Secrets and Hope (9/9) Complete.
Title: Secrets and Hope - (9/9)Complete.
Characters/pairings: Ianto, Jack, Gwen, Rhys, various other characters introduced in CoE. Jack/Ianto and Gwen/Rhys
Rating: PG, maybe pg13ish in places.
Genre: Happy ended angst, hurt/comfort.
Summary: As Torchwood rebuilds following the events of CoE the government is still keeping secrets and it's up to Ianto to reveal the truth.
Spoilers: Children of Earth days 4 and 5.
Word count: 21,500.
Authors note: CoE fix-it fic. Complete.
Fic starts here
Part nine:
“There’s a visitor for you,” the nurse says, pulling up the blinds and letting the bright morning sunlight into Ianto’s room. “I know it’s early but they wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“He does that.” Ianto winces as he sits up, his leg still aching despite the recently administered painkillers.
“He? No, it’s a Mrs Davies, she says she’s your sister.”
“Oh. You’d better show her in.” Ianto hates the fact that part of him is disappointed that it’s Rhiannon, because he is glad to see her, it’s just that it’s not Jack rushing in and kissing him, then flirting outrageously with the nurses because he knows it will make Ianto smile.
Although it's only been two days since the attack on the Audley Clinic, and rather less than that since Gwen had got back to Cardiff and contacted Jack for him - the UNIT medical personnel insisting that he had to stay in at least over night - it's disheartening that there has been no response from Jack.
With nothing to do, not even an escape to plan, it’s hard not to worry, especially as Ianto gets the feeling that both Gwen and Martha have tried to down play just how affected Jack had been by everything that had happened.
There isn't time to dwell on it though as Rhiannon is shown in, the nurse telling her to press the call button by the bed when she’s ready to leave.
“Gwen called me, told me that there had been a mix up, that you were alive, I couldn’t believe it, but I knew she wouldn’t lie to me, not about something like this.” Rhiannon pauses only to take off her coat, putting it on the chair by the bed. “Johnny says we should sue somebody, that the government take more than enough money off us in taxes and it’s time they gave some of it back, that we should get something good out of this mess.”
“Rhi.”
“I told him getting Ianto back is more than good enough for me.”
“Rhi.” Ianto tries again.
Rhiannon stops, then says, “I’m babbling, aren’t I?”
“A little,” Ianto says fondly, glad that despite everything that has happened his sister is still the same. It gives him hope that things can, eventually, be all right again. “But it’s all right.”
“So how are you?” Rhiannon asks, sitting down. “And don’t you tell me you’re fine, or try and fob me off. I know you better than that.”
Ianto knows that he probably could lie to her and get her to believe it; working for Torchwood meant that you got good at telling lies. There’s no point in doing it this time though, and he says, “Sore, tired, bored at staring at a blank wall all day.” He sighs, “I just want my life back.”
“You will.” She gives him a reassuring smile. “I’m getting Johnny and Gwen’s bloke, Rhys, to sort your flat out. You’ll be back there in no time.”
“You kept it?” Ianto asks. It’s more than he’d hoped for, he’d been expecting to have to rent something for a while until he found somewhere that he liked.
“Just hadn’t managed to sell it yet,” Rhiannon admits. “Still got all your stuff too, well most of it. Jack turned up and said something about needing to keep it all, it being part of regulations. Sounded a bit mad to me, I mean where’s he going to put it all? But I couldn’t say no to him.”
“He’s a hard man to say no to.” Ianto manages a smile, knowing that it’s either that or cry.
“Speaking of Jack, has he come to see you yet?”
Ianto shakes his head, wishing that Rhiannon hadn’t asked, and hoping that he can hold himself together at least until the visit is over. “He’s away, Gwen is still trying to contact him.”
“Wherever he’s gone now that he knows you’re alright he’ll come back,” Rhiannon says confidently. “He was crazy about you, I could see that. I helped him pack up your flat after all, couldn’t let him do it on his own, not the state he was in.”
There’s no chance of managing a smile to hide behind this time and Ianto bites his lip, trying to hold back a sob. He knows only too well how awful it is packing away a life into boxes, he’d helped Jack do it first for Suzie, and later for Owen and Tosh, both of them shedding tears before it was done.
Ianto takes a shaky breath as Rhiannon turns away for a moment and picks up her handbag, hoping that he get his emotions back under control before she tells or asks him anything else.
“Before I forget,” Rhiannon says opening her handbag and getting out a get-well card, handing it to Ianto. “Mica drew it for you.”
Taking it from her, Ianto looks down at the card, the brightly coloured image blurring in front of him as his eyes fill with tears. Everything that he’s been through seems to hit him at once; nearly dying, being held captive, not knowing if he’d ever see those he cares about ever again or if they’d even survived, the fear that he might never see Jack again.
“What’s wrong?” Rhiannon takes the card from Ianto as the colours start to smudge and run.
“Everything. Nothing. I don’t know.” Ianto wipes a hand across his eyes, but the tears won’t stop falling.
“Come here, it’s going to be okay.” Getting up from the chair, Rhiannon sits on the edge of the bed and puts an arm around him.
Unable to hold everything in any longer, Ianto rests his head against her shoulder, and cries.
* * *
“It’s been three weeks,” Gwen says, checking the computer program that has been set up to send and receive messages from Jack’s vortex manipulator. “Why isn’t he answering?”
“Maybe he’s out of range?” Andy suggests, walking over to her. “It happens when I go over to my Auntie Doreen’s farm. Doesn’t matter what network you’re on, last time I had eighteen missed calls when I got back.”
“It’s not a mobile.” Gwen walks away from her desk to look out through the glass wall and down into the main part of the new Hub.
“I’m trying to be positive here.” Andy follows her, saying, “I mean it’s better than ‘I think it’s broken,’ or ‘maybe he’s just ignoring you,’ isn’t it?”
“I suppose so,” Gwen says, sounding doubtful. “It’s just that I can’t help wonder if he’s alright, if he’s not answering because he can’t, if…I don’t know.” She sighs, “I just want things back to how they were.”
Andy is about to answer when the door leading to the tourist centre access opens.
“So this is Torchwood,” Ruth says, walking into the Hub, Ianto limping beside her, leaning on a crutch.
“I suppose it is.” Ianto has to admit the rebuild is impressive, the plans he’d briefly looked at when he’d accessed the network in Birmingham not really showing the scale of it. The space is still cavernous, open to the roof many feet above his head, but now a lot of what had been wasted space high up along the walls has been converted into a gallery level of glass walled rooms.
Looking around Ianto can see the dragon mural, still incomplete and now slightly fire blackened, occupies the back wall of what appears to be a staff room. There are other fragments of the old Hub incorporated into the new glass and chrome structure; the original Victorian tiles with Torchwood on them, the archway down to the old autopsy bay, and the invisible lift rising up through the centre of the Hub to the Plas above.
It’s familiar yet strange at the same time, Ianto thinks, as he notices Gwen and Andy looking down at them from the new boardroom. A lot of things have been like that since his return to Cardiff, the small changes that have happened in the six months that he’s been away seeming all the more noticeable against the things that haven’t.
“So it’ll just be the four of us working here?” Ruth asks, as they makes their way up to the boardroom. “I thought there would be more.”
“Not for long,” Ianto says stopping for a moment, wishing that there weren’t quite so many stairs in the Hub. “Jack will come back soon, and hopefully well be able to recruit a couple more people.”
Ruth looks as if she’s going to question what Ianto’s said, then seems to think better of it, realising perhaps that Ianto doesn’t want to talk about Jacks absence at the moment.
“I didn’t expect you in so early,” Gwen says meeting them at the top of the stairs, before walking towards her office.
“It’s nearly ten, that’s hardly early,” Ianto says, sitting down at the desk, trying not to look too relieved at being able to take the weight off his leg. “Anyway since I haven’t been given the all clear for driving yet Ruth said she’d give me a lift in.”
“Is it bothering you?” Ruth asks.
“Not any more than usual,” Ianto says truthfully. The bullet wound is healing well, the shot having gone cleanly through the outer part of his thigh, and the painkillers given to him by the hospital are doing their job.
“Well tell me if it does. I did agree to be a doctor here after all.”
“And we’re glad you did. I was beginning to think that we’d never find one.” Gwen says to Ruth, before turning to Ianto. “Ianto, could you set up Ruth’s account and login?”
“Yes. I can do most of it from here.” Ianto switches on the computer on Gwen’s desk. “Should only take a few minutes.”
Ianto has just logged onto the system when an alarm sounds.
“What’s that?” Ruth looks around to see where the sound is coming from.
“Rift alert,” Andy says, heading over to the desk.
“Is it always like this?” Ruth asks, following him.
“Only on days with a Y in them,” Ianto says, as he brings up details of the Rift activity on screen. It almost feels like he’s never been gone.
“What have we got?” Gwen asks looking over Ianto’s shoulder.
“Intermittent signal, getting stronger with each pulse.” Ianto points at the screen so that Ruth, who’s now looking over his other shoulder can see what they are talking about. “Whatever it is it’s going to come through in Penarth in about twenty minutes.”
“We’d better get going,” Andy says, looking at Gwen. “Everything still in the SUV from last time?”
“Should be.”
“You found the SUV?” Ianto asks, surprised that the people who’d taken it hadn’t just left it a burnt out wreck after they’d finished their joyride.
“They’d been trying to take out what they thought was a stereo, triggered the internal locking system.” Gwen smiles. “They were shut in it for four hours until somebody noticed and called the police.”
Ianto laughs. “Couldn’t have happened to nicer people.”
“Take Ruth with you,” Gwen says to Andy as he turns to leave to go to the SUV.
“Bring it round onto the Plas, I meet you there,” Ianto tells Andy, before looking at the signal again. There’s something almost familiar about it, familiar but frustratingly just out of recall.
Andy looks a little surprised, but says, “Okay, I’ll be about five minutes.”
“Are you sure?” Gwen points at Ianto’s leg once Andy and Ruth have gone. “Shouldn’t you be resting it for a bit longer?”
“I could say the same thing.” Ianto looks at Gwen’s stomach. “How many weeks have you got left now?”
“Six. Pregnancy isn’t an illness you know.”
“Technically neither is being shot,” Ianto points out. He can tell that Gwen is concerned though and adds, “I’ll coordinate from the SUV. I’ll be alright.”
“I’m not going to be able to talk you out of it, am I?”
Ianto shakes his head, saying, “No, I’ve been waiting far to long to be back here.” Then, getting up a little awkwardly from the chair, he leaves the office.
“Right pair we are,” Gwen says as they carefully make their way down to the lift. “Don’t think we could catch a weevil if its legs were tied together.”
“Weevil bondage - now there’s a thought I wish I didn’t just have.”
Gwen laughs. “No, I mean something like, oh I don’t know, alien snails.”
Ianto makes a face. “Think of the slime.”
Gwen is still laughing when she says, “I missed this.”
“Me too.”
Reaching the invisible lift, Gwen gives Ianto a quick hug. "Be careful."
"I will," Ianto says, once Gwen has let go of him, and gets on the lift.
* * *
“So what do you think it is?” Andy asks as he drives the SUV along the cliff top farm track.
“I’m not sure,” Ianto says as he monitors the signal from the computer system in the back, “It seems controlled, as if something is tapping into the Rift, looking for something.”
“People can do that?” Ruth turns in her seat to look back at Ianto.
“A few.” Ianto can’t keep the apprehension from his voice. Bilis Manger. John Hart. Gray. In his experience every time somebody had manipulated the Rift for their own purposes it had never ended well.
“You don’t sound very happy about it.”
“I’m not.” Ianto doesn’t elaborate, not wanting to go into details about what had been some difficult points in his life.
“Stop.” Ianto taps Andy on the shoulder. “Whoever or whatever it is they’re coming through here.”
Stopping the SUV, Andy looks around, asking, “How soon?”
“Signal still isn’t stable.” Ianto shakes his head. There’s something about the way the signal is acting, like it’s searching for something, that puts him on edge. “It could be two minute or ten minutes.”
“So we wait?” Ruth winds down her window and looks out. “What do we do if we get any walkers? They could be in danger if they turn up at the wrong time.”
“No, we need to make sure that nobody else is here.” Ianto says, looking at the path along the cliff top. “One of us needs to redirect people coming this way along the path, and another to stop anybody else getting onto the path in the first place.”
“I’d better do the redirecting,” Andy says, getting out of the SUV. “I know a few of the paths up here. I can make sure they aren’t sent too far out of their way.”
“Guess I’m on the gate then.” Ruth looks back down the muddy track to a gate in a fence that leads back onto the road.
“Take the hazard tape out of the boot, and rope off the gate.” Ianto presses the door release, relieved that he isn’t going to have to try to negotiate the slippery mud and wet grass. “It puts off most people, if anybody asks why just tell them at the cliff path is possibly unstable, and its off limits while it’s being checked.”
“You’ll be alright here on your own?” Ruth asks, opening the boot.
“I’ll stay inside the SUV and monitor the readings until whatever it is comes through.” Ianto looks at Ruth and Andy, wishing they weren’t still so short staffed. “Just be ready to get back here fast when it does.”
Watching them walk away, Ianto opens the door next to him so he can get a better view down the path while he checks the readings.
Ianto is about to contact Gwen and tell her that they’ve reached their location when he sees a shimmer ahead and to the left of the SUV. For a moment he thinks it’s an effect of the sunlight reflecting off the rain on the windscreen.
The golden glow grows, tendrils of light escaping what looks like a hole in the sky before a man stumbles out.
Even with his back to Ianto the figure is unmistakeable, his RAF greatcoat billowing about him in the breeze blowing across the cliff top.
“Jack,” Ianto whispers to himself, barely daring to believe it.
Getting out of the SUV jars his leg, and Ianto can’t bite back a groan at the sudden flare of pain.
Jack turns at the sound and stares at Ianto, too shocked for a moment to move.
Jack looks thinner, his eyes haunted and tired, and Ianto wants to run over to him, and hold him. Running isn’t an option yet, as sudden movements still though sends spikes of pain through his injured leg, and Ianto knows that a moderately fast limp leaning heavily on his crutch is the best he’s going to be able to manage.
Ianto has only managed a few steps before Jack rushes over to him, and hugs him tight, nearly lifting him off the ground.
For the moment nothing else matters. Not the fact that it has started to rain, or that Andy and Ruth are watching them with a mixture of surprise and confusion.
Releasing his hold on Ianto, Jack rubs his thumb along the faint scar on Ianto’s cheek left by the exploding Hub months before, his hand shaking. “It’s really you.”
“Yes,” Ianto says sounding choked, everything that he was going to say to Jack forgotten now that he’s holding him.
“I don't suppose Steven..." Jack trails off, unable to find the words.
It hurts to hear the fragile hope in Jack's voice, and Ianto wishes that he were in a position to not to have to destroy it. He's not though, and Ianto slowly shakes his head.
"You must hate me," Jack says hoarsely, eyes filling with tears. "What I did, it can't be forgiven."
"I don't hate you." It's been hard to understand why Jack did what he did, but Ianto knows that Jack wouldn't have made the decision easily, and he much have truly thought that it was the only way. The fact that Jack will have to live forever with his guilt over Steven's death, is in Ianto's opinion, punishment enough.
"Well you should. I left you for dead."
“You didn’t know,” Ianto says, surprised that Jack could think. “You thought I was dead.”
“When they said there was no body I should have looked for you. I shouldn't have trusted them. After everything that they'd done how could I have been so stupid?" Jack shakes his head, looking angry and disgusted at himself. "What the hell was I thinking?"
"You weren't," Ianto says, hoping that he can get Jack to understand that despite everything that has happened, and the terrible decision that Jack had been forced to make, he doesn’t hate him for the choices he made. “You were grieving. You’d lost so much. Don’t do this to yourself.”
“I’m so tired of all this, of losing everybody.” Jack closes his eyes, looking exhausted. "When is it going to stop always being my fault?”
“As soon as you realise that it never was.” Trusting Jack not to let go of him, Ianto drops his crutch and curls his hand around the back of Jack’s neck, drawing him in to a kiss.
They are still kissing, holding each other oblivious to the rain that has started to fall as Andy and Ruth approach.
“It’s started raining you know, and I'll never hear the last of it from Gwen if either of you two get sick,” Andy says as he reaches them.
Reluctantly, Ianto pulls back from the kiss, knowing that he’s not likely to get Jack all to himself for a few hours yet. “I suppose we’d better get back.”
“So this is Jack,” Ruth says, handing Ianto his crutch.
“And who are you?” Jack asks her with a smile, although the flirtatious edge still sounds forced.
“Ruth Armitage, Torchwood’s new doctor.” Ruth holds out a hand, which Jack shakes.
“We could do this somewhere dry,” Andy says when none of them have moved. “Not all of us like the whole dramatic windswept thing, you know.”
“He’s right,” Ianto says, feeling the rain starting to soak through his coat. “Come on, Gwen will be wondering where we are.”
Helping Ianto into the SUV, Jack looks at his leg and frowns, asking, “The virus?”
“A bullet,” Ianto says quickly, to dispel any fears that Jack might have about the virus having any lasting effect on him. At least the Audley Clinic had been good for one thing, if there had been after effects they would have found it. “And before you ask there’s nobody for you to go after; he’s dead.”
Getting into the back of the SUV, Jack sits down next to Ianto. “Sounds like I’m going to have a lot to catch up on.”
“We both have.” Ianto smiles at Jack. “But not right now.”
Once the SUV is moving, and Ruth has called Gwen to tell her what’s going on, Ianto asks Jack quietly, “How long?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you came back through the Rift. If you’d just been far away when you got the message you never have chanced it.” Ianto smiles slightly, trying to cover how unsettling the fact that Jack would take such a risk is. “You’d have charmed your way aboard the first alien ship heading passed Earth.”
“You sure about that?”
“I know you.”
Jack is silent for a moment before saying quietly so that only Ianto can hear, “Five years. It takes a long time for a radio signal to get out to the Proxima spaceport.”
Taking hold of Jack’s hand Ianto gives it a squeeze, knowing that it’s as much for his own comfort as it is for Jack’s. “Do I want to know how?”
“Probably not.” Jack’s expression is unreadable. “Short answer is I worked out how Hart had done it, called in a couple of favours, locked in on the signal, pressed the button and hoped like hell it would work.”
“The risk.” It surprises Ianto that Jack would take such a chance, especially as they both know the damage that ending up in some of the places the Rift has taken people can do
“You’re worth it.” Jack puts his arm around Ianto. “Don’t you ever doubt that.”
Leaning against Jack, Ianto smiles, truly content for the first time in months.
* * *
Later, standing by the new coffee machine Ianto watches as Jack, Gwen, Andy and Ruth sit at the boardroom table, takeaway boxes in front of them, laughing and joking, and smiles. As, despite the bitter-sweet memories that it stirs up of when it had been Tosh, Owen and Suzie sitting there, what Ianto sees there is hope for the future.
“Come on, yours is getting cold!” Gwen calls over to him.
Picking up his drink Ianto goes to join them.
The Hub may be different, they may be different, but they’re still Torchwood and whatever happens, whatever the Rift throws at them, Ianto knows that together they can face it.
Characters/pairings: Ianto, Jack, Gwen, Rhys, various other characters introduced in CoE. Jack/Ianto and Gwen/Rhys
Rating: PG, maybe pg13ish in places.
Genre: Happy ended angst, hurt/comfort.
Summary: As Torchwood rebuilds following the events of CoE the government is still keeping secrets and it's up to Ianto to reveal the truth.
Spoilers: Children of Earth days 4 and 5.
Word count: 21,500.
Authors note: CoE fix-it fic. Complete.
Fic starts here
Part nine:
“There’s a visitor for you,” the nurse says, pulling up the blinds and letting the bright morning sunlight into Ianto’s room. “I know it’s early but they wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“He does that.” Ianto winces as he sits up, his leg still aching despite the recently administered painkillers.
“He? No, it’s a Mrs Davies, she says she’s your sister.”
“Oh. You’d better show her in.” Ianto hates the fact that part of him is disappointed that it’s Rhiannon, because he is glad to see her, it’s just that it’s not Jack rushing in and kissing him, then flirting outrageously with the nurses because he knows it will make Ianto smile.
Although it's only been two days since the attack on the Audley Clinic, and rather less than that since Gwen had got back to Cardiff and contacted Jack for him - the UNIT medical personnel insisting that he had to stay in at least over night - it's disheartening that there has been no response from Jack.
With nothing to do, not even an escape to plan, it’s hard not to worry, especially as Ianto gets the feeling that both Gwen and Martha have tried to down play just how affected Jack had been by everything that had happened.
There isn't time to dwell on it though as Rhiannon is shown in, the nurse telling her to press the call button by the bed when she’s ready to leave.
“Gwen called me, told me that there had been a mix up, that you were alive, I couldn’t believe it, but I knew she wouldn’t lie to me, not about something like this.” Rhiannon pauses only to take off her coat, putting it on the chair by the bed. “Johnny says we should sue somebody, that the government take more than enough money off us in taxes and it’s time they gave some of it back, that we should get something good out of this mess.”
“Rhi.”
“I told him getting Ianto back is more than good enough for me.”
“Rhi.” Ianto tries again.
Rhiannon stops, then says, “I’m babbling, aren’t I?”
“A little,” Ianto says fondly, glad that despite everything that has happened his sister is still the same. It gives him hope that things can, eventually, be all right again. “But it’s all right.”
“So how are you?” Rhiannon asks, sitting down. “And don’t you tell me you’re fine, or try and fob me off. I know you better than that.”
Ianto knows that he probably could lie to her and get her to believe it; working for Torchwood meant that you got good at telling lies. There’s no point in doing it this time though, and he says, “Sore, tired, bored at staring at a blank wall all day.” He sighs, “I just want my life back.”
“You will.” She gives him a reassuring smile. “I’m getting Johnny and Gwen’s bloke, Rhys, to sort your flat out. You’ll be back there in no time.”
“You kept it?” Ianto asks. It’s more than he’d hoped for, he’d been expecting to have to rent something for a while until he found somewhere that he liked.
“Just hadn’t managed to sell it yet,” Rhiannon admits. “Still got all your stuff too, well most of it. Jack turned up and said something about needing to keep it all, it being part of regulations. Sounded a bit mad to me, I mean where’s he going to put it all? But I couldn’t say no to him.”
“He’s a hard man to say no to.” Ianto manages a smile, knowing that it’s either that or cry.
“Speaking of Jack, has he come to see you yet?”
Ianto shakes his head, wishing that Rhiannon hadn’t asked, and hoping that he can hold himself together at least until the visit is over. “He’s away, Gwen is still trying to contact him.”
“Wherever he’s gone now that he knows you’re alright he’ll come back,” Rhiannon says confidently. “He was crazy about you, I could see that. I helped him pack up your flat after all, couldn’t let him do it on his own, not the state he was in.”
There’s no chance of managing a smile to hide behind this time and Ianto bites his lip, trying to hold back a sob. He knows only too well how awful it is packing away a life into boxes, he’d helped Jack do it first for Suzie, and later for Owen and Tosh, both of them shedding tears before it was done.
Ianto takes a shaky breath as Rhiannon turns away for a moment and picks up her handbag, hoping that he get his emotions back under control before she tells or asks him anything else.
“Before I forget,” Rhiannon says opening her handbag and getting out a get-well card, handing it to Ianto. “Mica drew it for you.”
Taking it from her, Ianto looks down at the card, the brightly coloured image blurring in front of him as his eyes fill with tears. Everything that he’s been through seems to hit him at once; nearly dying, being held captive, not knowing if he’d ever see those he cares about ever again or if they’d even survived, the fear that he might never see Jack again.
“What’s wrong?” Rhiannon takes the card from Ianto as the colours start to smudge and run.
“Everything. Nothing. I don’t know.” Ianto wipes a hand across his eyes, but the tears won’t stop falling.
“Come here, it’s going to be okay.” Getting up from the chair, Rhiannon sits on the edge of the bed and puts an arm around him.
Unable to hold everything in any longer, Ianto rests his head against her shoulder, and cries.
* * *
“It’s been three weeks,” Gwen says, checking the computer program that has been set up to send and receive messages from Jack’s vortex manipulator. “Why isn’t he answering?”
“Maybe he’s out of range?” Andy suggests, walking over to her. “It happens when I go over to my Auntie Doreen’s farm. Doesn’t matter what network you’re on, last time I had eighteen missed calls when I got back.”
“It’s not a mobile.” Gwen walks away from her desk to look out through the glass wall and down into the main part of the new Hub.
“I’m trying to be positive here.” Andy follows her, saying, “I mean it’s better than ‘I think it’s broken,’ or ‘maybe he’s just ignoring you,’ isn’t it?”
“I suppose so,” Gwen says, sounding doubtful. “It’s just that I can’t help wonder if he’s alright, if he’s not answering because he can’t, if…I don’t know.” She sighs, “I just want things back to how they were.”
Andy is about to answer when the door leading to the tourist centre access opens.
“So this is Torchwood,” Ruth says, walking into the Hub, Ianto limping beside her, leaning on a crutch.
“I suppose it is.” Ianto has to admit the rebuild is impressive, the plans he’d briefly looked at when he’d accessed the network in Birmingham not really showing the scale of it. The space is still cavernous, open to the roof many feet above his head, but now a lot of what had been wasted space high up along the walls has been converted into a gallery level of glass walled rooms.
Looking around Ianto can see the dragon mural, still incomplete and now slightly fire blackened, occupies the back wall of what appears to be a staff room. There are other fragments of the old Hub incorporated into the new glass and chrome structure; the original Victorian tiles with Torchwood on them, the archway down to the old autopsy bay, and the invisible lift rising up through the centre of the Hub to the Plas above.
It’s familiar yet strange at the same time, Ianto thinks, as he notices Gwen and Andy looking down at them from the new boardroom. A lot of things have been like that since his return to Cardiff, the small changes that have happened in the six months that he’s been away seeming all the more noticeable against the things that haven’t.
“So it’ll just be the four of us working here?” Ruth asks, as they makes their way up to the boardroom. “I thought there would be more.”
“Not for long,” Ianto says stopping for a moment, wishing that there weren’t quite so many stairs in the Hub. “Jack will come back soon, and hopefully well be able to recruit a couple more people.”
Ruth looks as if she’s going to question what Ianto’s said, then seems to think better of it, realising perhaps that Ianto doesn’t want to talk about Jacks absence at the moment.
“I didn’t expect you in so early,” Gwen says meeting them at the top of the stairs, before walking towards her office.
“It’s nearly ten, that’s hardly early,” Ianto says, sitting down at the desk, trying not to look too relieved at being able to take the weight off his leg. “Anyway since I haven’t been given the all clear for driving yet Ruth said she’d give me a lift in.”
“Is it bothering you?” Ruth asks.
“Not any more than usual,” Ianto says truthfully. The bullet wound is healing well, the shot having gone cleanly through the outer part of his thigh, and the painkillers given to him by the hospital are doing their job.
“Well tell me if it does. I did agree to be a doctor here after all.”
“And we’re glad you did. I was beginning to think that we’d never find one.” Gwen says to Ruth, before turning to Ianto. “Ianto, could you set up Ruth’s account and login?”
“Yes. I can do most of it from here.” Ianto switches on the computer on Gwen’s desk. “Should only take a few minutes.”
Ianto has just logged onto the system when an alarm sounds.
“What’s that?” Ruth looks around to see where the sound is coming from.
“Rift alert,” Andy says, heading over to the desk.
“Is it always like this?” Ruth asks, following him.
“Only on days with a Y in them,” Ianto says, as he brings up details of the Rift activity on screen. It almost feels like he’s never been gone.
“What have we got?” Gwen asks looking over Ianto’s shoulder.
“Intermittent signal, getting stronger with each pulse.” Ianto points at the screen so that Ruth, who’s now looking over his other shoulder can see what they are talking about. “Whatever it is it’s going to come through in Penarth in about twenty minutes.”
“We’d better get going,” Andy says, looking at Gwen. “Everything still in the SUV from last time?”
“Should be.”
“You found the SUV?” Ianto asks, surprised that the people who’d taken it hadn’t just left it a burnt out wreck after they’d finished their joyride.
“They’d been trying to take out what they thought was a stereo, triggered the internal locking system.” Gwen smiles. “They were shut in it for four hours until somebody noticed and called the police.”
Ianto laughs. “Couldn’t have happened to nicer people.”
“Take Ruth with you,” Gwen says to Andy as he turns to leave to go to the SUV.
“Bring it round onto the Plas, I meet you there,” Ianto tells Andy, before looking at the signal again. There’s something almost familiar about it, familiar but frustratingly just out of recall.
Andy looks a little surprised, but says, “Okay, I’ll be about five minutes.”
“Are you sure?” Gwen points at Ianto’s leg once Andy and Ruth have gone. “Shouldn’t you be resting it for a bit longer?”
“I could say the same thing.” Ianto looks at Gwen’s stomach. “How many weeks have you got left now?”
“Six. Pregnancy isn’t an illness you know.”
“Technically neither is being shot,” Ianto points out. He can tell that Gwen is concerned though and adds, “I’ll coordinate from the SUV. I’ll be alright.”
“I’m not going to be able to talk you out of it, am I?”
Ianto shakes his head, saying, “No, I’ve been waiting far to long to be back here.” Then, getting up a little awkwardly from the chair, he leaves the office.
“Right pair we are,” Gwen says as they carefully make their way down to the lift. “Don’t think we could catch a weevil if its legs were tied together.”
“Weevil bondage - now there’s a thought I wish I didn’t just have.”
Gwen laughs. “No, I mean something like, oh I don’t know, alien snails.”
Ianto makes a face. “Think of the slime.”
Gwen is still laughing when she says, “I missed this.”
“Me too.”
Reaching the invisible lift, Gwen gives Ianto a quick hug. "Be careful."
"I will," Ianto says, once Gwen has let go of him, and gets on the lift.
* * *
“So what do you think it is?” Andy asks as he drives the SUV along the cliff top farm track.
“I’m not sure,” Ianto says as he monitors the signal from the computer system in the back, “It seems controlled, as if something is tapping into the Rift, looking for something.”
“People can do that?” Ruth turns in her seat to look back at Ianto.
“A few.” Ianto can’t keep the apprehension from his voice. Bilis Manger. John Hart. Gray. In his experience every time somebody had manipulated the Rift for their own purposes it had never ended well.
“You don’t sound very happy about it.”
“I’m not.” Ianto doesn’t elaborate, not wanting to go into details about what had been some difficult points in his life.
“Stop.” Ianto taps Andy on the shoulder. “Whoever or whatever it is they’re coming through here.”
Stopping the SUV, Andy looks around, asking, “How soon?”
“Signal still isn’t stable.” Ianto shakes his head. There’s something about the way the signal is acting, like it’s searching for something, that puts him on edge. “It could be two minute or ten minutes.”
“So we wait?” Ruth winds down her window and looks out. “What do we do if we get any walkers? They could be in danger if they turn up at the wrong time.”
“No, we need to make sure that nobody else is here.” Ianto says, looking at the path along the cliff top. “One of us needs to redirect people coming this way along the path, and another to stop anybody else getting onto the path in the first place.”
“I’d better do the redirecting,” Andy says, getting out of the SUV. “I know a few of the paths up here. I can make sure they aren’t sent too far out of their way.”
“Guess I’m on the gate then.” Ruth looks back down the muddy track to a gate in a fence that leads back onto the road.
“Take the hazard tape out of the boot, and rope off the gate.” Ianto presses the door release, relieved that he isn’t going to have to try to negotiate the slippery mud and wet grass. “It puts off most people, if anybody asks why just tell them at the cliff path is possibly unstable, and its off limits while it’s being checked.”
“You’ll be alright here on your own?” Ruth asks, opening the boot.
“I’ll stay inside the SUV and monitor the readings until whatever it is comes through.” Ianto looks at Ruth and Andy, wishing they weren’t still so short staffed. “Just be ready to get back here fast when it does.”
Watching them walk away, Ianto opens the door next to him so he can get a better view down the path while he checks the readings.
Ianto is about to contact Gwen and tell her that they’ve reached their location when he sees a shimmer ahead and to the left of the SUV. For a moment he thinks it’s an effect of the sunlight reflecting off the rain on the windscreen.
The golden glow grows, tendrils of light escaping what looks like a hole in the sky before a man stumbles out.
Even with his back to Ianto the figure is unmistakeable, his RAF greatcoat billowing about him in the breeze blowing across the cliff top.
“Jack,” Ianto whispers to himself, barely daring to believe it.
Getting out of the SUV jars his leg, and Ianto can’t bite back a groan at the sudden flare of pain.
Jack turns at the sound and stares at Ianto, too shocked for a moment to move.
Jack looks thinner, his eyes haunted and tired, and Ianto wants to run over to him, and hold him. Running isn’t an option yet, as sudden movements still though sends spikes of pain through his injured leg, and Ianto knows that a moderately fast limp leaning heavily on his crutch is the best he’s going to be able to manage.
Ianto has only managed a few steps before Jack rushes over to him, and hugs him tight, nearly lifting him off the ground.
For the moment nothing else matters. Not the fact that it has started to rain, or that Andy and Ruth are watching them with a mixture of surprise and confusion.
Releasing his hold on Ianto, Jack rubs his thumb along the faint scar on Ianto’s cheek left by the exploding Hub months before, his hand shaking. “It’s really you.”
“Yes,” Ianto says sounding choked, everything that he was going to say to Jack forgotten now that he’s holding him.
“I don't suppose Steven..." Jack trails off, unable to find the words.
It hurts to hear the fragile hope in Jack's voice, and Ianto wishes that he were in a position to not to have to destroy it. He's not though, and Ianto slowly shakes his head.
"You must hate me," Jack says hoarsely, eyes filling with tears. "What I did, it can't be forgiven."
"I don't hate you." It's been hard to understand why Jack did what he did, but Ianto knows that Jack wouldn't have made the decision easily, and he much have truly thought that it was the only way. The fact that Jack will have to live forever with his guilt over Steven's death, is in Ianto's opinion, punishment enough.
"Well you should. I left you for dead."
“You didn’t know,” Ianto says, surprised that Jack could think. “You thought I was dead.”
“When they said there was no body I should have looked for you. I shouldn't have trusted them. After everything that they'd done how could I have been so stupid?" Jack shakes his head, looking angry and disgusted at himself. "What the hell was I thinking?"
"You weren't," Ianto says, hoping that he can get Jack to understand that despite everything that has happened, and the terrible decision that Jack had been forced to make, he doesn’t hate him for the choices he made. “You were grieving. You’d lost so much. Don’t do this to yourself.”
“I’m so tired of all this, of losing everybody.” Jack closes his eyes, looking exhausted. "When is it going to stop always being my fault?”
“As soon as you realise that it never was.” Trusting Jack not to let go of him, Ianto drops his crutch and curls his hand around the back of Jack’s neck, drawing him in to a kiss.
They are still kissing, holding each other oblivious to the rain that has started to fall as Andy and Ruth approach.
“It’s started raining you know, and I'll never hear the last of it from Gwen if either of you two get sick,” Andy says as he reaches them.
Reluctantly, Ianto pulls back from the kiss, knowing that he’s not likely to get Jack all to himself for a few hours yet. “I suppose we’d better get back.”
“So this is Jack,” Ruth says, handing Ianto his crutch.
“And who are you?” Jack asks her with a smile, although the flirtatious edge still sounds forced.
“Ruth Armitage, Torchwood’s new doctor.” Ruth holds out a hand, which Jack shakes.
“We could do this somewhere dry,” Andy says when none of them have moved. “Not all of us like the whole dramatic windswept thing, you know.”
“He’s right,” Ianto says, feeling the rain starting to soak through his coat. “Come on, Gwen will be wondering where we are.”
Helping Ianto into the SUV, Jack looks at his leg and frowns, asking, “The virus?”
“A bullet,” Ianto says quickly, to dispel any fears that Jack might have about the virus having any lasting effect on him. At least the Audley Clinic had been good for one thing, if there had been after effects they would have found it. “And before you ask there’s nobody for you to go after; he’s dead.”
Getting into the back of the SUV, Jack sits down next to Ianto. “Sounds like I’m going to have a lot to catch up on.”
“We both have.” Ianto smiles at Jack. “But not right now.”
Once the SUV is moving, and Ruth has called Gwen to tell her what’s going on, Ianto asks Jack quietly, “How long?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you came back through the Rift. If you’d just been far away when you got the message you never have chanced it.” Ianto smiles slightly, trying to cover how unsettling the fact that Jack would take such a risk is. “You’d have charmed your way aboard the first alien ship heading passed Earth.”
“You sure about that?”
“I know you.”
Jack is silent for a moment before saying quietly so that only Ianto can hear, “Five years. It takes a long time for a radio signal to get out to the Proxima spaceport.”
Taking hold of Jack’s hand Ianto gives it a squeeze, knowing that it’s as much for his own comfort as it is for Jack’s. “Do I want to know how?”
“Probably not.” Jack’s expression is unreadable. “Short answer is I worked out how Hart had done it, called in a couple of favours, locked in on the signal, pressed the button and hoped like hell it would work.”
“The risk.” It surprises Ianto that Jack would take such a chance, especially as they both know the damage that ending up in some of the places the Rift has taken people can do
“You’re worth it.” Jack puts his arm around Ianto. “Don’t you ever doubt that.”
Leaning against Jack, Ianto smiles, truly content for the first time in months.
* * *
Later, standing by the new coffee machine Ianto watches as Jack, Gwen, Andy and Ruth sit at the boardroom table, takeaway boxes in front of them, laughing and joking, and smiles. As, despite the bitter-sweet memories that it stirs up of when it had been Tosh, Owen and Suzie sitting there, what Ianto sees there is hope for the future.
“Come on, yours is getting cold!” Gwen calls over to him.
Picking up his drink Ianto goes to join them.
The Hub may be different, they may be different, but they’re still Torchwood and whatever happens, whatever the Rift throws at them, Ianto knows that together they can face it.