Like He Never Left
Author: kat_sor
Rating: T
Summary: AU ending to Episode 4 of Children of Earth.
Disclaimer: I don’t own this. Who in their right minds would want to own Season Three?! SPOILERS: Children of Earth, Day Four.
Author’s note: Uhm. Right. I'm very angered at this season.
Author's note II: Please don't read this if you haven't watched Children of Earth through the end of Episode 4. Thanks. Please. I'm begging you. I'm not kidding. If you clicked on the link go back. It's not a law set in stone for you to read this. Seriously. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THROUGH TO DAY FOUR. Thank you.
“I love you,” he whispers, a haze finding its way across his eyes. His eyes have always been the most beautiful shade of cerulean, not too blue and not too dark and not too light. Perfect. He lies in the arms of another man, frowned upon in society but the only thing that feels right in his heart. Tears steam down the face of the man that holds him, blue eyes meeting turquoise as weakness takes over the dying man’s body.
“Don’t.” His head rolls to the side, and he is silent. “Ianto, stay with me. Ianto, stay with me, please.” The urgency in his voice brings silence to an end. Ianto’s eyes open and gaze up at him.
“Hey … it was good … yeah?” He is holding back tears of his own; no one expected him to be dying now.
“Yeah.”
“You’ll forget me.”
“Never could.”
“A thousand years’ time … you won’t remember me.”
“Yes I will,” the older man presses. “I promise.” How could he forget? “I will.” With the pledge made, Ianto’s breathing becomes shallow. His eyes flutter closed. He takes his last breath and is still. “Ianto. Ianto? Don’t go. Don’t leave me … please. Please, don’t …”
Jack springs awake. The ceiling seems nearer than it had, as though the walls had pressed in around him. But where is he?
Pillows? Blankets? A … door? With a porthole? How familiar, yet so … strange.
No. He couldn’t be in the … the … The porthole opens, revealing Ianto, holding a tray. A steaming pot of coffee and biscotti. Just what he-But Ianto was dead. He died, right there in his arms. Right there in front of the 456, so how was he-
“Morning, Jack. How was your sleep?” Skeptical, Jack says nothing. Ianto was not alive. This was a trick. This was all a trick. Unless the children … No, of course not. “Jack?”
“Who are you?” Ianto raises an eyebrow. “It’s a legitimate question. I’d think I have the right to know where I am and who I’m with, don’t I?”
That sexy smirk Jack loves alights on Ianto’s mouth. “Jack, I hardly think this is the time for roleplaying. Get dressed; another Weevil has been sighted.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me who you are.”
“Fine then, Jack. No need to get snotty.” Ianto straightens. “I am Ianto Jones, not just a teaboy. I previously worked for Torchwood One and, now, I work for Torchwood Three. In Cardiff. Where you are. In the hub.”
“The hub exploded, though. It exploded! I exploded with it! And then I regenerated, and they filled my cell with cement, and then you and Gwen and Rhys saved me and we started working out of a warehouse and then we were going to have sex but the beans were almost ready …”
Ianto stares at him skeptically. “Right …”
“Seriously?”
“No, Jack. I’m humouring you. Now put your pants on and get ready. The Weevil isn’t going to hang around for too long.”
Jack furrows his brow and stands. “I don’t understand. Gwen and Rhys … where are they?”
“Rhys is working, most likely, and Gwen is upstairs with Tosh figuring everything out.”
“Everything?” He pauses. “Wait, Tosh? With Tosh?”
“Well, a picture of Tosh.” Jack’s heart sinks. “Don’t you remember anything?”
“I remember too much.” Ianto blinks. “I told you, I’ll remember you. I promised I’ll remember you.”
“You did?”
“You … you said you loved me. And said I’d forget you so I said I would never forget you. I promised, Ianto. Don’t you remember anything?” A rosy blush works its way into Ianto’s cheeks.
“I must have been very tired or very … ahem … aroused …”
“So … you don’t love me?”
“Uhm …”
Jack runs a hand through his hair and sits down on his bed. “Well, I suppose I told you not to so I understand …”
“When did you tell me not to love you?”
“While you were dying!”
“I have never been dying in my entire life.”
“No! You were! The 456 were trying to kill you! Not you, but everyone in the building, because we wouldn’t give them our children, and-”
“‘Our’ children?”
“Well, not ours, but the Earth’s children. Ten percent of them from each country.” Jack turns to face him. “You really don’t remember, Ianto?”
“Jack, don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t have a clue as to what the bloody hell you’re talking about.” After a sigh, he adds, “And if I died, I certainly have no idea what I’m doing here. I’d be gone. Way, way, far gone.”
“True, yeah, I know, but-”
“And why would I be gone anyway? If you’re here, I’m here. It’s the way it goes.”
“Someday, you’re going to die, and-”
“And we will deal with that when the time comes, won’t we? Isn’t that what you’ve told me?”
“I told you that, I know I did. But after you died, I-”
“I didn’t die, Jack. I didn’t.”
“But you did! I held you in my arms as you took your last breath. I kissed you goodbye. I died myself!”
“I’ve never seen someone so adamant about dying as you are right now, Jack,” Ianto chuckles. “But fine. I’ll play along. I died.”
“And then Gwen and Rhys went into hiding, because she’s pregnant, and-”
“Gwen’s pregnant?” Ianto blurts. “Pregnant? As in she’s having a baby?”
“Yes, Ianto, pregnant.”
“Gwen!” he calls. “Jack says you’re pregnant!” Gwen’s angry face pops up in the porthole, and frowns.
“I am not!” she huffs. “And even if I were, what business is that of yours anyway?”
“I am your boss …”
“Ugh, you’re so annoying.”
“I’m … sorry?” Jack grasps for words but none come. “Anyway, so Gwen and Rhys went into hiding-I’m not sure why they’re back but obviously the world must have given the 456 ou-their children, and so now I guess we’re safe for another forty-four years.”
Gwen and Ianto look at each other before shrugging.
“I swear!” Jack argues. “I swear, that’s exactly what happened. Look them up, I’m not lying to you. In fact, I’ll look them up.” He climbs the ladder to the hub and pads over to the computer. After a brief wait, he spins the computer screen around to show them. “See? The 456. We have documentation about the event, Ianto. It even says you died.”
“I believe that was a ploy by the British government to let the 456 believe I’d died. I was never actually in London at the time of the attack. I was here. Making coffee. With you.”
“Is that what they’re calling it these days?” Gwen smirks before moving on to another computer.
“Very funny, Gwen. Your sense of humour kills me,” Ianto snaps, pouring himself a cup of coffee. Jack’s breath catches in his lungs. “You alright, Jack?” the Welsh man asks, suddenly concerned.
“I’m fine. Just don’t … I can’t … just don’t say that, okay?”
“What, it’s a figure of speech …”
“It’s not when it refers to you dying.”
“Jack, I know I’ve said it before, but … you’re crazy. Would you like some coffee?”
“Maybe … maybe I’m hungover?”
“Must have been drinking last night or something, Jack. What, did you see Suzie as well? Oh wait, no, you couldn’t have, because she’s dead.”
“Apparently the dead are coming back to life nowadays,” Gwen jokes, typing something into her computer. “See? Jack, that whole thing was a government ploy to investigate the school systemmes over here. So, while it happened, it wasn’t nearly as tragic as you’re saying.”
“No, I know for a fact it happened … it had to have happened …”
“It didn’t happen!”
“There was a tank, with all of this gas in it, and it was poisonous. And these … these … monsters, alien monsters, were inside of it. And a child was attached at the inside, and-”
“Right, the government built it. It wasn’t a real child, Jack.”
“Clem!” A thought suddenly blurs his vision.
“Huh?”
“Clem, Gwen. You spent three days with an old man named Clem. He was with them in 1965 when they took the first round of children.”
Gwen blinks repeatedly and murmurs, “I don’t know a Clem, Jack. I’d know if I knew a Clem …”
“But-” Another memory pops into his mind. “Ianto, how’s your sister? Is your sister okay?”
“How … did you know … that I had a sister?” Jack hits his face with the palm of his hand. “I must have … told you?”
“You called her. Oh my God. What about Frobisher? Is he okay?”
“Frobisher? John Frobisher? Of course he’s okay. He was on the news just this morning, actually. Why wouldn’t he be?”
“What about his children?”
“How are we to know?”
“And Lois?”
“Lois …?”
“Lois! She works for Frobisher …?”
“I don’t know anyone in that office.”
“She disappeared, then.” Jack pauses, thinking. “Lois Habiba. Are you sure you don’t know her?”
“We don’t know anyone by the name of Lois Habiba. Really, Jack, you’re starting to worry me,” Ianto grimaces.
“Oh no …” Jack whispers. “Oh no, what happened to Alice?”
“Alice?” Gwen asks.
“Who’s Alice?” Ianto mumbles, his tone possessive.
Jack does not hesitate to answer, “My daughter,” before pushing past him and bringing up her file. “And if she’s died I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“You have a daughter?”
“And a grandson.”
“You’re pushing forty …”
“I’ll be pushing forty for eternity, thanks.”
“You know, Jack,” Gwen grins, “most people would want to never have to worry about surpassing forty. A lot of them would love to not have to get older.”
“When you’ve been doing it for as long as I have, you get sick of it.” Jack’s voice is soft, wistful. He turns is eyes to Ianto; it is a small gesture but it is more than apparent to Gwen that they need to be alone.
“I’m going to go pick up lunch. If I find that Weevil on the way back, I’ll get him for you, okay, Ianto? Bye.” They wait for her to leave the tourist office upstairs before moving closer to each other.
“I missed you,” Jack whispers. “Oh, Ianto … You have no idea.”
“I don’t understand, Jack.” With their eyes locked, he only slightly feels arms wrap themselves around his waist.
“Do you want me to explain it to you?”
“It would help …”
“You died.”
“How did I die?”
“We wouldn’t allow the governments of the world to give up any children to the 456.” Tears well up in Jack’s eyes, making them bluer and more intense than they were before. Ianto can feel shivers run up his spine. “They created a virus-a deadly, incurable virus that kills in minutes-and …”
“And?”
“And you breathed the air,” Jack states simply, a tear breaking free and rolling down his cheek.
“How long did I survive?” Jack’s eyes squeeze shut and he bites his lip. “Jack,” Ianto presses, “How long did I survive?”
“Not four minutes.”
“Were there … words?”
“There were words.”
“What were they?”
Jack takes a deep breath. “I promised I would never forget you.”
“In a thousand years’ time … you won’t remember me.”
“Ianto, no …”
“But let’s make the most of it now.”
A small smile graces Jack’s lips though the tears do not stop. Ianto chuckles briefly before placing a feather-light kiss on them, his eyes bright.
“I love you.”
“I love you.”
“You’re back.”
“I never left.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Because stupid RTD lost his effing mind...and my mood? Totally what should have happened in Day Four. `Nuff said.