Partners in Every Way - Chapter Two
15 June 2008
Ianto helped Owen wrestle the body bag with the dead Blowfish down into the autopsy bay and onto the metal table, not being too gentle about it. He was a bit heavier than Ianto had thought, and it was a good thing two of them were doing the job because one person wouldn’t have been able to handle it.
He’d noticed at the crime scene that both Toshiko and Owen seemed to have settled back into their accustomed roles with Torchwood, and Ianto was glad for it. They’d all been through so much…it would have been understandable if any of them had become too scarred by what had happened that they could no longer handle the pace and weirdness that Torchwood was. But they - all of them - were strong, and the dragon was grateful that they were all back where they belonged.
He watched as Owen began preparing one of the cold storage drawers for their ‘guest’. “You and Tosh holding up all right?” he asked quietly, not wanting Gwen to hear their conversation. He thought they both looked fine, but what if there was something hidden within their professional facade? He and Jack needed to know, in order to plan accordingly.
“Been a bit weird, to be honest,” the medic answered, just as quietly. He stopped what he was doing, and leaned his hip against the closed drawer door. “Thank God for Tosh, because I didn’t realize I’d forget so bloody much, especially my passcodes. I’d never have gotten into the Hub without her. I’m just glad it’s been slow up until now, because I’ve had to train myself up on some of the procedures all over again.”
Ianto nodded in understanding. “I think we four should go over some of the stuff we’ve forgotten before things get out of hand…because you know they will.”
“Good idea. Preferably without Cooper around, okay? I know Jack wants to keep her in the dark about what happened…” He sighed. “Look, I’m not so sure hiding this from her is such a good idea. I can see Jack’s point about wanting her to keep her innocence of the whole bloody year, but since she hasn’t actually had to live through it, I don’t see why it would be such a big deal for her to at least have the basics. I’m just concerned that it’s gonna come back and bite us all on the arse at some point.”
“I’m of two minds about it, to be honest,” Ianto admitted. “Yes, I can see Jack’s point as well, since the year was the worst for him out of all of us, and he doesn’t want any sort of pity. But you’re also right; we know how Gwen is. If she even gets a whiff of a clue as to what happened, she won’t let it go until she knows it all.”
Owen snorted. “It’s one of the reasons he hired her: for her tenacity.”
“Some say tenacity…some others say sheer bloody-mindedness.”
Owen rolled his eyes. “Your words, Dragon Boy. Not mine. But then I know how you feel about her.”
Ianto had confided in both Toshiko and Owen, not long after Jack had gone, and during the worst of Gwen’s tirades toward him for letting Jack leave in the first place. Things seem to have settled down between the dragon and the ex-copper now, but there for a couple of weeks it had been ugly coming into the Hub every day…well, when he hadn’t stayed the night in his hoard room, which had been nearly all the time. There had been a couple of moments when Ianto had come very close to Retconning Gwen, but his professionalism had risen to the fore, and he’d come to the conclusion that they needed all the help they could get, and being one man down was better than missing two.
“My feelings don’t matter,” he replied, unzipping the bag in order to get the Blowfish out and ready for storage. “What matters is the team. If it looks like things are going to get ugly, I’ll have to step in.”
“That’s why they pay you the big bucks.”
It was Ianto’s turn to roll his eyes. “Yeah, really big bucks.” Actually, it was quite a nice pay packet, and if he added in his combined hoards - at the Hub, at home, and back at Ddraig Llyn - the dragon knew he was quite possibly one of the wealthiest people in Wales…if not in Great Britain. Not that he flaunted any of it, but four out of five of them in Torchwood knew about his hoards, and what they contained.
Owen went back to work as Ianto freed the body from the bag. “Jack and I have discussed it,” he went on, changing the subject, “and we’ve decided that you and Tosh both need some time off as well, to recover from the last year. It didn’t seem fair that he and I got our vacation…”
“You two needed it, especially Jack,” the medic said, “but I’m not gonna turn down time off. In fact, if Jack bothers to check his paperwork, he’ll already find a request from Tosh. Kathy wants her to meet her family in Newport.” He opened the door, and pulled the drawer out. “Gotta say, I was surprised those two got together, but Kathy’s been really good for Tosh. And Tosh deserves a bit of happiness.”
“So do you,” Ianto pointed out.
Together, the two managed to wrestle the dead Blowfish into the drawer. With an air of finality, Owen slammed the door shut. “I talked to Diane the first night we got back,” he admitted. “I had to check on her, you know?” Ianto nodded. “It really hit home for me that no one remembers the hell we went through.”
“Are you going to try for a long distance relationship with her?”
Owen shrugged. “I’d like to. She does, too. But we’ll see where it takes us. They say that sort of relationship doesn’t work…”
“But you can at least talk to each other online and over the phone.”
“Yeah. And maybe on this time off you and Harkness have promised I could take a quick trip to Alaska.”
“We’ll make it happen.” Ianto clapped Owen on the shoulder. He was about to say something else, but the unmistakable sound of Gwen yelling at Jack interrupted him.
“She couldn’t even give him a chance to settle in,” Owen growled. “What is her issue?”
“I think she actually took Jack’s leaving personally.” Ianto had come to that conclusion during those weeks after Jack had gone.
“Yeah, well I always did believe she thought more of herself in Jack’s life than she actually is. Didn’t help that Jack didn’t disavow her of that until it was too late.”
Ianto had to agree, but Jack had been so much better about not letting Gwen get away with things before he’d gone off with the Doctor. “I know she certainly blamed me for it.”
“Yeah, well…she’ll blame you if the sun goes behind the clouds.” Owen sighed. “I bet you wish she’d never found out about you being a mythical creature.”
“It was bound to happen.”
“You were great at keeping it from Suzie. I never understood why you didn’t clue her in.”
“There was just something about Suzie I didn’t trust,” the dragon admitted. “Maybe it was because she was from One; but I didn’t feel comfortable telling her, not like with you and Tosh. You both accepted it really well.”
“Was there something about Cooper you didn’t trust either?” Owen sounded merely curious, and not like he was trying to dig up information he could use.
“There’s…a darkness in Gwen. I sensed it immediately. I tried to tell Jack about it that night he hired her, but he was too much into rationalizing why he’d done it to actually listen.” Ianto still remembered that night on top of the Millennium Centre roof, knowing that the being called the Tarot Girl had spoken truly about the dragon getting his heart broken. He’d long ago forgiven Jack for his actions, but that didn’t mean he still couldn’t be bothered by them just a bit.
“All that humanity bollocks?” Owen snorted. “Sure, we can all act like dicks, but if we weren’t human we wouldn’t be doing what we do.”
Ianto was about to agree with him, when the unmistakable feeling of a Rift spike rolled over him. “We have a - “
The alarm went off.
“Rift spike.”
Owen laughed. “Getting a little slow on the uptake, Dragon Boy?”
“I’m allowed to be out of practice,” he answered primly as both dragon and medic took the steps up to the main Hub and met the others at Toshiko’s station.
**********
The Rift alert took them to a car park near City Centre, where the local police had already cordoned off the area. Ianto approached the copper at the crime scene tape…and he smiled as he recognized him.
“Good evening, PC Davidson,” the dragon said cordially. He’d met the man a couple of times before, but he hadn’t really gotten to know him until Gwen had come onboard with Torchwood. “Or, should I say good morning?”
The young man rolled his eyes. “This isn’t one of your spooky do’s, is it?”
“We’re not sure,” Ianto hedged. His eyes tracked his team as they began working around what appeared to be a body. “We’ll be glad to give you the scene back if it isn’t.”
“Least you could’ve done was bring out some coffee when you came!”
Ianto chuckled. “Sorry, but we thought we’d be at home by now, or else I’d have brought a thermos.” He had a reputation with the constabulary for his coffee…although if they really knew the reason he was wont to bring coffee to various so-called crime scenes they might not have wanted to accept any from him again.
Together they stood watching as Toshiko started scanning the corpse. “DI Swanson said you and Himself were coming back today. Honestly, got to say we’re all glad to see it. It hasn’t been the same this last week, without seeing the Captain swan in and take control. Got a certain flair, he has.”
The dragon couldn’t argue with that.
But at the same time, Ianto now knew what Owen had meant about it all coming home to him when he’d talked to Diane. Here was Andrew Davidson, being completely normal, with no clue that he’d died during a year that had never happened to anyone but the dragon himself and a handful of others.
He could see Jack’s point even more now, about not telling Gwen. The certain knowledge of everything that had occurred - even though whoever they told wouldn’t be getting it first-hand - would be enough to weigh down anyone. Could they really burden someone with that? Wasn’t it better to leave people in ignorance…and innocence?
Jack and Gwen were arguing about something, and Ianto stifled his sigh. He’d have to ask Jack what burr was up her arse later; now, it was just completely unprofessional to confront one’s boss like that, in front of others.
“Is it true?” Andy interrupted his thoughts.
“Is what true?” the dragon asked, turning back to look at him.
“That Swanson one of your teammates are together?” He didn’t seem upset or anything; merely curious.
Ianto stiffened. “I don’t think that’s my place to say. Why don’t you ask the detective inspector if you’re so curious?”
Horror flashed across Andy’s expressive face. “Are you kidding, mate? There’s no way I’m asking her anything! My life isn’t worth it.”
“Now that shows good sense,” Ianto said, clapping his hand on the PC’s shoulder. “Ah…looks like we’re done here.” Ianto held up the yellow tape for the team.
“It’s all yours, PC Davidson,” Jack announced. “SOCO can eliminate us from anything they find. Although we were pretty careful.” He winked playfully at the obviously flustered Andy.
The dragon rolled his eyes. He let the tape fall once Owen was through, and then turned back. “Thank you, Mr. Davidson,” he said sincerely. “We’ll let you know if we need anything else. You and your people have been very helpful.”
Andy looked mollified by Ianto’s words. “Don’t mention it,” he said. “Glad we can be of help.”
They shook hands, and Ianto made his way back to the SUV, where the rest of the team was waiting. “Anything interesting?” he asked, joining them.
Jack nodded. “Looks like someone pushed that man from one of the upper decks of the car park. They had to have come through the Rift, judging from the energy found on the man’s body.”
“So we’re dealing with a homicidal visitor.” This wasn’t good. There was no telling if there would be any more victims before they managed to catch whatever was responsible.
Jack was about to answer when his vortex manipulator beeped.
Ianto had heard that sound before, when he’d been wearing it during that lost year. It was a signal saying that a communication was coming through.
His mate looked surprised at the sound. He flipped open the cover, and pressed a button.
An image projected from the wrist strap.
It was of a man, dressed in anachronistic clothing, as if he’d stepped straight from the Napoleonic Era. A sword hung from his belt, as well as a pair of guns that didn’t belong in the time the uniform had come from. He was an attractive sort, with short hair and nice cheekbones…but with an expression that Ianto just didn’t like.
The image began to speak.
“I can’t believe I got the answering machine!” the voice had a British accent, and yet there was something off about it, as if it wasn’t necessarily the speaker’s first language. “What can you be doing that’s more important than me?”
That’s when Ianto knew this was one of Jack’s exes. He hadn’t really asked Jack much about his past, simply because he was content to be Jack’s present and future and the past didn’t matter. But it looked like that past had just come back, and judging from Jack’s expression he wasn’t at all happy about it.
“Anyway,” the man went on, “you’ve probably traced the energy shift and found the body. All me…sorry about the mess. Bill me for the clean-up.”
And it sounded like a psychotic ex to boot. This was turning out to be a lousy welcome back.
“Now!” The man clapped his hands together smartly. “Drinks. Retrolock the transmission coordinates, that’s where I am. And hurry up…work to do!” He looked around in an exaggerated manner, and when he spoke again it was in a falsetto. “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope!” The image made the movements that Ianto was familiar with from the movie he was quoting, and then faded.
Jack prodded the manipulator, then closed the cover. He looked as if he’d just sucked on a very sour lemon.
“Who the hell was that?” Gwen demanded.
“He apparently knew you,” Toshiko added.
“That,” Jack answered reluctantly, “was someone I’d hoped I’d never see again.”
“Past or future?” Ianto asked.
“Future…far future.” Jack looked as if he didn’t want to say anything, but he seemed to make up his mind quickly. “You know I told you all about the Time Agency?”
Ianto did. Jack had told him about working for them, and how they’d stolen those two years from his memories. Judging from the affirmations from his teammates, Jack had been equally open with the others as well.
“That,” his mate indicated the place where the transmission had been, “was my ex-partner. And he’s apparently found me…which cannot be good.”
Ianto got the impression that Jack was seriously understating things. “You’re not going to meet him alone,” he growled, feeling the sudden need to protect his mate.
“Not hardly,” Jack agreed. “I’ll need all the back-up I can get. Let’s go.”
As they all climbed into the SUV, Ianto had the sudden feeling that things were about to get very ugly.
Chapter Three
Ianto helped Owen wrestle the body bag with the dead Blowfish down into the autopsy bay and onto the metal table, not being too gentle about it. He was a bit heavier than Ianto had thought, and it was a good thing two of them were doing the job because one person wouldn’t have been able to handle it.
He’d noticed at the crime scene that both Toshiko and Owen seemed to have settled back into their accustomed roles with Torchwood, and Ianto was glad for it. They’d all been through so much…it would have been understandable if any of them had become too scarred by what had happened that they could no longer handle the pace and weirdness that Torchwood was. But they - all of them - were strong, and the dragon was grateful that they were all back where they belonged.
He watched as Owen began preparing one of the cold storage drawers for their ‘guest’. “You and Tosh holding up all right?” he asked quietly, not wanting Gwen to hear their conversation. He thought they both looked fine, but what if there was something hidden within their professional facade? He and Jack needed to know, in order to plan accordingly.
“Been a bit weird, to be honest,” the medic answered, just as quietly. He stopped what he was doing, and leaned his hip against the closed drawer door. “Thank God for Tosh, because I didn’t realize I’d forget so bloody much, especially my passcodes. I’d never have gotten into the Hub without her. I’m just glad it’s been slow up until now, because I’ve had to train myself up on some of the procedures all over again.”
Ianto nodded in understanding. “I think we four should go over some of the stuff we’ve forgotten before things get out of hand…because you know they will.”
“Good idea. Preferably without Cooper around, okay? I know Jack wants to keep her in the dark about what happened…” He sighed. “Look, I’m not so sure hiding this from her is such a good idea. I can see Jack’s point about wanting her to keep her innocence of the whole bloody year, but since she hasn’t actually had to live through it, I don’t see why it would be such a big deal for her to at least have the basics. I’m just concerned that it’s gonna come back and bite us all on the arse at some point.”
“I’m of two minds about it, to be honest,” Ianto admitted. “Yes, I can see Jack’s point as well, since the year was the worst for him out of all of us, and he doesn’t want any sort of pity. But you’re also right; we know how Gwen is. If she even gets a whiff of a clue as to what happened, she won’t let it go until she knows it all.”
Owen snorted. “It’s one of the reasons he hired her: for her tenacity.”
“Some say tenacity…some others say sheer bloody-mindedness.”
Owen rolled his eyes. “Your words, Dragon Boy. Not mine. But then I know how you feel about her.”
Ianto had confided in both Toshiko and Owen, not long after Jack had gone, and during the worst of Gwen’s tirades toward him for letting Jack leave in the first place. Things seem to have settled down between the dragon and the ex-copper now, but there for a couple of weeks it had been ugly coming into the Hub every day…well, when he hadn’t stayed the night in his hoard room, which had been nearly all the time. There had been a couple of moments when Ianto had come very close to Retconning Gwen, but his professionalism had risen to the fore, and he’d come to the conclusion that they needed all the help they could get, and being one man down was better than missing two.
“My feelings don’t matter,” he replied, unzipping the bag in order to get the Blowfish out and ready for storage. “What matters is the team. If it looks like things are going to get ugly, I’ll have to step in.”
“That’s why they pay you the big bucks.”
It was Ianto’s turn to roll his eyes. “Yeah, really big bucks.” Actually, it was quite a nice pay packet, and if he added in his combined hoards - at the Hub, at home, and back at Ddraig Llyn - the dragon knew he was quite possibly one of the wealthiest people in Wales…if not in Great Britain. Not that he flaunted any of it, but four out of five of them in Torchwood knew about his hoards, and what they contained.
Owen went back to work as Ianto freed the body from the bag. “Jack and I have discussed it,” he went on, changing the subject, “and we’ve decided that you and Tosh both need some time off as well, to recover from the last year. It didn’t seem fair that he and I got our vacation…”
“You two needed it, especially Jack,” the medic said, “but I’m not gonna turn down time off. In fact, if Jack bothers to check his paperwork, he’ll already find a request from Tosh. Kathy wants her to meet her family in Newport.” He opened the door, and pulled the drawer out. “Gotta say, I was surprised those two got together, but Kathy’s been really good for Tosh. And Tosh deserves a bit of happiness.”
“So do you,” Ianto pointed out.
Together, the two managed to wrestle the dead Blowfish into the drawer. With an air of finality, Owen slammed the door shut. “I talked to Diane the first night we got back,” he admitted. “I had to check on her, you know?” Ianto nodded. “It really hit home for me that no one remembers the hell we went through.”
“Are you going to try for a long distance relationship with her?”
Owen shrugged. “I’d like to. She does, too. But we’ll see where it takes us. They say that sort of relationship doesn’t work…”
“But you can at least talk to each other online and over the phone.”
“Yeah. And maybe on this time off you and Harkness have promised I could take a quick trip to Alaska.”
“We’ll make it happen.” Ianto clapped Owen on the shoulder. He was about to say something else, but the unmistakable sound of Gwen yelling at Jack interrupted him.
“She couldn’t even give him a chance to settle in,” Owen growled. “What is her issue?”
“I think she actually took Jack’s leaving personally.” Ianto had come to that conclusion during those weeks after Jack had gone.
“Yeah, well I always did believe she thought more of herself in Jack’s life than she actually is. Didn’t help that Jack didn’t disavow her of that until it was too late.”
Ianto had to agree, but Jack had been so much better about not letting Gwen get away with things before he’d gone off with the Doctor. “I know she certainly blamed me for it.”
“Yeah, well…she’ll blame you if the sun goes behind the clouds.” Owen sighed. “I bet you wish she’d never found out about you being a mythical creature.”
“It was bound to happen.”
“You were great at keeping it from Suzie. I never understood why you didn’t clue her in.”
“There was just something about Suzie I didn’t trust,” the dragon admitted. “Maybe it was because she was from One; but I didn’t feel comfortable telling her, not like with you and Tosh. You both accepted it really well.”
“Was there something about Cooper you didn’t trust either?” Owen sounded merely curious, and not like he was trying to dig up information he could use.
“There’s…a darkness in Gwen. I sensed it immediately. I tried to tell Jack about it that night he hired her, but he was too much into rationalizing why he’d done it to actually listen.” Ianto still remembered that night on top of the Millennium Centre roof, knowing that the being called the Tarot Girl had spoken truly about the dragon getting his heart broken. He’d long ago forgiven Jack for his actions, but that didn’t mean he still couldn’t be bothered by them just a bit.
“All that humanity bollocks?” Owen snorted. “Sure, we can all act like dicks, but if we weren’t human we wouldn’t be doing what we do.”
Ianto was about to agree with him, when the unmistakable feeling of a Rift spike rolled over him. “We have a - “
The alarm went off.
“Rift spike.”
Owen laughed. “Getting a little slow on the uptake, Dragon Boy?”
“I’m allowed to be out of practice,” he answered primly as both dragon and medic took the steps up to the main Hub and met the others at Toshiko’s station.
**********
The Rift alert took them to a car park near City Centre, where the local police had already cordoned off the area. Ianto approached the copper at the crime scene tape…and he smiled as he recognized him.
“Good evening, PC Davidson,” the dragon said cordially. He’d met the man a couple of times before, but he hadn’t really gotten to know him until Gwen had come onboard with Torchwood. “Or, should I say good morning?”
The young man rolled his eyes. “This isn’t one of your spooky do’s, is it?”
“We’re not sure,” Ianto hedged. His eyes tracked his team as they began working around what appeared to be a body. “We’ll be glad to give you the scene back if it isn’t.”
“Least you could’ve done was bring out some coffee when you came!”
Ianto chuckled. “Sorry, but we thought we’d be at home by now, or else I’d have brought a thermos.” He had a reputation with the constabulary for his coffee…although if they really knew the reason he was wont to bring coffee to various so-called crime scenes they might not have wanted to accept any from him again.
Together they stood watching as Toshiko started scanning the corpse. “DI Swanson said you and Himself were coming back today. Honestly, got to say we’re all glad to see it. It hasn’t been the same this last week, without seeing the Captain swan in and take control. Got a certain flair, he has.”
The dragon couldn’t argue with that.
But at the same time, Ianto now knew what Owen had meant about it all coming home to him when he’d talked to Diane. Here was Andrew Davidson, being completely normal, with no clue that he’d died during a year that had never happened to anyone but the dragon himself and a handful of others.
He could see Jack’s point even more now, about not telling Gwen. The certain knowledge of everything that had occurred - even though whoever they told wouldn’t be getting it first-hand - would be enough to weigh down anyone. Could they really burden someone with that? Wasn’t it better to leave people in ignorance…and innocence?
Jack and Gwen were arguing about something, and Ianto stifled his sigh. He’d have to ask Jack what burr was up her arse later; now, it was just completely unprofessional to confront one’s boss like that, in front of others.
“Is it true?” Andy interrupted his thoughts.
“Is what true?” the dragon asked, turning back to look at him.
“That Swanson one of your teammates are together?” He didn’t seem upset or anything; merely curious.
Ianto stiffened. “I don’t think that’s my place to say. Why don’t you ask the detective inspector if you’re so curious?”
Horror flashed across Andy’s expressive face. “Are you kidding, mate? There’s no way I’m asking her anything! My life isn’t worth it.”
“Now that shows good sense,” Ianto said, clapping his hand on the PC’s shoulder. “Ah…looks like we’re done here.” Ianto held up the yellow tape for the team.
“It’s all yours, PC Davidson,” Jack announced. “SOCO can eliminate us from anything they find. Although we were pretty careful.” He winked playfully at the obviously flustered Andy.
The dragon rolled his eyes. He let the tape fall once Owen was through, and then turned back. “Thank you, Mr. Davidson,” he said sincerely. “We’ll let you know if we need anything else. You and your people have been very helpful.”
Andy looked mollified by Ianto’s words. “Don’t mention it,” he said. “Glad we can be of help.”
They shook hands, and Ianto made his way back to the SUV, where the rest of the team was waiting. “Anything interesting?” he asked, joining them.
Jack nodded. “Looks like someone pushed that man from one of the upper decks of the car park. They had to have come through the Rift, judging from the energy found on the man’s body.”
“So we’re dealing with a homicidal visitor.” This wasn’t good. There was no telling if there would be any more victims before they managed to catch whatever was responsible.
Jack was about to answer when his vortex manipulator beeped.
Ianto had heard that sound before, when he’d been wearing it during that lost year. It was a signal saying that a communication was coming through.
His mate looked surprised at the sound. He flipped open the cover, and pressed a button.
An image projected from the wrist strap.
It was of a man, dressed in anachronistic clothing, as if he’d stepped straight from the Napoleonic Era. A sword hung from his belt, as well as a pair of guns that didn’t belong in the time the uniform had come from. He was an attractive sort, with short hair and nice cheekbones…but with an expression that Ianto just didn’t like.
The image began to speak.
“I can’t believe I got the answering machine!” the voice had a British accent, and yet there was something off about it, as if it wasn’t necessarily the speaker’s first language. “What can you be doing that’s more important than me?”
That’s when Ianto knew this was one of Jack’s exes. He hadn’t really asked Jack much about his past, simply because he was content to be Jack’s present and future and the past didn’t matter. But it looked like that past had just come back, and judging from Jack’s expression he wasn’t at all happy about it.
“Anyway,” the man went on, “you’ve probably traced the energy shift and found the body. All me…sorry about the mess. Bill me for the clean-up.”
And it sounded like a psychotic ex to boot. This was turning out to be a lousy welcome back.
“Now!” The man clapped his hands together smartly. “Drinks. Retrolock the transmission coordinates, that’s where I am. And hurry up…work to do!” He looked around in an exaggerated manner, and when he spoke again it was in a falsetto. “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope!” The image made the movements that Ianto was familiar with from the movie he was quoting, and then faded.
Jack prodded the manipulator, then closed the cover. He looked as if he’d just sucked on a very sour lemon.
“Who the hell was that?” Gwen demanded.
“He apparently knew you,” Toshiko added.
“That,” Jack answered reluctantly, “was someone I’d hoped I’d never see again.”
“Past or future?” Ianto asked.
“Future…far future.” Jack looked as if he didn’t want to say anything, but he seemed to make up his mind quickly. “You know I told you all about the Time Agency?”
Ianto did. Jack had told him about working for them, and how they’d stolen those two years from his memories. Judging from the affirmations from his teammates, Jack had been equally open with the others as well.
“That,” his mate indicated the place where the transmission had been, “was my ex-partner. And he’s apparently found me…which cannot be good.”
Ianto got the impression that Jack was seriously understating things. “You’re not going to meet him alone,” he growled, feeling the sudden need to protect his mate.
“Not hardly,” Jack agreed. “I’ll need all the back-up I can get. Let’s go.”
As they all climbed into the SUV, Ianto had the sudden feeling that things were about to get very ugly.
Chapter Three