered that, he couldn't be too old.
“And, do tell, what are we going to do once we’re on the roof?” Kethan asked. Ianto could tell he wasn’t completely at ease, that he was still uncertain about how much to trust Jack.
“You’ll see,” Jack replied, stepping around his younger self and heading for the exit. Kethan and Ianto trailed after him, exchanging a skeptical glace.
“Are you sure we can trust him?” Kethan whispered to Ianto.
‘He’s you!” Ianto hissed back.
“That doesn’t mean anything!”
Ianto rolled his eyes and pushed Kethan forward. “You can trust him. Besides, you get out of this alive no matter what, so what have you got to lose?”
Kethan shot him a look, but before he could say anything, Jack reached the cellblock exit and called back to them.
“Gentlemen! Stop gossiping about me and get your blasters out.”
“Am I actually going to need it this time?” Kethan grumped, but did as he was told. The three of them left the cellblock, where Opal and Ashild were waiting, tense and ready, on the other side. Ashild gave Jack a long look.
“Guess you weren’t lying,” she said slowly. Opal had a sort of funny look on her face, but she quickly schooled her features back into an impassive, professional mask.
“Out?”
“Up,” Jack said, shaking his head. “With any luck, we’ve got a ride waiting for us.”
Opal nodded, shrugging. “If you say so.”
They went back to the lift and waited for it to arrive in silence, Jack leaning nonchalantly against the wall, watching the numbers count up while the rest of them exchanged surreptitious glances with each other. Ianto wished he knew how old this Jack was; he had absolutely no idea how much he could assume he knew about this man. He had told Kethan that this Jack could be trusted, but could he even be sure? It’s how Ianto knows me. Did that mean that wasn’t what he went by anymore? He’d changed his name once; there was no reason to assume he wouldn’t do it again.
The lift dinged, and they got on, Jack asking aloud for the roof as the doors slid shut. They’d made it to the forty-eighth floor when the car shuddered to a halt.
“That’s not good,” Ashild said, after twice requesting that the doors open.
“Nope,” said Jack, reaching over and grabbing Kethan’s hand, pulling it towards him. Kethan protested for a moment, before realizing that Jack was accessing his wristband.
“Where’s yours?”
“Storage, probably,” Jack muttered, and then the doors to the lift slid open. They weren’t quite aligned with either floor, and a couple inches of what Ianto presumed was the forty-ninth floor was visible at the top of the lift. They ducked under the ceiling and jumped to the forty-eighth, looking down the empty hall.
“No guards, yet?”
“This isn’t a prison floor,” Kethan said, breaking into a jog. “It’ll take them a moment-”
The sound of weapons’ fire cut him off, and they threw themselves against the wall, weapons ready.
“Thanks for the warning,” Kethan breathed at Jack, who was pressed shoulder-to-shoulder, next to him. It was a bit bizarre, seeing their identical builds and faces side-by-side, but Ianto focused down the hall instead. Ashild and Opal were already firing in opposite directions, towards the turns in the hall, and Ianto picked a direction and aimed his blaster, firing when a uniformed guard stepped around a corner. The man dropped.
“Both sides,” Opal said in the sudden quiet. “We’re cornered.”
“Which way?” Kethan asked Jack.
“I don’t know!” Jack said with a - really, too cheerful for the situation - laugh. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“You’ve been here before!” Kethan protested, flipping open his wristband and calling up the building blueprints anyway. There was a shot as Ashild and Opal took out another guard.
“It’s been a while,” Jack said, pointing to an area on the three-dimensional map. “There are the nearest stairs - to the left, then?”
“Fine,” Kethan grumbled, turning off the blueprint and shooting the next guard to brave the corner. “If I didn’t know that they’d just keep sending people, I’d say we could stay here until we’ve taken them all out. Us first? I’m not going to die, apparently.”
“Apparently. Stand down if you feel the timeline bending,” Jack insisted as they moved towards the left.
“Yes sir,” Kethan drawled, falling into position just behind Jack’s shoulder. Ianto followed the two of them, and Ashild and Opal brought up the rear. When they reached the corner, Jack motioned for silence and made some gestures at the group that Ianto couldn’t quite make sense of. The others, apparently, understood fine, and they moved up beside Jack and Kethan, pushing Ianto back. He started to protest, but Ashild elbowed him in the side, glaring at him.
At Jack’s nod, Opal tossed something out into the hall and Ashild slapped her hand over Ianto’s eyes. When she uncovered them, the four of them had moved around the corner, firing their blasters.
“Photonic grenade,” Ashild explained as they moved quickly through the corridor. “Blinds anyone foolish enough to keep their eyes open.”
“Lessons later, here’s the stairs,” Jack called, skidding to a stop in front of a door. “Kethan?”
Kethan had opened his wristband, but he looked up and shook his head. “I’m locked out.”
Varelle drew her blaster and fired at the door. It melted down the middle, leaving a hole just large enough for them to fit through. “Not locked out anymore.”
Jack laughed and clapped her on the shoulder. “Good to see you again, Opal.”
“I’d say likewise," she said, stepping through the hole in the door, “but I have to say I wasn’t really missing you.”
“No,” Jack said, ushering the rest of them through and then following them. “I would hope not - ack!” He dove through the wall just as blaster fire flew past him. “I don’t suppose you can seal that up?”
“Not if I want to be able to fire this again,” she said, holding up the sonic blaster that had made the hole. “How many floors do we have to go up?”
“Twelve,” answered Kethan, leaning over the rail in the middle of the square staircase. “About ten too many, I’d say.” Ashild and Jack were holding off the guards outside their floor, but Ianto could hear voices shouting above, and feet on the stairs.
“Not if you have a grappling gun,” Ashild said.
“Yes, but we don’t,” Kethan said impatiently, sniping off a guard coming up the stairs below.
“You don’t,” she said, dropping her rucksack onto the floor and kicking it towards him. “But I do. Jotir suggested I take it, and I’ve learned to trust his whims. Five zip ties, too, because I can count.”
Kethan looked at her with wide eyes, and then laughed. “Have I mentioned I love you recently?” He dug into the rucksack and pulled out a weapon of some sort, turning it over in his hands. “Oh, invisible line, nice.”
“Considering there are five of us, we’ll need it,” Ashild said.
Kethan nodded and turned to Varelle. “Cover me, I’m going to try and get it in the centre.”
Varelle leaned over the banister and started firing up and down, alternating. Ianto caught on and joined her, firing down to the lower floors so she could focus on up. Kethan, meanwhile, leaned as far out into the centre of the staircase as possible and shot the grappling gun straight up. There was a faint whirr, and Ianto could just barely make out a shimmering line heading up from the gun to the ceiling, twelve floors away. After wrapping the gun around the banister, Kethan dug back into the rucksack, tossing each of them a small grey handle-shaped object.
“I’m guessing we’re going up?” Ianto said, wrapping his fingers through the handhold and trying to focus on the shimmering line.
“Yep. Opal, you first.” Opal nodded, and stepped over, bringing her handle up and somehow attaching it to the line. She swung her feet over the banister and let go. Before Ianto could process anything, she was flying up the line towards the ceiling.
“Go, Ianto, now. They know we’re coming, so I suggest you shoot the whole way up. Here,” Kethan said, taking his hand, still wrapped in the handle-thing - zip tie - and brought it over to the line out of the gun. There was a faint hiss and Ianto could feel the zip tie latch onto the line. He gave it an experimental tug - it didn’t move.
“As soon as you put any weight on it, you’ll go up. It’ll slow down enough for you not to crash into the ceiling, but I suggest you get off it as quickly as possible, since we’ll be following. And for God’s sake, don’t let go.”
Ianto nodded and, taking a deep breath, jumped over the banister. For a second, Ianto thought it hadn’t worked, that he was going to fall forty-eight floors to his death, but then there was a sharp tug and he was zipping upwards. Blaster at hip, he held down on the trigger, but he went by the other floors so fast he could barely register the occasional guard. He came to a halt just before the ceiling, and then hands gripped his waist and pulled him over to the floor.
“Gotcha,” Varelle said, making sure he was steady. She didn’t have a chance to say anything more before Ashild appeared and Varelle was pulling her over as well.
“Won’t they just shoot the line?” Ianto asked, watching as Kethan, and then Jack appeared.
“It’s not physical. Just energy,” Ashild explained, finding the door. “Hard to shoot. Guys, here’s the roof exit.” She brought out her blaster and fired, melting another hole in the door and climbing through. Ianto followed her out, and they were on the roof. Buildings rose up around them still - apparently sixty stories wasn’t very high, for London. The flat expanse of the roof stretched out before them, broken only by a few entrances to the other staircases and lifts. The other three stepped onto the roof, and Jack reached over for Kethan’s wristband again.
“You really need your own,” Kethan grumped, but Jack ignored him, tapping dramatically on the wristband before closing it.
“Watch the exits, our ride should be here in a minute.”
“Who’s our ride?” Ashild asked. “And how do they know they need to come here?”
Jack just shook his head, taking up a position beside the staircase and waiting for guards. Ashild shrugged, and trained her blaster on another exit, taking out several guards who stepped out of it. They were silent for the next five minutes, and then there was a low rumbling overhead. Ianto spotted what looked like a small shuttle coming down from the sky. Varelle let out a low noise.
“Kethan - Jack - whomever you are - is that my shuttle?”
“Yep,” Jack said with a grin, watching the shuttle land in the middle of the roof. “Sure is.”
“Who’s flying it?” Ashild demanded. Jack didn’t answer, just ran across the tarmac. Ashild and Kethan exchanged glances, and then ran after him, Varelle and Ianto trailing behind. The hatch to the shuttle had lifted up, and Ianto followed them inside just soon enough to hear Kethan’s exclamation of “You bastard.”
“If you’d close the hatch, Captain, we can get out of here,” Jotir said calmly from the helm, not turning around. Ianto watched in surprise as Varelle stood, motionless, for a few seconds before turning to a control panel and closing the hatch.
“How did you know?” Ashild demanded as they squished into the bench seats at the back of the shuttle.
“Let’s just say Jotir’s known me a lot longer than he’s known Kethan,” Jack said smugly, legs stretched out, taking up most of the floor space as he sprawled on the bench next to Ianto and across from Ashild and Kethan.
“That makes no sense,” Ashild grumbled, giving him a sideways look.
“Well, it does,” Kethan admitted, looking thoughtful. “Did you tell him that he needed to come get us, before he ever joined the Evening Star?”
“Yes,” Jotir said, stepping back to join them; Varelle had taken the helm. “Actually he told me the first time we met that we would meet again and before in a couple decades.”
Ianto blinked. “The English language really isn’t designed to properly explain time travel, is it?”
Kethan gave him an odd look, “We’re not speaking English - oh. Well, Galactic A accommodates it fine, but the fish is probably doing the best it can, translation wise.” He shrugged. “Anyway, why didn’t Jotir just tell us we’d find you?”
“You didn’t know,” Jack said placidly. “Besides, you might have been suspicious, what with him feeding you the data trail.”
Varelle made a noise of surprise and turned back from the helm. “Kareh did tell me he couldn’t trace the static properly. You planted it?” she asked Jotir, who shook his head.
“No, I just found it, because I knew what I was looking for. I just made it a little easier for Kareh to locate.”
Ashild shook her head. “But - you don’t like Kethan!”
“No, I don’t,” Jotir said over Kethan’s noise of protest, ridges fanning out and then bunching in as he took a seat. “I like - are we calling you Jack?” Jack nodded. “I like Jack just fine.”
“He’s me!” Kethan pouted, but he didn’t seem interested in arguing the point, just slouched back in the chair, eerily matching Jack’s pose.
Ianto observed the two of them. He still had no idea what to think about Jack’s age - one moment he thought that maybe, just maybe he wasn’t far from his own Jack, and the next he was convinced he was unthinkably older. The conversation was odd on the return to the Evening Star, the crew trying to determine exactly how planned Jotir’s actions were - not that planned, apparently he’d joined the crew by accident, not because Jack had asked him to - and Jack and Kethan having bizarre ‘remember the - yes - when I - and then - exactly’ conversations that generally ended with the two of them grinning like maniacs.
“So weird,” Ashild muttered, watching the Kethan and his older, dirtier version.
“Yep,” Ianto agreed.
She shot him a look. “I dunno. If I were you, I’d be pretty thrilled. Isn’t he almost your Kethan? Two versions of your lover? Not bad.”
“Um,” Ianto said noncommittally. “Yeah, I guess. But wouldn’t that be, I don’t know, like incest?”
“More like masturbation,” Kethan injected, turning from his conversation with himself. “Except, you know, with two dicks and four hands.”
Ianto blushed, and sunk back into the bench, trying to make himself invisible as the rest of them - Jotir excluded - discussed what they’d do with themselves, given the opportunity.
~
According to Kethan, they broke several transport laws getting off the planet surface, so when they reached the station the Evening Star was docked at, they abandoned the shuttle and snuck past security to get to the ship. Apparently, traffic around Earth was so bad they had a hard time tracking individuals who broke the law, and as long as they left the shuttle behind, authorities wouldn’t be able to - or at least be interested in - tracking them.
“But the Time Agency? Won’t they want Jack back?” Ianto had asked.
“Yeah, but it’s not like the Ministry of Interplanetary Transport and the Time Agency get along.” Jack had explained.
Jack had given Varelle some coordinates, and the Evening Star had left Earth behind, much to Ashild’s annoyance; she’d wanted to see a little more of the mother planet, but as Varelle pointed out again, this hadn’t been a sightseeing mission.
Eventually, Varelle shooed Jack off to the showers, and Kethan and Ianto returned to their quarters to change and stow their weapons. Jack joined them, wrapped in a towel, his still too-long hair plastered to his head, and Kethan tossed him some clothes.
“I’m getting sort of tired of sharing my clothes,” Kethan pointed out, slipping a new shirt over his head.
Jack grimaced. “Sorry. At least I won’t stretch them out. No middle-age pudge here.” He wasn’t lying; his stomach was as toned as ever, and Ianto wanted to touch it, just to make sure he was real. “I sort of wanted to talk to Ianto alone. But take your time, please,” he said, taking a seat on the bed and wiggling into a pair of trousers.
Kethan stood in the middle of the room for a moment, and then shrugged, taking Ianto by the wrist and giving him a firm kiss before stepping out of the room. Ianto watched him go before turning back to Jack.
“How old are you?”
Jack sighed. “You’re not going to let that one go, are you?”
Ianto shook his head and folded his arms across his chest. Jack scrubbed a hand across his face.
“I - mostly - haven’t left linear time since I landed on Earth in the 1860’s.”
Ianto’s stomach dropped as he did the math. “So, that makes you… Thirty-five and three thousand and…”
“Well, just under two hundred years,” Jack finished. “I’ve missed a decade here or there, so I tend to round to thirty-two hundred.”
Ianto didn’t know what to say to that. He started to say something a couple of times; what, he wasn’t exactly sure, before eventually settling on; “but you have a TARDIS; why stay in linear time?”
Jack shrugged. “I have forever. It’s still going to be forever if I jump around. Besides,” he continued, gesturing around. “It’s hard to make friends if you don’t stick around.”
“You make friends?” Ianto asked, skeptically. The Jack he knew didn’t seem to be too interested in long-term attachments, Torchwood Three or no. They seemed to be more accidental than anything.
“Yep. Best way to pass the time, really - and no,” he said with a grin, “I don’t just mean sex.”
“Good,” Ianto said, faintly, trying to process everything. He shook his head and took a seat next to Jack on the bed.
“I’m surprised you remember me,” he said quietly, not looking at Jack. “Three millennia is a long time.”
Jack reached out and took his hand. “Do you want the truth?”
“Yep,” Ianto said in a low voice, not sure if he was being entirely honest.
“I have forgotten a lot. I could have told someone you looked Welsh, but I didn’t remember how tall you were, or what colour your eyes were, or those things. I have pictures, somewhere, but I haven’t taken them out in a couple of centuries.”
“Easier to forget?”
“Easier not to dwell,” Jack said, and it sort of hurt, except Ianto knew he was right.
“You remembered the roof thing,” Ianto said after a bit, trying to resist tracing patterns on the back of Jack’s hand with his thumb. This wasn’t his Jack, and he needed to remember that.
Jack shrugged. “Some things stick with you. That conversation was… a turning point, for me. I have a lot of strong memories from that time, I just forget a lot of the in-between details.”
They sat in awkward silence until Jack let go of his hand and twisted to face him, bringing up his own hand to touch Ianto’s face and running his thumb down Ianto’s jaw, calluses catching on Ianto’s stubble.
“It’s good to see you,” Jack said, smiling at him fondly. “Really, you have no idea. You get…” he trailed off, touching Ianto’s lips and then tracing down his throat. Ianto shivered as Jack continued. “You get used to it, after a while. Losing people. I didn’t think I would, at first, but I guess you can adapt to anything, in the end. But that doesn’t mean I’m not absolutely thrilled to get to see you again.” He said the last bit fiercely, and he pressed his hand to Ianto’s heart, his other one coming up to grip Ianto’s knee.
Neither of them moved. Ianto stared at Jack, looking everywhere but his eyes. Not his Jack, not his Jack he chanted to himself, but in a way, he was. Unlike Kethan, to whom Ianto was a stranger, this Jack knew him, remembered him, however faintly. Ianto didn’t know what to do, until Jack started to pull away, and Ianto grabbed his hand and pulled him in, kissing him hard. Jack didn’t respond for a moment, but then his hand wrapped around Ianto’s neck, pulling him in tighter until he was almost in Jack’s lap.
“Oh, god,” Jack groaned as they pulled apart to breathe. “I haven’t kissed anyone in two years.”
Ianto pressed a kiss to his jaw and slipped a hand under his shirt. “You were in prison that long?”
“Yep,” Jack said, arching into his touch and pressing a palm against the small of Ianto’s back. Ianto pushed against him, urging him back against the wall.
“I shouldn’t be doing this,” Ianto breathed, pulling Jack’s shirt over his head. Jack raised his arms obligingly, smiling when he emerged, his hair sticking up at odd angles.
“Why?”
“Because - ugh,” he grunted as Jack ran the tips of his fingers up Ianto’s sides under his shirt, tugging it over his head as well. “Kethan.”
“I won’t care,” Jack said, pressing his hand to the bulge in Ianto’s trousers and squeezing wickedly. “Well, he won’t care once he finds out he has to go two years without sex. I might be a little annoyed at first.” He looked a little apologetic. “I don’t really remember.”
“Okay, whatever,” Ianto said, lifting his hips up to encourage Jack to move. “Jack, Kethan, you, you’re all the same person. Fine. Not cheating. Touch me.”
“As responsive as ever, I see,” Jack smirked, pushing Ianto off him and onto his back.
“You remember that?” Ianto asked, faking a scandalized tone, or as scandalized as he could manage with Jack running his hands up his legs and to his belt.
“All the important things,” Jack laughed, leaning down to tongue at Ianto’s naval. “Funny what you remember in the right situation. Like, I just remembered that you loved it when I did this.” He licked a wet stripe across Ianto’s hipbone, and Ianto jerked up in response.
“And I remember that you loved it when I did this,” he said, pressing his fingers into Ianto’s thighs, pushing them apart as he mouthed Ianto’s cock through his trousers.
“Fuck,” Ianto yelped, twisting his hands into Jack’s hair. “How about you stop telling me what I used to love and just do it?”
Jack crawled back up and rested his weight on his elbows, watching Ianto with a serious expression.
“I’m not Jack,” he said, and for a confused moment Ianto thought he was saying he was somebody else entirely.
“I know,” Ianto replied, just as seriously. “Should I call you something else in case I forget?”
Jack considered, and then shook his head. “No, Jack’s fine. I still use it often enough. I just don’t want to confuse you.”
Ianto laughed and gripped Jack’s hips. “I’m in the fifty-first century, sleeping with a man who will be my lover, about to have sex with a man who used to be my lover, trying to get back to the man who is. And they’re all the same man. I think a little confusion is inevitable.” He ground his hips into Jack’s, who dropped his head into Ianto’s neck, breathing hotly against sensitive skin. “Unless you aren’t interested, that is.”
Jack bit his neck in response. “I’m game if you are.”
“Good,” said Ianto, flipping them over so he was on top. He sat up and started in on Jack’s trousers before looking up at Jack with a grin. Jack was watching him steadily, and at first Ianto thought he caught a glimpse of something like pain in Jack’s eyes, but it was gone before he could be sure.
~
Read Chapter 16.