Fic - FIVE GOLD RINGS
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Gwen
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: Mild PG for inference of M/M relationship, some kissing
Spoilers: General, for series, passing reference to Out of Time
Disclaimer: Not mine; they belong to the BBC.
Prompt: Christmas
Summary: Jack feels the team needs cheering up but finds out that he needs to define what ‘team’ means.
Jack sat in his office and brooded. The travellers from 1953 had left the entire team feeling a little worn around the edges, even if the hurt had been largely unintentional. They had been cautiously anticipating Christmas and now there was a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth.
Is it too much to ask that we get one week of being happy?
Not that he was in a position to claim the moral high ground. He’d started out with such good intentions, especially when a fully decorated tree had magically appeared out of thin air one morning. He knew Ianto had done it, but how the man had managed it without Jack hearing him was a mystery. With the appearance of the tree, however, Jack had decided that it would be nice to mark the occasion with something other than a general piss-up. He’d thought about Secret Santas and maybe a party, but then the trio of time-travellers had landed in their laps and everything had turned sour.
Gwen had survived better than most of them. At least her charge was alive and thriving in her new world. There was still a shadow on her expressive face, however, and something she had let slip made Jack think she had quarrelled with Rhys. Owen was showing classic symptoms of a broken heart, all the more shocking for the fact that most of the team had decided that he didn’t have a heart in the first place. Poor Tosh was unsettled because everyone else was unsettled and she felt guilty for still being in a Christmas mood. And Ianto….
Jack pulled a face. Admit it, Jack, you screwed up big time with your actions, as well. It wasn’t so much the fact that he had failed to persuade John that life was still worth living. God knew there were days, weeks even months when Jack was deeply unconvinced of that fact and only the fact that he was immortal had kept him from blowing his brains out. In a way he had envied John his escape, and had joined him in the car as a perverse kind of penance for not being able to fix things for him, for not being able to wave a magic wand and make it all right again.
No, he’d screwed up because - yet again - he had failed to consider the consequences of his actions on other people. Specifically on Ianto. He should have known that Ianto would have come after him and found them in his car, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. After all, they were supposed to have been going out to dinner later that evening. What he hadn’t known was what Ianto had thrown at him in bitter anger and betrayal, and that was that Ianto was emotionally involved with him.
“Damn it, Harkness, try telling yourself the truth for once,” Jack muttered under his breath. “He’s in love with you. And you were too damn blind to see it.”
Or maybe he hadn’t wanted to see it. When Ianto had consciously made his first sexual overtures to him, Jack had suspected some deep dark plot on the Welshman’s part. A kind of seduce and slay scenario that was as hackneyed as it was entertaining. He’d been willing to play along and thoroughly enjoy himself, but it hadn’t taken him long to realise that there was no deep dark agenda and what Ianto was offering came without a price tag. Or so he had thought. Now he realised that there had been a phenomenally high price, but he hadn’t been the one to pay it.
He could ignore what Ianto had said. Ianto obviously expected him to. Jack was aware of a vague feeling of peevishness that Ianto considered him to be that shallow. Although, to be fair, Jack had always made a point of seeming shallow to everyone so why should he now be feeling insulted? Except that Ianto had always seemed like the kind of person who watched, assimilated and then kept everybody’s secrets, so why not the secret that Jack Harkness might have a heart after all?
Question is, do I? Can I do what he said and learn to feel again?
He’d found a dozen reasons why not. He could have found a hundred more. Most of them boiled down to cowardice. Those that were left over could be lumped under selfishness. Not exactly what he wanted to see when he took a look at himself in the old existential mirror, but that was the problem with being truthful with yourself.
He’d found one reason why he should try. Just one. But when he put it up against the other reasons, it outweighed them so fast and hard that they shot off into some no man’s land where he hoped they would land in something very nasty.
He wanted to make him laugh again. Somehow, some way, he’d make Ianto laugh as if he meant it. A proper laugh. Not a smile, not a grin. Although that way he has of smirking with mischief in his eyes is a sure-fire turn-on, Jack thought irreverently. No, he wanted Ianto laughing without the slightest shadow on his soul. He wanted the laugh in his eyes, right through his body and radiating out of him like some kind of flare. He’d seen it before, once when Myfanwy had brought him an extremely dead salmon as a present and then had chirruped and headbutted him onto his backside. Ianto hadn’t realised anyone was watching and he had laughed while swatting Myfanwy with affection and calling her a daft old bat. The sight had captivated Jack and put a grin on his face for the rest of the day that had the others speculating madly.
Jack wanted to see that laugh again. He wanted to be the one to set it free. He wanted it to be directed at him. Don’t want much, do I? he thought in wry amusement. It was only fair, though. Ianto inhabited a world of blood and shit and impossibly ugly things that the team cheerfully dumped on him as they walked away. Ianto was usually the one who had to come up with the cover stories, clean away the blood and other evidence, work out what to do with the bodies and generally smooth over any unpleasantness. And his reward? Get forgotten, overlooked and generally ignored unless someone wanted something. Like coffee. A file. Some sex.
Jack winced. Boy, when his conscience decided to come out of its coma, it did it with a bang.
I didn’t know!
You didn’t want to know.
I’ll make it up to him.
I’m not going to hold my breath.
Jack decided that he didn’t much like his conscience.
They couldn’t go on like this. If nothing else, John had taught him that you had to hold on to what you had because it could get taken away from you at any moment. You could hope and dream but not at the expense of what was right under your nose, because dreams were made out of spun sugar and tissue paper and it took only the smallest of flames to reduce them to ash. Torchwood was supposed to be a team and they were going to be a team, even if that meant that their esteemed leader had to knock some sense into his own moronic head.
Jack heaved in a deep breath, wished he felt a little more motivated than a lemming on his first bungee jump, and got to his feet. Going over to the door, he went through it to look down into the Hub. The other three were sitting around, very obviously not doing anything, while there was no sign of Ianto. The inner devil in him suddenly gave a grin and rubbed its hands together. There might be some fun in this, after all.
“Everyone! In my office, in five! And find Ianto!” he barked. He went back inside, aware of the consternation he’d left behind and sat down, doing his best not to grin like an idiot.
They straggled in like bewildered children who knew they were in trouble but weren’t sure which of their misdemeanours had been found out. Ianto was the last, belting up the stairs and sliding into a chair with an abstracted look about him that looked mysterious but probably meant he’d been halfway through some filing and was still mentally sorting stuff out.
“Right, you’re probably wondering why I called you all here,” Jack started. He was aware of Ianto giving him a look of disbelief before biting his lip and looking away. Jack smiled inwardly. He could out-cliché anyone, any day of the week.
“You’re going to give us a couple of days off over Christmas?” Owen asked hopefully.
“Torchwood never sleeps,” Jack said severely. He was aware of Ianto’s eyes widening even more and Jack bit the inside of his cheek to keep the grin from escaping.
“Torchwood might not but I do,” grumbled Owen.
“It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow,” Jack continued.
"No, really, I'd never have guessed." Owen was obviously in a mood to bitch but Jack figured he needed to let off steam so he ignored him. Besides, being ignored was a surefire way of getting Owen's goat.
"I thought we'd mark the occasion by going out for a meal. Just the team. Spend some time together without having to think about saving the world. It's been a while since we've done that."
“A meal?” Tosh sounded a little surprised.
“Why not?” Jack said with an expansive smile.
“That would be nice,” Gwen said a little cautiously.
After a moment, Owen shrugged. “Might as well. Haven’t got anything else planned.”
“Great. Ianto, get us a table somewhere nice, will you?”
Ianto stared at him. “You what?” he said without thinking.
Jack gave him a puzzled look. “A table. Get us a table for tomorrow.”
“But… it’s the 23rd!”
“Yeah, so?”
Gwen took pity on Ianto as he very obviously struggled to think of a polite way to tell him what was wrong. “Jack, most places are booked up solid by the end of October. Asking Ianto to find us somewhere the day before Christmas Eve is impossible.”
“Pfft, Ianto does the impossible all the time,” Jack said airily. He wasn’t about to have his plans derailed. “You can deliver, can’t you, Ianto?”
Ianto sighed. “I’ll see what I can do, sir.” He got to his feet and left, muttering under his breath.
Jack frowned. “That was in Welsh; always a bad sign. Gwen?”
Gwen gave him a speaking look. “He was saying that he supposes you’ll be wanting him to turn water into wine week next Tuesday.”
Jack grinned. “Nah, it’ll be lead into gold week next Tuesday. After that he can play with the water-wine thing.”
OOO
They turned up in their party clothes more out of hope than any real expectation of getting the meal Jack had promised, but to their amazement Ianto had brought around the SUV and was waiting for them.
“You got us somewhere?” Tosh asked in delight.
Ianto gave her a slight smile. “The maitre de at The Silver Tree owed me a favour. He had a cancellation.”
Tosh wasn’t the only one whose eyes widened. The Silver Tree was one of the most exclusive restaurants in Cardiff and the waiting list was nearly six months long. Their expressions made Ianto actually smile properly for the first time in ages.
“If only I had a camera,” he sighed. “What a wallpaper the three of you would make.”
“I’ve just had a horrible thought,” Gwen said slowly.
“Torchwood is picking up the bill,” Ianto said smoothly, anticipating what was worrying her. “Now, if the Captain would be good enough to shift his carcass, we might get there in time.”
“I’m here, I’m here,” Jack said as he appeared from nowhere. He was wearing a suit again, although he still had his trenchcoat on.
“Looking good, Jack,” Gwen said teasingly.
“I might say the same about you two ladies,” Jack said with a laugh.
Gwen grinned back and made a mock pirouette and a quick bow. Her red silk top set off her dark colouring but she was a little uncertain about the long skirt, not getting out of her trousers very often. Tosh smiled as well but tugged her black wrap around her jade green dress. Owen had conceded to the occasion by wearing a dark blue shirt rather than his usual T-shirt, but he wore his usual black leather jacket over that.
“Reservations are for eight o’clock,” Ianto said warningly.
“Okay, okay, we can take a hint,” Jack grinned. “Pile in, people,” he said, going round to the passenger seat and getting in.
The short trip to the restaurant gave the others time to start getting into the party spirit. Jack was pleased to hear them laugh and tried to catch Ianto’s eye but the Welshman had his eyes fixed firmly on the road. Jack mentally sighed. Not forgiven me yet. Okay, maybe after tonight.
Ianto pulled up outside the restaurant and the others started to get out. “Ring me when you’re ready to leave, sir, and I’ll come and pick you up.”
Jack froze in the middle of opening his door and gave him a startled look. “What?”
Ianto frowned in confusion. “Call me. When you want to leave,” he said slowly. “There’s no sense in you all calling for a cab when I can drop you all off in one trip.”
Jack blinked, aware that Tosh and Gwen had also paused in their exit. “But-“
“It’s no imposition, sir. I didn’t have anything planned for tonight, so I can easily stay at the Hub until you’re-“
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jack demanded. “You’re coming to the party with us!”
Now it was Ianto’s turn to stare at him in bemusement. “You said you wanted the team to go out for a meal, sir. That’s you and the other three.” When Jack continued to look at him in silence, he shifted uncomfortably. “I’m support, sir, not a member of the team. You know that.”
Jack opened his mouth to protest, then closed it again when he recalled the number of times when he had introduced others to the team and left Ianto off the list. It was simply because he had yet to get Ianto into active field status, but he could see how Ianto might take such an apparent slight. He took a deep breath and suppressed the urge to throttle the younger man.
“I meant all five of us,” he said quietly.
“You didn’t say that, sir,” Ianto pointed out. “The table is reserved for four people and you have-“ he glanced at the dashboard clock, “-five minutes to get inside. There’s a queue,” he pointed out significantly.
“We’ll get them to set an extra place.”
Ianto laughed. “Captain, I wouldn’t try that, if I were you. I was lucky to get you a place in the first place. It doesn’t matter-“
Jack was out of the SUV and let the door slamming answer that for him. Ianto slumped back in his seat and shook his head. “The man is impossible,” he murmured under his breath.
“Ianto, you didn’t really think we’d want to go to a party without you?” Tosh asked incredulously. That earned her an exasperated look.
“Tosh, if it weren’t for the fact that you need coffee and food, or a file found, I probably wouldn’t see most of you for weeks on end!” He looked out of the window in the direction of the restaurant. “He gets these bees in his bonnet at the strangest times. He’ll lose the table and you’ll have to make do with Pizza Hut or somewhere.”
“Fine, then we’ll eat in Pizza Hut,” Gwen said determinedly. She ignored the irritated growl she got from Ianto as she spotted Jack. “Here he comes.”
“All right, get Owen back in,” Ianto sighed. “I think the nearest Pizza Hut is further along the Bay.”
“Right, out you come. Ianto, park the car and get back here. That should give Emrys time to get the table reorganised.” He grinned as Ianto gave him a look of utter amazement. “Never underestimate the Harkness charm, Ianto. Park the car and come back.”
He waited until Ianto had driven away before letting out a wicked laugh. “He shoots, he scores,” he chortled, rubbing his hands together.
“You impressed him,” Gwen said with a hint of admiration in her eyes.
“What can I say? You’ve either got it or you haven’t,” he said with false modesty. That and a £50 bribe and won’t there be yelling and carrying on when he finds out!
They entered the restaurant and Jack shepherded them to the bar where he ordered a round of drinks. He stuck to his water and watched the door until he saw Ianto appear and look around. He waved at him, but Ianto had already seen Emrys and was heading in his direction, where they had a swift discussion with much arm waving. Jack knew the exact moment that Ianto found out about the £50. He had a way of looking like he was having a seizure without altering his expression one iota. Right now he was having a major one while giving Jack a look of pure outrage. Jack had a nasty feeling he was going to have to walk over fiery coals to get anything on expenses for the next few months.
“I got you a brandy,” he said hastily as Ianto joined them.
“Did you now,” Ianto said grimly.
“On ice,” Jack said, batting his eyelashes.
Ianto shook his head and took the glass. “You are impossible,” he sighed.
“You keep saying that and I keep telling you that it’s part of my charm,” Jack grinned, then laughed as Ianto rolled his eyes and gave up.
It wasn’t long before they were escorted to their table. Settling in and studying the menu, Gwen felt her eyes get rounder and rounder as she saw the prices. She profoundly hoped that Ianto hadn’t been joking when he’d said that Torchwood would foot the bill. When the food arrived, however, it more than lived up to the hype. Ianto still sat like he expected to have to leap to his feet at any moment, but even he had relaxed by the time dessert came along and was able to do justice to his cheesecake.
Feeling pleasantly stuffed, all five of them settled back with some coffee. They automatically held their breath when Ianto took his first sip and he paused, looking at them in surprise before realising what was wrong. He smiled faintly. “I have been known to drink other peoples’ coffee, you know.”
“You never drink mine,” Jack said in a hurt voice.
Ianto gave him a mischievous look over the rim of the cup. “The key word is ‘coffee’, Captain.”
The others laughed as Jack overdid the hurt and wounded look. He waited until the laughter had died before, clearing his throat and reaching into his inside pocket and pulled out three brightly wrapped gifts. “Since it’s Christmas, I figured I should hand over some loot. Owen, here’s one for you.”
Looking a little bemused, Owen picked up the slim package and gave Jack a sardonic look. “Haven’t got anything for you, mate.”
“Not the point,” Jack said cheerfully. “I wanted to give presents, so I’m giving presents.”
“Not going to complain,” Owen said cheerfully. He ripped open the parcel and found a solid looking pen in a blue-green finish. “Woo, a pen. I’m totally underwhelmed.” There was a genuine grin on his face for the first time in days.
“Oh ye of little faith,” Jack said chidingly. He reached across to take the pen and show it off. “This is something Torchwood One used to keep to itself. See this button here? It accesses the personal memory of the pen, which holds just about the entire medical memory bank. You keep the pen on active status while you’re doing an autopsy and when you make a running commentary, it records it and automatically pulls up any relevant info you might want to see.”
He pressed another button and a small glimmering screen appeared in mid-air, with something medical-looking on it. Owen practically snatched it off Jack again and started to murmur over it. Jack grinned with pleasure and picked up the second parcel to hand to Gwen. She gave a grin of pure delight and tore her way into the parcel. Her mouth shaped an 'ooooh' as she pulled out a glimmering scarf that seemed to be made of smoke and rainbows. She passed it over her hand and gave a gurgle of delight as small sparks and glowing ripples flowed in response to her skin making contact with the material.
“It’s beautiful, Jack! Thank you!” She leapt up to dance around the table and give him a kiss, which he returned with gusto. She laughed and ruffled his hair before going back to sit in her chair and play with the scarf.
“Tosh.”
Toshiko was a lot more restrained in her unwrapping, especially when she realised that the time she was taking was making Jack twitch. She eventually uncovered what looked like a clear perspex wand. There didn’t seem to be any way of activating it, and she eventually acknowledged defeat and looked to Jack for guidance. He grinned.
“Give up?” He laughed when she made a face at him. “Okay, I’ll play nice. It’s a librarian’s toy that came through the Rift last month. Here,” he shoved a piece of paper across to her, “put the wand across the writing.”
Intrigued, Tosh picked up the paper, which was covered with an alien script, and did as she was told. The wand glowed a soft gold and through it she could see English words replacing the alien squiggles. She leaned forward in fascination but soon realised that there was no grammatical structure. It seemed to be a literal translation of the words.
“That’s right,” Jack said in obvious approval when she mentioned it. “It’s a toy to play with, not a serious tool, but I’ve loaded it with every language in the Torchwood database and I figured it might be a bit of fun for you.”
She gave an enthusiastic nod and was very obviously itching to try it right away. Jack turned his attention to Ianto, who was busily refilling Gwen’s cup for her, a carefully shuttered expression on his face. It didn’t take a maths genius to work out that there was a missing parcel and the others were waking up to that fact.
“Ianto?” Jack said softly.
“Yes, sir?”
Damn, he’s good, Jack thought admiringly. I can’t pick up a thing from his eyes. “I couldn’t figure out how the hell to pack your gift, so it’s still back at the Hub.” He thought he caught the faintest flicker of disappointment and knew what the Welshman thought was waiting for him back at the Hub.
Owen seemed to think the same thing, judging from the sardonic grin he gave Ianto. “Just as well we won’t be coming back afterwards. We’d just be in the way.”
Ianto glared at him. “And that would be different in what way?” he asked with affable poison.
Owen blinked. He was so used to Ianto ignoring his digs that it took a few seconds for him to realise that he’d actually been given a setdown. He looked like he was going to come back with a sharp retort, but Gwen gave him a sharp dig in the elbows. They were all distracted by the appearance of Emrys, who managed to convey - with impeccable courtesy and exquisite manners - that they should think about shifting and let some more paying customers inside.
Since he’d been drinking water, Jack got to drive the others back home. It didn’t take long and he told them they had Christmas Day off barring alien invasion. Eventually it was just him and Ianto and he was aware of the atmosphere changing as they drove back to the Hub. Ianto stared out of the window and didn’t say anything. Jack sighed and was surprised to see Ianto turn to look at him.
“You needn’t have included me in the party, sir,” he said quietly.
“Ianto, regardless of what you think, or how I might phrase things, you are a part of Torchwood Three,” Jack said earnestly.
“Yes, sir.” Ianto withdrew his interest and transferred it back to the darkened streets they were driving through.
Jack sighed again but this time it didn’t provoke a reaction. They arrived back at the Hub and Jack got out of the SUV. He grabbed Ianto by the tie when it looked like he was going to stay behind and hoover the SUV and towed him into the Hub and up to his office. A little to his surprise, Ianto let him get away with it, but Jack released him before he exhausted the Welshman’s patience and made for the decanters.
“Brandy?” he asked. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that Ianto had taken off his jacket and was starting to loosen his tie. “Whoa, hold your horses, Ianto. We still have to get your Christmas present sorted.”
Ianto stopped in mid-tug of his tie and stared at him. “What? I thought-“
“Tch, thinking the same thoughts as Owen? That’s a scary thought.”
“It’s a horrifying thought,” Ianto said wryly, accepting the glass Jack offered him. “So what’s my gift?”
Jack paused in the middle of sipping the whiskey he had decided to treat himself to. Last chance, Harkness. Last chance to come to your senses and get out the present you got him in the drawer, then distract him with some sex. Of course, you’ll confirm every low opinion he has of you, but why would that be important to you?
“We need to sit down for this.” He saw That Look in Ianto’s eyes again and sighed. Again. I’ve sighed more often since meeting him than in the previous two centuries! “Fine, let me rephrase that: I need to sit down for this.”
He went to sit down on the sofa and after watching him for a moment while sipping at his brandy, Ianto came to sit down beside him. He remained patiently silent while Jack struggled to throttle the instinct that had kept him safe for longer than he could remember. Safe and lonely and forgetting what it is to feel.
“Okay, here we go,” he said finally. He flashed Ianto a smile. “One Christmas present that’s impossible to wrap coming up.” He took one last breath, threw back the whiskey and turned to face Ianto. “I was born in the 51st century AD, on a planet-“
It took a split-second for Ianto to react. He stared at Jack with his eyes wide, then sat up and clapped a hand across Jack’s mouth. “No,” he said firmly. “No, no, no, no.”
Jack reached up to drag his hand from his mouth. “Ianto-“
Ianto was shaking his head almost frantically. “No, you have to tell me this because you want to. Not because of some guilt trip I lay on you. I made a mistake and I’m sorry, but it really doesn’t matter that I’m emotionally involved and I won’t throw it in your face again and-“
Jack realised that he wasn’t going to get a word in edgeways any time soon, so he did the only thing he could think of and kissed the man. Ianto accepted the kiss eagerly and returned it with interest.
“Yes, we can have sex,” he whispered when Jack eventually let them up for air. He reached up to start undoing Jack’s waistcoat, then paused when Jack lightly placed his fingers over his mouth.
“Sex later. Me growing up first,” he said softly. “Like I said, I was born in the 51st century on a planet that orbits a star Hubble hasn’t even mapped yet-“
He spoke for three-quarters of an hour, glossing over quite a bit but including what he hoped were the important bits. Ianto listened in absolute silence, absorbing everything the way he always did. By the time he had finished, Jack had shifted position so he was leaning against Ianto’s shoulder and staring across the room. It had been more difficult that he would have believed to tell him about being abandoned on the Games Station and Ianto had flung an arm around him at that point and pulled him closer. The silence didn’t seem particularly threatening when he finally finished, but he felt oddly tired.
“So it’s the Doctor that you’ve been searching for all this time,” Ianto said slowly. “I did wonder. Pity I hadn’t known that earlier. He’s been back a couple of times since Canary Wharf.” He must have felt Jack tense because he tightened his hug for a moment. “I’ll know in future,” he said reassuringly.
Jack twisted to give him a smile. “Thanks. You know what they say about two heads, although I found that a bit too much of a good thing when I hooked up with this two-headed Garani hermaphrodite on Belladonna IX…”
Ianto let him meander his way through the complicated tale, a thoughtful look on his face. “Jack, about the Doctor,” he said when Jack finally got to the unbelievable punchline.
Jack rolled his eyes. “I don’t know why I bother trying to broaden your horizons,” he muttered under his breath. “What about the Doctor?”
“He’s an alien. Torchwood has some pretty strict rules about aliens…”
Jack snorted. “Torchwood has forgotten its origins. It was created to collect information and be ready for alien threats. The Doctor is the furthest thing to a threat that this planet has ever seen.”
“But if he comes back-“
“Ianto, have you been listening to word I’ve said? Technically speaking, I’m just as much a persona non grata as the Doctor. I deal with alien menaces but I’m willing to let the innocent or dumb go free provided they keep their noses clean. Or whatever they have in place of noses,” he finished irreverently. “Which reminds me of some really weird aliens I once met-“
“Jack, hush a moment,” Ianto said absently. Jack obediently shut up and waited. A glance over his shoulder told him that Ianto was focused on something he couldn’t see, but he was chewing his lip, which was a sure indication that he was trying to decide something. He focused on Jack again. “You really don’t care that the Doctor is an alien?”
“Why should I? Some of my best friends have been alien.” And my lover is a half-alien, except you’re too afraid to tell me that, he finished silently. “Why?”
“If…. I told you something, could you promise to keep it a secret?”
Holy-! Is he going to tell me? Don’t blow this, Harkness! “It might depend on what it was, but unless it involves you plotting to take over the Earth, I’d probably be able to keep my mouth shut. At least you know I can keep secrets!” he said with a chuckle.
That prompted a smile from Ianto. He hesitated, looked as though he was going to say something and then sighed. “I… have to check with someone else, first. It’s not just my secret.”
Caerwyn, Jack realised. His sister would be in danger if Ianto told Jack their secret and then he betrayed them. And Caerwyn rates me somewhere below a nemotode, Jack sighed to himself. He wouldn’t be holding his breath, but at least he knew that Ianto would be willing to tell him, and that was something to savour. Maybe they could make something of this relationship after all. Secrets within riddles within puzzles within secrets. Hell of a way to fall in love.
“Want some more brandy?” he asked.
Ianto shook his head. “I should be getting back home. I have to get things ready for tomorrow.”
“Oh?” Jack was conscious of a small stab of disappointment. “Caerwyn coming up to be with you?”
Ianto was giving him the oddest smile; half-shy, half-knowing. “No, she prefers the Solstice and came up to see me on the 21st, so she won’t be around to declare war on you.” The smile widened when Jack couldn’t quite suppress his sigh of relief. “The Harkness charm is never failing with one lone female, surely?” he said in mock disbelief.
“Your sister is scary,” Jack said fervently. He gave the other man a sharp poke when he chuckled. “It’s not funny, you know. It’s the way she keeps eyeing up my throat when she’s talking to me. I keep having to suppress the urge to order up an armour-plated scarf.”
And then he got it. After one incredulous look, Ianto collapsed into laughter. Whole-hearted, uncontrollable and extremely infectious, he soon had Jack just as helpless with the giggles. Inwardly he felt something unclench and start to rise up inside him and he was as scared as he was elated. The future was suddenly twice as terrifying as it had been and ten times as complicated.
After several minutes, Ianto managed to recover and he leaned forward to kiss Jack very gently on the lips. This was different from so many of the other kisses he’d given Jack before. This was… unhurried? Yes, that was it. This kiss wasn’t an invitation to sex; it was more a confirmation of what they had and what they shared. Jack decided that he liked this version just as much as he did the others and felt vaguely disappointed when it eventually ended. He focused on something in front of his face and realised that Ianto was holding up a key. He looked a question and was surprised to see Ianto colour a little.
“A key is probably better for my front door than you picking the lock,” he said wryly.
“Or kicking the door down,” Jack agreed gravely, surprised that he could actually joke about a moment when he had been frantic with terror and anger.
“Especially kicking the door down,” Ianto said fervently.
“So is there any particular time I should be using this?” Jack asked.
“Try tomorrow for Christmas dinner,” Ianto suggested. “If you haven’t anything else planned, of course,” he added hastily then shut up when Jack threatened to put a hand over his mouth. “I’ll take that as a yes, then,” he said with a smile and a gleam of genuine happiness in his eyes.
“Do I get turkey?” Jack demanded. “And all the trimmings?” he continued when Ianto nodded. “Stuffed peacock?” That made Ianto blink. “No stuffed peacock?” he said mournfully, then grinned. “You’re going to deprive me of stuffed peacock,” he said with a droop.
“You’ll get turkey and ham and like it,” Ianto snorted. “Stuffed peacock, indeed.”
He gave Jack another swift kiss and left, grabbing his coat along the way. Jack settled back on the sofa and contemplated the future. He had either taken the first step in regaining his life or had made the biggest mistake of his long life. Only time would tell which it was. In the meantime, he had Christmas dinner to look forward to. Getting up, he walked over to his desk and opened the drawer, taking out the present he had there. He looked up towards the Rift fountain.
“Just this once, please play nice,” he begged.
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: Mild PG for inference of M/M relationship, some kissing
Spoilers: General, for series, passing reference to Out of Time
Disclaimer: Not mine; they belong to the BBC.
Prompt: Christmas
Summary: Jack feels the team needs cheering up but finds out that he needs to define what ‘team’ means.
Jack sat in his office and brooded. The travellers from 1953 had left the entire team feeling a little worn around the edges, even if the hurt had been largely unintentional. They had been cautiously anticipating Christmas and now there was a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth.
Is it too much to ask that we get one week of being happy?
Not that he was in a position to claim the moral high ground. He’d started out with such good intentions, especially when a fully decorated tree had magically appeared out of thin air one morning. He knew Ianto had done it, but how the man had managed it without Jack hearing him was a mystery. With the appearance of the tree, however, Jack had decided that it would be nice to mark the occasion with something other than a general piss-up. He’d thought about Secret Santas and maybe a party, but then the trio of time-travellers had landed in their laps and everything had turned sour.
Gwen had survived better than most of them. At least her charge was alive and thriving in her new world. There was still a shadow on her expressive face, however, and something she had let slip made Jack think she had quarrelled with Rhys. Owen was showing classic symptoms of a broken heart, all the more shocking for the fact that most of the team had decided that he didn’t have a heart in the first place. Poor Tosh was unsettled because everyone else was unsettled and she felt guilty for still being in a Christmas mood. And Ianto….
Jack pulled a face. Admit it, Jack, you screwed up big time with your actions, as well. It wasn’t so much the fact that he had failed to persuade John that life was still worth living. God knew there were days, weeks even months when Jack was deeply unconvinced of that fact and only the fact that he was immortal had kept him from blowing his brains out. In a way he had envied John his escape, and had joined him in the car as a perverse kind of penance for not being able to fix things for him, for not being able to wave a magic wand and make it all right again.
No, he’d screwed up because - yet again - he had failed to consider the consequences of his actions on other people. Specifically on Ianto. He should have known that Ianto would have come after him and found them in his car, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. After all, they were supposed to have been going out to dinner later that evening. What he hadn’t known was what Ianto had thrown at him in bitter anger and betrayal, and that was that Ianto was emotionally involved with him.
“Damn it, Harkness, try telling yourself the truth for once,” Jack muttered under his breath. “He’s in love with you. And you were too damn blind to see it.”
Or maybe he hadn’t wanted to see it. When Ianto had consciously made his first sexual overtures to him, Jack had suspected some deep dark plot on the Welshman’s part. A kind of seduce and slay scenario that was as hackneyed as it was entertaining. He’d been willing to play along and thoroughly enjoy himself, but it hadn’t taken him long to realise that there was no deep dark agenda and what Ianto was offering came without a price tag. Or so he had thought. Now he realised that there had been a phenomenally high price, but he hadn’t been the one to pay it.
He could ignore what Ianto had said. Ianto obviously expected him to. Jack was aware of a vague feeling of peevishness that Ianto considered him to be that shallow. Although, to be fair, Jack had always made a point of seeming shallow to everyone so why should he now be feeling insulted? Except that Ianto had always seemed like the kind of person who watched, assimilated and then kept everybody’s secrets, so why not the secret that Jack Harkness might have a heart after all?
Question is, do I? Can I do what he said and learn to feel again?
He’d found a dozen reasons why not. He could have found a hundred more. Most of them boiled down to cowardice. Those that were left over could be lumped under selfishness. Not exactly what he wanted to see when he took a look at himself in the old existential mirror, but that was the problem with being truthful with yourself.
He’d found one reason why he should try. Just one. But when he put it up against the other reasons, it outweighed them so fast and hard that they shot off into some no man’s land where he hoped they would land in something very nasty.
He wanted to make him laugh again. Somehow, some way, he’d make Ianto laugh as if he meant it. A proper laugh. Not a smile, not a grin. Although that way he has of smirking with mischief in his eyes is a sure-fire turn-on, Jack thought irreverently. No, he wanted Ianto laughing without the slightest shadow on his soul. He wanted the laugh in his eyes, right through his body and radiating out of him like some kind of flare. He’d seen it before, once when Myfanwy had brought him an extremely dead salmon as a present and then had chirruped and headbutted him onto his backside. Ianto hadn’t realised anyone was watching and he had laughed while swatting Myfanwy with affection and calling her a daft old bat. The sight had captivated Jack and put a grin on his face for the rest of the day that had the others speculating madly.
Jack wanted to see that laugh again. He wanted to be the one to set it free. He wanted it to be directed at him. Don’t want much, do I? he thought in wry amusement. It was only fair, though. Ianto inhabited a world of blood and shit and impossibly ugly things that the team cheerfully dumped on him as they walked away. Ianto was usually the one who had to come up with the cover stories, clean away the blood and other evidence, work out what to do with the bodies and generally smooth over any unpleasantness. And his reward? Get forgotten, overlooked and generally ignored unless someone wanted something. Like coffee. A file. Some sex.
Jack winced. Boy, when his conscience decided to come out of its coma, it did it with a bang.
I didn’t know!
You didn’t want to know.
I’ll make it up to him.
I’m not going to hold my breath.
Jack decided that he didn’t much like his conscience.
They couldn’t go on like this. If nothing else, John had taught him that you had to hold on to what you had because it could get taken away from you at any moment. You could hope and dream but not at the expense of what was right under your nose, because dreams were made out of spun sugar and tissue paper and it took only the smallest of flames to reduce them to ash. Torchwood was supposed to be a team and they were going to be a team, even if that meant that their esteemed leader had to knock some sense into his own moronic head.
Jack heaved in a deep breath, wished he felt a little more motivated than a lemming on his first bungee jump, and got to his feet. Going over to the door, he went through it to look down into the Hub. The other three were sitting around, very obviously not doing anything, while there was no sign of Ianto. The inner devil in him suddenly gave a grin and rubbed its hands together. There might be some fun in this, after all.
“Everyone! In my office, in five! And find Ianto!” he barked. He went back inside, aware of the consternation he’d left behind and sat down, doing his best not to grin like an idiot.
They straggled in like bewildered children who knew they were in trouble but weren’t sure which of their misdemeanours had been found out. Ianto was the last, belting up the stairs and sliding into a chair with an abstracted look about him that looked mysterious but probably meant he’d been halfway through some filing and was still mentally sorting stuff out.
“Right, you’re probably wondering why I called you all here,” Jack started. He was aware of Ianto giving him a look of disbelief before biting his lip and looking away. Jack smiled inwardly. He could out-cliché anyone, any day of the week.
“You’re going to give us a couple of days off over Christmas?” Owen asked hopefully.
“Torchwood never sleeps,” Jack said severely. He was aware of Ianto’s eyes widening even more and Jack bit the inside of his cheek to keep the grin from escaping.
“Torchwood might not but I do,” grumbled Owen.
“It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow,” Jack continued.
"No, really, I'd never have guessed." Owen was obviously in a mood to bitch but Jack figured he needed to let off steam so he ignored him. Besides, being ignored was a surefire way of getting Owen's goat.
"I thought we'd mark the occasion by going out for a meal. Just the team. Spend some time together without having to think about saving the world. It's been a while since we've done that."
“A meal?” Tosh sounded a little surprised.
“Why not?” Jack said with an expansive smile.
“That would be nice,” Gwen said a little cautiously.
After a moment, Owen shrugged. “Might as well. Haven’t got anything else planned.”
“Great. Ianto, get us a table somewhere nice, will you?”
Ianto stared at him. “You what?” he said without thinking.
Jack gave him a puzzled look. “A table. Get us a table for tomorrow.”
“But… it’s the 23rd!”
“Yeah, so?”
Gwen took pity on Ianto as he very obviously struggled to think of a polite way to tell him what was wrong. “Jack, most places are booked up solid by the end of October. Asking Ianto to find us somewhere the day before Christmas Eve is impossible.”
“Pfft, Ianto does the impossible all the time,” Jack said airily. He wasn’t about to have his plans derailed. “You can deliver, can’t you, Ianto?”
Ianto sighed. “I’ll see what I can do, sir.” He got to his feet and left, muttering under his breath.
Jack frowned. “That was in Welsh; always a bad sign. Gwen?”
Gwen gave him a speaking look. “He was saying that he supposes you’ll be wanting him to turn water into wine week next Tuesday.”
Jack grinned. “Nah, it’ll be lead into gold week next Tuesday. After that he can play with the water-wine thing.”
OOO
They turned up in their party clothes more out of hope than any real expectation of getting the meal Jack had promised, but to their amazement Ianto had brought around the SUV and was waiting for them.
“You got us somewhere?” Tosh asked in delight.
Ianto gave her a slight smile. “The maitre de at The Silver Tree owed me a favour. He had a cancellation.”
Tosh wasn’t the only one whose eyes widened. The Silver Tree was one of the most exclusive restaurants in Cardiff and the waiting list was nearly six months long. Their expressions made Ianto actually smile properly for the first time in ages.
“If only I had a camera,” he sighed. “What a wallpaper the three of you would make.”
“I’ve just had a horrible thought,” Gwen said slowly.
“Torchwood is picking up the bill,” Ianto said smoothly, anticipating what was worrying her. “Now, if the Captain would be good enough to shift his carcass, we might get there in time.”
“I’m here, I’m here,” Jack said as he appeared from nowhere. He was wearing a suit again, although he still had his trenchcoat on.
“Looking good, Jack,” Gwen said teasingly.
“I might say the same about you two ladies,” Jack said with a laugh.
Gwen grinned back and made a mock pirouette and a quick bow. Her red silk top set off her dark colouring but she was a little uncertain about the long skirt, not getting out of her trousers very often. Tosh smiled as well but tugged her black wrap around her jade green dress. Owen had conceded to the occasion by wearing a dark blue shirt rather than his usual T-shirt, but he wore his usual black leather jacket over that.
“Reservations are for eight o’clock,” Ianto said warningly.
“Okay, okay, we can take a hint,” Jack grinned. “Pile in, people,” he said, going round to the passenger seat and getting in.
The short trip to the restaurant gave the others time to start getting into the party spirit. Jack was pleased to hear them laugh and tried to catch Ianto’s eye but the Welshman had his eyes fixed firmly on the road. Jack mentally sighed. Not forgiven me yet. Okay, maybe after tonight.
Ianto pulled up outside the restaurant and the others started to get out. “Ring me when you’re ready to leave, sir, and I’ll come and pick you up.”
Jack froze in the middle of opening his door and gave him a startled look. “What?”
Ianto frowned in confusion. “Call me. When you want to leave,” he said slowly. “There’s no sense in you all calling for a cab when I can drop you all off in one trip.”
Jack blinked, aware that Tosh and Gwen had also paused in their exit. “But-“
“It’s no imposition, sir. I didn’t have anything planned for tonight, so I can easily stay at the Hub until you’re-“
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jack demanded. “You’re coming to the party with us!”
Now it was Ianto’s turn to stare at him in bemusement. “You said you wanted the team to go out for a meal, sir. That’s you and the other three.” When Jack continued to look at him in silence, he shifted uncomfortably. “I’m support, sir, not a member of the team. You know that.”
Jack opened his mouth to protest, then closed it again when he recalled the number of times when he had introduced others to the team and left Ianto off the list. It was simply because he had yet to get Ianto into active field status, but he could see how Ianto might take such an apparent slight. He took a deep breath and suppressed the urge to throttle the younger man.
“I meant all five of us,” he said quietly.
“You didn’t say that, sir,” Ianto pointed out. “The table is reserved for four people and you have-“ he glanced at the dashboard clock, “-five minutes to get inside. There’s a queue,” he pointed out significantly.
“We’ll get them to set an extra place.”
Ianto laughed. “Captain, I wouldn’t try that, if I were you. I was lucky to get you a place in the first place. It doesn’t matter-“
Jack was out of the SUV and let the door slamming answer that for him. Ianto slumped back in his seat and shook his head. “The man is impossible,” he murmured under his breath.
“Ianto, you didn’t really think we’d want to go to a party without you?” Tosh asked incredulously. That earned her an exasperated look.
“Tosh, if it weren’t for the fact that you need coffee and food, or a file found, I probably wouldn’t see most of you for weeks on end!” He looked out of the window in the direction of the restaurant. “He gets these bees in his bonnet at the strangest times. He’ll lose the table and you’ll have to make do with Pizza Hut or somewhere.”
“Fine, then we’ll eat in Pizza Hut,” Gwen said determinedly. She ignored the irritated growl she got from Ianto as she spotted Jack. “Here he comes.”
“All right, get Owen back in,” Ianto sighed. “I think the nearest Pizza Hut is further along the Bay.”
“Right, out you come. Ianto, park the car and get back here. That should give Emrys time to get the table reorganised.” He grinned as Ianto gave him a look of utter amazement. “Never underestimate the Harkness charm, Ianto. Park the car and come back.”
He waited until Ianto had driven away before letting out a wicked laugh. “He shoots, he scores,” he chortled, rubbing his hands together.
“You impressed him,” Gwen said with a hint of admiration in her eyes.
“What can I say? You’ve either got it or you haven’t,” he said with false modesty. That and a £50 bribe and won’t there be yelling and carrying on when he finds out!
They entered the restaurant and Jack shepherded them to the bar where he ordered a round of drinks. He stuck to his water and watched the door until he saw Ianto appear and look around. He waved at him, but Ianto had already seen Emrys and was heading in his direction, where they had a swift discussion with much arm waving. Jack knew the exact moment that Ianto found out about the £50. He had a way of looking like he was having a seizure without altering his expression one iota. Right now he was having a major one while giving Jack a look of pure outrage. Jack had a nasty feeling he was going to have to walk over fiery coals to get anything on expenses for the next few months.
“I got you a brandy,” he said hastily as Ianto joined them.
“Did you now,” Ianto said grimly.
“On ice,” Jack said, batting his eyelashes.
Ianto shook his head and took the glass. “You are impossible,” he sighed.
“You keep saying that and I keep telling you that it’s part of my charm,” Jack grinned, then laughed as Ianto rolled his eyes and gave up.
It wasn’t long before they were escorted to their table. Settling in and studying the menu, Gwen felt her eyes get rounder and rounder as she saw the prices. She profoundly hoped that Ianto hadn’t been joking when he’d said that Torchwood would foot the bill. When the food arrived, however, it more than lived up to the hype. Ianto still sat like he expected to have to leap to his feet at any moment, but even he had relaxed by the time dessert came along and was able to do justice to his cheesecake.
Feeling pleasantly stuffed, all five of them settled back with some coffee. They automatically held their breath when Ianto took his first sip and he paused, looking at them in surprise before realising what was wrong. He smiled faintly. “I have been known to drink other peoples’ coffee, you know.”
“You never drink mine,” Jack said in a hurt voice.
Ianto gave him a mischievous look over the rim of the cup. “The key word is ‘coffee’, Captain.”
The others laughed as Jack overdid the hurt and wounded look. He waited until the laughter had died before, clearing his throat and reaching into his inside pocket and pulled out three brightly wrapped gifts. “Since it’s Christmas, I figured I should hand over some loot. Owen, here’s one for you.”
Looking a little bemused, Owen picked up the slim package and gave Jack a sardonic look. “Haven’t got anything for you, mate.”
“Not the point,” Jack said cheerfully. “I wanted to give presents, so I’m giving presents.”
“Not going to complain,” Owen said cheerfully. He ripped open the parcel and found a solid looking pen in a blue-green finish. “Woo, a pen. I’m totally underwhelmed.” There was a genuine grin on his face for the first time in days.
“Oh ye of little faith,” Jack said chidingly. He reached across to take the pen and show it off. “This is something Torchwood One used to keep to itself. See this button here? It accesses the personal memory of the pen, which holds just about the entire medical memory bank. You keep the pen on active status while you’re doing an autopsy and when you make a running commentary, it records it and automatically pulls up any relevant info you might want to see.”
He pressed another button and a small glimmering screen appeared in mid-air, with something medical-looking on it. Owen practically snatched it off Jack again and started to murmur over it. Jack grinned with pleasure and picked up the second parcel to hand to Gwen. She gave a grin of pure delight and tore her way into the parcel. Her mouth shaped an 'ooooh' as she pulled out a glimmering scarf that seemed to be made of smoke and rainbows. She passed it over her hand and gave a gurgle of delight as small sparks and glowing ripples flowed in response to her skin making contact with the material.
“It’s beautiful, Jack! Thank you!” She leapt up to dance around the table and give him a kiss, which he returned with gusto. She laughed and ruffled his hair before going back to sit in her chair and play with the scarf.
“Tosh.”
Toshiko was a lot more restrained in her unwrapping, especially when she realised that the time she was taking was making Jack twitch. She eventually uncovered what looked like a clear perspex wand. There didn’t seem to be any way of activating it, and she eventually acknowledged defeat and looked to Jack for guidance. He grinned.
“Give up?” He laughed when she made a face at him. “Okay, I’ll play nice. It’s a librarian’s toy that came through the Rift last month. Here,” he shoved a piece of paper across to her, “put the wand across the writing.”
Intrigued, Tosh picked up the paper, which was covered with an alien script, and did as she was told. The wand glowed a soft gold and through it she could see English words replacing the alien squiggles. She leaned forward in fascination but soon realised that there was no grammatical structure. It seemed to be a literal translation of the words.
“That’s right,” Jack said in obvious approval when she mentioned it. “It’s a toy to play with, not a serious tool, but I’ve loaded it with every language in the Torchwood database and I figured it might be a bit of fun for you.”
She gave an enthusiastic nod and was very obviously itching to try it right away. Jack turned his attention to Ianto, who was busily refilling Gwen’s cup for her, a carefully shuttered expression on his face. It didn’t take a maths genius to work out that there was a missing parcel and the others were waking up to that fact.
“Ianto?” Jack said softly.
“Yes, sir?”
Damn, he’s good, Jack thought admiringly. I can’t pick up a thing from his eyes. “I couldn’t figure out how the hell to pack your gift, so it’s still back at the Hub.” He thought he caught the faintest flicker of disappointment and knew what the Welshman thought was waiting for him back at the Hub.
Owen seemed to think the same thing, judging from the sardonic grin he gave Ianto. “Just as well we won’t be coming back afterwards. We’d just be in the way.”
Ianto glared at him. “And that would be different in what way?” he asked with affable poison.
Owen blinked. He was so used to Ianto ignoring his digs that it took a few seconds for him to realise that he’d actually been given a setdown. He looked like he was going to come back with a sharp retort, but Gwen gave him a sharp dig in the elbows. They were all distracted by the appearance of Emrys, who managed to convey - with impeccable courtesy and exquisite manners - that they should think about shifting and let some more paying customers inside.
Since he’d been drinking water, Jack got to drive the others back home. It didn’t take long and he told them they had Christmas Day off barring alien invasion. Eventually it was just him and Ianto and he was aware of the atmosphere changing as they drove back to the Hub. Ianto stared out of the window and didn’t say anything. Jack sighed and was surprised to see Ianto turn to look at him.
“You needn’t have included me in the party, sir,” he said quietly.
“Ianto, regardless of what you think, or how I might phrase things, you are a part of Torchwood Three,” Jack said earnestly.
“Yes, sir.” Ianto withdrew his interest and transferred it back to the darkened streets they were driving through.
Jack sighed again but this time it didn’t provoke a reaction. They arrived back at the Hub and Jack got out of the SUV. He grabbed Ianto by the tie when it looked like he was going to stay behind and hoover the SUV and towed him into the Hub and up to his office. A little to his surprise, Ianto let him get away with it, but Jack released him before he exhausted the Welshman’s patience and made for the decanters.
“Brandy?” he asked. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that Ianto had taken off his jacket and was starting to loosen his tie. “Whoa, hold your horses, Ianto. We still have to get your Christmas present sorted.”
Ianto stopped in mid-tug of his tie and stared at him. “What? I thought-“
“Tch, thinking the same thoughts as Owen? That’s a scary thought.”
“It’s a horrifying thought,” Ianto said wryly, accepting the glass Jack offered him. “So what’s my gift?”
Jack paused in the middle of sipping the whiskey he had decided to treat himself to. Last chance, Harkness. Last chance to come to your senses and get out the present you got him in the drawer, then distract him with some sex. Of course, you’ll confirm every low opinion he has of you, but why would that be important to you?
“We need to sit down for this.” He saw That Look in Ianto’s eyes again and sighed. Again. I’ve sighed more often since meeting him than in the previous two centuries! “Fine, let me rephrase that: I need to sit down for this.”
He went to sit down on the sofa and after watching him for a moment while sipping at his brandy, Ianto came to sit down beside him. He remained patiently silent while Jack struggled to throttle the instinct that had kept him safe for longer than he could remember. Safe and lonely and forgetting what it is to feel.
“Okay, here we go,” he said finally. He flashed Ianto a smile. “One Christmas present that’s impossible to wrap coming up.” He took one last breath, threw back the whiskey and turned to face Ianto. “I was born in the 51st century AD, on a planet-“
It took a split-second for Ianto to react. He stared at Jack with his eyes wide, then sat up and clapped a hand across Jack’s mouth. “No,” he said firmly. “No, no, no, no.”
Jack reached up to drag his hand from his mouth. “Ianto-“
Ianto was shaking his head almost frantically. “No, you have to tell me this because you want to. Not because of some guilt trip I lay on you. I made a mistake and I’m sorry, but it really doesn’t matter that I’m emotionally involved and I won’t throw it in your face again and-“
Jack realised that he wasn’t going to get a word in edgeways any time soon, so he did the only thing he could think of and kissed the man. Ianto accepted the kiss eagerly and returned it with interest.
“Yes, we can have sex,” he whispered when Jack eventually let them up for air. He reached up to start undoing Jack’s waistcoat, then paused when Jack lightly placed his fingers over his mouth.
“Sex later. Me growing up first,” he said softly. “Like I said, I was born in the 51st century on a planet that orbits a star Hubble hasn’t even mapped yet-“
He spoke for three-quarters of an hour, glossing over quite a bit but including what he hoped were the important bits. Ianto listened in absolute silence, absorbing everything the way he always did. By the time he had finished, Jack had shifted position so he was leaning against Ianto’s shoulder and staring across the room. It had been more difficult that he would have believed to tell him about being abandoned on the Games Station and Ianto had flung an arm around him at that point and pulled him closer. The silence didn’t seem particularly threatening when he finally finished, but he felt oddly tired.
“So it’s the Doctor that you’ve been searching for all this time,” Ianto said slowly. “I did wonder. Pity I hadn’t known that earlier. He’s been back a couple of times since Canary Wharf.” He must have felt Jack tense because he tightened his hug for a moment. “I’ll know in future,” he said reassuringly.
Jack twisted to give him a smile. “Thanks. You know what they say about two heads, although I found that a bit too much of a good thing when I hooked up with this two-headed Garani hermaphrodite on Belladonna IX…”
Ianto let him meander his way through the complicated tale, a thoughtful look on his face. “Jack, about the Doctor,” he said when Jack finally got to the unbelievable punchline.
Jack rolled his eyes. “I don’t know why I bother trying to broaden your horizons,” he muttered under his breath. “What about the Doctor?”
“He’s an alien. Torchwood has some pretty strict rules about aliens…”
Jack snorted. “Torchwood has forgotten its origins. It was created to collect information and be ready for alien threats. The Doctor is the furthest thing to a threat that this planet has ever seen.”
“But if he comes back-“
“Ianto, have you been listening to word I’ve said? Technically speaking, I’m just as much a persona non grata as the Doctor. I deal with alien menaces but I’m willing to let the innocent or dumb go free provided they keep their noses clean. Or whatever they have in place of noses,” he finished irreverently. “Which reminds me of some really weird aliens I once met-“
“Jack, hush a moment,” Ianto said absently. Jack obediently shut up and waited. A glance over his shoulder told him that Ianto was focused on something he couldn’t see, but he was chewing his lip, which was a sure indication that he was trying to decide something. He focused on Jack again. “You really don’t care that the Doctor is an alien?”
“Why should I? Some of my best friends have been alien.” And my lover is a half-alien, except you’re too afraid to tell me that, he finished silently. “Why?”
“If…. I told you something, could you promise to keep it a secret?”
Holy-! Is he going to tell me? Don’t blow this, Harkness! “It might depend on what it was, but unless it involves you plotting to take over the Earth, I’d probably be able to keep my mouth shut. At least you know I can keep secrets!” he said with a chuckle.
That prompted a smile from Ianto. He hesitated, looked as though he was going to say something and then sighed. “I… have to check with someone else, first. It’s not just my secret.”
Caerwyn, Jack realised. His sister would be in danger if Ianto told Jack their secret and then he betrayed them. And Caerwyn rates me somewhere below a nemotode, Jack sighed to himself. He wouldn’t be holding his breath, but at least he knew that Ianto would be willing to tell him, and that was something to savour. Maybe they could make something of this relationship after all. Secrets within riddles within puzzles within secrets. Hell of a way to fall in love.
“Want some more brandy?” he asked.
Ianto shook his head. “I should be getting back home. I have to get things ready for tomorrow.”
“Oh?” Jack was conscious of a small stab of disappointment. “Caerwyn coming up to be with you?”
Ianto was giving him the oddest smile; half-shy, half-knowing. “No, she prefers the Solstice and came up to see me on the 21st, so she won’t be around to declare war on you.” The smile widened when Jack couldn’t quite suppress his sigh of relief. “The Harkness charm is never failing with one lone female, surely?” he said in mock disbelief.
“Your sister is scary,” Jack said fervently. He gave the other man a sharp poke when he chuckled. “It’s not funny, you know. It’s the way she keeps eyeing up my throat when she’s talking to me. I keep having to suppress the urge to order up an armour-plated scarf.”
And then he got it. After one incredulous look, Ianto collapsed into laughter. Whole-hearted, uncontrollable and extremely infectious, he soon had Jack just as helpless with the giggles. Inwardly he felt something unclench and start to rise up inside him and he was as scared as he was elated. The future was suddenly twice as terrifying as it had been and ten times as complicated.
After several minutes, Ianto managed to recover and he leaned forward to kiss Jack very gently on the lips. This was different from so many of the other kisses he’d given Jack before. This was… unhurried? Yes, that was it. This kiss wasn’t an invitation to sex; it was more a confirmation of what they had and what they shared. Jack decided that he liked this version just as much as he did the others and felt vaguely disappointed when it eventually ended. He focused on something in front of his face and realised that Ianto was holding up a key. He looked a question and was surprised to see Ianto colour a little.
“A key is probably better for my front door than you picking the lock,” he said wryly.
“Or kicking the door down,” Jack agreed gravely, surprised that he could actually joke about a moment when he had been frantic with terror and anger.
“Especially kicking the door down,” Ianto said fervently.
“So is there any particular time I should be using this?” Jack asked.
“Try tomorrow for Christmas dinner,” Ianto suggested. “If you haven’t anything else planned, of course,” he added hastily then shut up when Jack threatened to put a hand over his mouth. “I’ll take that as a yes, then,” he said with a smile and a gleam of genuine happiness in his eyes.
“Do I get turkey?” Jack demanded. “And all the trimmings?” he continued when Ianto nodded. “Stuffed peacock?” That made Ianto blink. “No stuffed peacock?” he said mournfully, then grinned. “You’re going to deprive me of stuffed peacock,” he said with a droop.
“You’ll get turkey and ham and like it,” Ianto snorted. “Stuffed peacock, indeed.”
He gave Jack another swift kiss and left, grabbing his coat along the way. Jack settled back on the sofa and contemplated the future. He had either taken the first step in regaining his life or had made the biggest mistake of his long life. Only time would tell which it was. In the meantime, he had Christmas dinner to look forward to. Getting up, he walked over to his desk and opened the drawer, taking out the present he had there. He looked up towards the Rift fountain.
“Just this once, please play nice,” he begged.