NCIS/Torchwood Crossover Home Part 3
Jack helped Martha and Gwen out of the cab. Rhys and Tom were stumbling out from the other side.
“I’m telling you the truth, Gwen,” Jack said, covering his heart with his hand. He paid the tab. He watched to make sure the couples were still with him as he headed for the front door of Martha and Tom’s building. “There really are talking trees out there in the universe. Some of them are very pretty too. Nice blooms.”
Jack looked at the solid side by side. It was big enough for a squad to live in. He hoped that didn’t mean Martha and Tom were thinking about kids. Torchwood and kids did not mix.
“Right,” Gwen said, her r’s running together. Jack tried to grab Gwen as she swayed but he was too late. The former copper was sprawled all over the sidewalk. At least she missed the flowers decorating the grounds.
“Whatcha doing down there, love?” Rhys asked his wife, her long black hair covering her face.
“Martha, I think you’d better get that door open, or your neighbours are going to have a Gwen-sized lump to step over tomorrow on their way to the bus.”
Gwen looked up; her drunken smile showing of the gap between her middle teeth. “I haven’t the foggiest. Get me up?” Gwen lifted her arms up to her great bear of a husband. Jack smiled at the Williams.
He hadn’t liked Rhys Williams when they first met. Jack thought him a hot head; quick to act, slow to think, kind of like Gwen. Now he had to admit Rhys was a kind soul and madly in love with Gwen. If anyone deserved to be happy it was his Gwen.
“I’m trying but the key won’t go in.” Martha kept missing the lock. The dark skinned beauty finally gave up; falling into her husband’s arms. “I’ve been bested.”
Tom Milligan, paediatrician and all round good guy; handed his wife over to Jack. “Give me the keys, dear. Don’t do anything funny with her, Jack; I’ll be wanting her back.”
Jack smiled at his team, well most of his team. They had to leave someone back in the hub to watch the rift, and Mickey had volunteered. It had been a long time since they had a team pub night. Not since Ianto left.
Don’t, Jack, that is a road better not travelled down. Not that ordering himself to stop ever worked. Thoughts of Ianto would appear at all times of the day and night, especially night.
“Success,” Tom shouted, flinging open the door.
“Show off,” Martha said stumbling into the flat. “Everyone get in here. I’ll make tea. I can’t send you all back into the night smashed, can I?”
Jack felt a wave of shame. No one drank coffee any more, at least not in front of him. Just another reminder that Ianto wasn’t just missing in his life.
That first month had been hard. He spent it angry at Ianto and the team. He couldn’t believe the man would just up and leave him, Torchwood or Cardiff with nothing more than a short note simply saying, ‘it had been fun but he was moving on’.
He knew one of them had to know more than they were saying about what drove Ianto away.
Oh come off of it, Harkness, you know it was something you did. It had to be. Ianto loved his job, and... No, let’s not even think that way. He knew Ianto’s feelings for him ran deep. On those days when he was being honest with himself, Jack would admit his did too. But that didn’t change things; Ianto was going to die someday and he wasn’t.
But would that have been enough to make Ianto leave. The young man had friends, and a place he belonged.
Once he got past being mad, Jack thought Ianto had been taken, by one of an endless list of enemies, or maybe by the rift. But there was a brief e-mail sent to Gwen from Ianto telling Torchwood he was safe.
It had hurt more than words could say that Ianto hadn’t even sent him a personal note.
“Yo, Jack, you coming in?” Rhys was standing in the opened door.
“Yeah, lost in deep thoughts.”
The look of sympathy was almost more than he could stand. He put on his best smile. “Where are those drinks?”
Ever since Ianto left he found himself imbibing more and more; never enough to be too drunk to do his job but enough so he could keep the memories and the questions of what he did or didn't do company. The only other way he found to manage was using his revolver.
“All I’m serving at this time of night is Earl Grey, or Darjeeling,” Martha called from the kitchen.
“You’re a stick in the mud Doctor Jones-Milligan.”
Jack looked around the apartment. He loved the homey touches. There pictures of the proud Jones family on the walls.; saviours of the world in a year no one but a few could remember There were throw rugs on the sofa and stacks of books in each corner. They made his hole in back at the hub seem cold and damn lonely.
Well, it was. How could it not be without someone to share it with? He thought he had found someone to spend a small part of his never ending life with but like everyone else he cared about, Ianto had gone on without him.
He watched Gwen and Rhys cuddled up on the couch. They made a great couple. They made him believe in happy endings for everyone but him.
Martha brought in the tea, and Tom followed with the sugar, milk and lemon. Tom played mother, while Martha sat down on the settee, tucking her feet up under her.
“Honey, did you check messages at all today?” Tom asked his wife, handing her a cup.
“No. Why?”
“I was waiting to hear about that research project I applied for with Doctor Kensington; the one dealing with cholera in Africa.” Tom gave Jack his cup before going to the answering machine.
He pressed the button and Jack stopped breathing.
“Hi, Martha, I know long time no chat but I have a huge favour to ask of you. I know I don’t have to say it, but I’m going to, please don’t tell Jack about this. Can you look to see if there has been any rift activity on the eastern seaboard of the United States? I would ask Unit but then they’d probably go blabbing right to Jack, and we don’t want that, do we? Well, I don’t. Let me know once you have an answer. I think, no, I know we have a weevil problem around here. It seems they’ve developed a taste for navy personnel. Thank you, Doctor Jones. You have my number. Oh gotta go.”
Jack dropped the tea cup. The sound of it breaking on the wooden floor brought him back.
“You lied to me,” he shouted at Martha.
“Jack, I didn’t. I-“
“Save it! I... I... just leave me the hell alone.”
Jack slammed the door shut as hard as he could. He knew it was childish but right now, he didn’t give a damn. He was furious; He didn’t think he had been this mad since Ianto and the whole cyber girlfriend incident. He wanted to do nothing more than to hit a bar just so he could pick a fight with someone.
Instead he headed back to the hub. He bypassed Mickey and all the security and headed for his sanctuary, the roof.
He took a few deep breaths looking out over the city he had adopted over one hundred years ago. Or was it two thousand? Nothing like being buried for a couple of centuries to mess up your sense of time.
He had met a lot of people since he came to Earth to wait for the doctor to appear; most of them had gone to a place he could never follow. God, he was getting maudlin in his old age.
He knew if asked the average man or woman would think living forever would be wonderful; seeing all that new technology, watching history unfold before your eyes and being able to tell people that you were there when such and such happened. He would gladly give it all up to have a normal life. To share what Gwen and Rhys have; to be partners in everything, even in death.
He thought back to what happened tonight. Ianto was in trouble and who does he call? Martha.
He didn’t even want me to know he needed help. Where the hell was he calling from? Why would he be worrying about weevils in the States? At least, it gave him a reason to contact Ianto.
Jack smiled; finally, he had a starting spot, the eastern US seaboard. He could find out what went wrong. Why Ianto decided to leave?
Jack had no illusions about himself. He knew he could be a bastard on a good day and a total asshole on bad ones; short tempered, rude and condescending. But Ianto would just roll with it, bring him his coffee, give him a smile and tell him off in that polite Welsh way that always made him feel better.
He wanted that back. He wanted Ianto back where he belonged, by his side, and if he wouldn’t come back he needed a damn good reason to let him go.
Jack pulled up the collar of his great army coat. The poor thing had taken a lot of abuse without Ianto there to mend it.
Hell, everything was wrong without Ianto. Janet and Myfanwy seemed different since Ianto left. Okay, that might just be wishful thinking on his part. How could you tell if a weevil or a pteradon were moping?
They never let the hub get filthy but it lacked its usual lemon scent.
God, he missed Ianto’s coffee, but he’d give it all up just to hear those Welsh vowels.
He looked up at the stars. He spent so many nights wondering if he and Ianto could see the same stars. His heart was filled with relief to know they were at least on the same planet.
He heard the door open behind him. He didn’t have to look behind him to know who was there.
“Go away, Martha, you really are the last person I want to talk to.”
“You don’t have to do anything more than listen to me.”
“So you can lie to me again? I don’t think so.”
“I had no idea where Ianto was.”
Jack spun around. “But you have an idea why he left, don’t you?”
“I... I. I promised Ianto I wouldn’t say anything,”
“Save it.” Jack pushed past her.
“He tried to tell you,” Martha said, reaching out to grab Jack’s arm.
“Tell me what? When?”
“I won’t betray, Ianto, no matter how mad you get at me, Captain.” Only Martha could make his rank sound like a disgusting thing. “I know he went to tell you a couple of nights before he left. He said he followed you to a pub but when he came back he said ‘you had your hands full, and didn’t seem particularly interested in anything he had to say’.”
Jack pulled away. He tried to think back to what event would have made Ianto leave but it was almost two years ago. “I don’t remember.”
“Not a big surprise where Ianto’s concerned.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“He loved you, and you treated him like some lost puppy who was only good enough to fetch your slippers and warm you feet at night.”
“I did not. Ianto’s and my relationship was, no, is complicated. I never lied to him and told him we were going to have some great love affair. He knew I wasn’t capable of that. I’ve done the whole marriage thing before. I wasn’t going to put myself out there again. It hurts too much. He knew it even better after Tosh and Owen died.”
“Just because he knew, Jack didn’t mean he accepted it. How would you feel if the person you cared most about in this world was too busy making eyes at a fellow employee?”
“He knew my feelings for Gwen aren’t like that. I would never do anything to destroy her relationship with Rhys.”
“But if she wasn’t with Rhys, would you have been with Ianto? And the endless flirting?” Martha demanded; her hands on her hips.
“Harmless. Ianto knew it was him I always came back to.”
“Did he?”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t have time for this, not right now.
“What are you going to do, Jack?”
“Pack. I’m going to get my things packed, you’re going to go get the info I need to give to Ianto. Where’s Gwen?”
“She wanted to come after you but she... sort of passed out. She and Rhys are crashed in my spare room.”
“Good, she’d want to come with me.”
“Where are you going?”
“Wherever, Ianto is. You have his address?”
“Just a cell phone number, that’s all he would give me, and that took me months and months of pleading in e-mails.”
“I can use it to trace his whereabouts. He’s obviously somewhere on the eastern side of the US.”
“You really think it’s going to be that easy? Just walk up say hi, give him a bit of the old Harkness charm and he’ll follow you back to old Britain. Please tell me you aren’t that naive?”
“No, I’m not. I know I’m going to have my work cut out for me. But I have to know why he left, Martha. I can’t explain it. I’ve lost people before and I’ll loose everyone I know at some point in time but I’ve never lost someone I can find.”
Jack opened the door; but Martha caught his hand.
“One more thing. Well, two, then I’ll go get that information for you. What’s your thoughts on kids?”
Jack’s eyebrows rose in confusion. “Kids? I guess they’re fine. Not exactly a Torchwood concern why? One of the weevils pregnant?”
Martha shook her head. “You might not have noticed but you do have two married women working for you. Maternity leave might have to be considered.”
“Only if you want it with a side order of retcon. In case you haven’t noticed Martha, Torchwood doesn’t leave much room for raising a family; unless you’re looking to make orphans.”
“God, Harkness, you really can be a bastard, can’t you?”
“Never said I wasn’t.”
“Then you had better start looking for some replacements because I can tell you right now that there are going to be Torchwood babies in the future.”
“Are you saying that you’re...?”
“Not yet. But Tom and I want kids, and if that doesn’t fit into your plans then you had better retcon me right now and Tom too.”
Jack pulled Martha in for a hug. “Let’s get Ianto back, then we’ll see about baby booties, okay?”
“Okay. Just the same, you should think about hiring more staff.”
“Was that you’re second point?”
“No, my second point is; I’m coming with you.”
“What? No.”
“Jack, do you think you’re going to get within two hundred yards of Ianto before he shoots you?”
“I’ll come back.”
“Yeah, but you know how Ianto does guilt.”
“Fine, you can come but we have to get a move on. One more day is too long. I want to see him.”
“I’ll get started right away. I’m sure Mickey will help me, and we can get a quick ride from UNIT, once we know where we’re going.”
Martha gave Jack a big smile; he couldn’t help but notice how it didn’t make it all the way into those big brown eyes.
“Everything’s going to work out, right?” she asked, leaving before Jack could answer.
Jack turned back to look at his city. He hoped with all his heart that he could return a beloved son back to her.
TBC