Fanfiction - Silent Night
Title: Silent Night
Author: veronikazita
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato
Pairing(s): Jack/Ianto, Owen/Tosh
Fandom: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, fluff, friendship, family
Spoilers: none
Rating: PG
Beta: saltthetardisdoors (tumblr)
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood and its characters, they all belong to Russell T. Davis and the BBC.
Summary: It was just a Chritmas Eve on which - quite surprisingly - the world didn't need saving...
It was Christmas Eve in Cardiff, a snowy, chilly night. Any foreigner who would have chosen this time of the year to visit the city would have assumed it was dead, just a shell, a labyrinth of empty streets. There was no traffic on the roadways, no sign of life outside at all. Even the Weevils didn't venture to come out of the sewer system, first, because they couldn't stand the cold, and second, because their soles were extremely sensitive to anything colder than the water down in the canals.
And all the population of Cardiff spent the night inside too, celebrating in their warm homes with their loved ones, trying to make the best of the holiday.
Nobody had any idea about the intense battle that was going on at the very center of the city, right under the water tower. There were a few figures on the square and they were moving constantly, changing positions every time their enemy moved. Snow-wreaths appeared around the fighters' feet as they got a foothold on the ground every time they had avoided to be hit. Heavy gasping filled the air and the wind took away the sound of screams towards the bay.
They were screams of laughter actually, and they got even louder, when Owen Harper - greatly appreciated Doctor of the Torchwood institute and second in command - fell on his butt as a result of a snowball hitting him right in the middle of the chest, making him loose his balance on the slippery ground.
"Now that was a nice shot!" Ianto complemented Gwen, as he was laughing hard at Owen's misery. They shared a high-five and then Ianto squatted down beside Tosh to help her to produce some more snowballs. Owen was recovering fast and they were completely out of ammo. In less than half a minute they were under attack again.
Tosh stood up with an armful of snowballs and started to fling the cold little spheres towards Owen and not without any success.
Tosh had nobody and she'd decided it would have been pointless to spend Christmas at home, in an empty flat, alone with her thoughts, so she accepted Jack's offer to stay in for the night. She knew that Gwen was about to stay around too, since Rhys was away for Christmas, thanks to that, 'bloody schedule,' at Harwoods lorry, as Gwen has mentioned more than once since Rhys went off.
Tosh had been enjoying herself throughout the afternoon. The Hub was so quiet and peaceful all along: the computers didn't beep, not once, to point out some Rift activity, there was no corpse lying on Owen's slab and there wasn't any work to do at all. It was a bit weird though, but Tosh definitely liked it. They spent the afternoon chatting in the meeting room, each of them eating up a good amount of takeaway food during the conversation. Slowly the day turned into evening and suddenly Tosh noticed that Owen and Ianto were on their feet, rushing out of the room, bumping into each other at the doorframe as both of them tried to be the first who gets out.
"Look at the excited five year olds!" Jack shouted after them, as he headed downstairs too.
"You're coming too, aren't you, Tosh?" Gwen took her arm and pulled her up from the chair.
Tosh followed her and tried to find out what had made the boys so enthusiastic. She wasn't paying attention to the conversation in last few minutes, not since Owen started showing off with his great experiences in snow fighting… 'Oh, that must be it then. Another challenge to decide who has the upper hand… But this time it means we all go out to the cold,' she thought, and she was right. By the time she got down she saw Ianto standing by the cogwheel door. He was tapping on the floor with his shoes impatiently.
"If your snow balls fly as fast as you pull that jumper on, than God help you, Owen," Ianto teased him.
Tosh glanced at Owen's direction and saw that he was pulling the green jumper around his head. The green jumper with the Reindeer on the front, the one she gave him for Christmas, clearly as a joke. The one she thought he would never wear. Now he was struggling to get into that jumper… Tosh smiled secretly to herself.
"Stop mocking around Tea-Boy, and start praying for mercy, because you will never forget what you get from me tonight." Owen warned Ianto.
Tosh took her coat from Gwen's hand when she offered it to her; she put it on and joined Gwen and Jack, who waited next to Ianto, already dressed.
"Oh, yes?" Ianto asked Owen, who was already standing beside him, wearing his funny jumper. Ianto filliped his finger against the Doctor's ear. "Then show me what you've got!"
Owen reached out for Ianto's tie and pulled on it a bit, then ran out of the cogwheel door and up the stairs. "Race ya!" he shouted back, and Ianto followed him.
Jack's voice echoed after them across the corridor, "Hey, what about your coats?"
"Oi!" Ianto cried out as a ball hit him hard on the side of his head. His ear filled with drops of ice-cold snow and on the top of that he was even partially deafened for a few seconds after the attack.
"Hey, Owen, draw it mild! Targeting the head is not fair, not even in a snow fight!" Jack called out to the doctor, who was still trying to get out of the way of the shower of snowballs the girls sprinkled him with.
"Oh, really?" Owen shouted back, grinning. "And is it fair that your lover boy aims at me, and only me? He hasn't wasted a single ball on Gwen or Tosh yet…"
"That's because he - unlike you - knows what chivalry means." Answered Jack with a cheeky smile playing in the corner of his mouth. He was standing not far from them but he didn't involve himself in the fight.
Ianto left the others behind and now approached Jack rubbing his bare hands together to warm them up a bit. He was wearing no suit, only a waistcoat over his bright-coloured shirt. His silk tie and shirtsleeves were dappled with water patches - the 'wounds' he suffered in the battle.
"So you waved the white flag…" Jack gave him a warm smile as Ianto came to a halt in front of him.
"Yes, I did. It was enough fun for this Christmas Eve. I feel kinda tired anyway."
"You didn't have much sleep last night, did you?" Jack questioned. "I felt you shifting in the bed all night."
"I couldn't sleep." Ianto approved. "I dunno why, though. Guess we had too much action lately and I simply can't switch my mind off yet properly. I'm actually surprised that so far this silent night is really silent, and we're not in the middle of an extraterrestrial invasion right now. Aliens like to screw up Christmas."
"Oh yes," Jack chuckled. "And now imagine that Torchwood gets only the remains of the Christmas pudding…" He remembered all of those stories The Doctor told him about his Christmas nights: nasty aliens with huge spaceships, a bit of explosion here, loads of screaming people there, not to mention some tough decisions to make - basically an end of the world for every December. Jack looked up at the sky and let his mind wander over where The Doctor could have been at that very moment. He hoped he was safe and wished him a silent Merry Christmas, still looking at the stars.
Standing beside him, Ianto folded his arms across his chest and tucked his hands in his armpits. He desperately tried to ignore the cold wind that relentlessly slipped under the thin material of his shirt, giving him goose bumps all over his sensitive skin. He realized in a minute though, that he was just making a redundant effort by trying to keep his mind busy with concentrating on the snow fight; the wind wasn't going to stop blowing merely by wishing it. Besides, if he wasn't going to go down to the Hub to pick up his coat, he could look forward to a Christmas spent in Jack's bed, but more likely with a box of tissue than with Jack himself. He mused a bit at this thought and he was just about to head for the bay, when Jack finally stopped gazing at the sky and made him halt abruptly by making a rather loud outcry.
"Jesus Christ, Ianto, I feel cold just looking at you!" Jack reached out for him, taking both of his hands in his. He pulled Ianto closer, driving their hands under his coat, around his own torso, making Ianto's palms rest on his back. Then Jack pulled back his own hands and tried to cover Ianto with his coat as much as he could. "I thought you said you want no more fighting today," Ianto heard him whisper in his ear.
"No, I was just…" He started, but Jack interrupted him. He raised one hand to Ianto's cheek and caressed it with his thumb.
"You know, Ianto, violet suits you, it really does… But not on those beautiful lips." Jack pulled his warm thumb over Ianto's ice-cold lips and watched as the sigh the young man let out became visible and turned the air denser between them for a moment.
Ianto shifted closer to him and laid his head on Jack's shoulder.
"I told you two to put on your coats. It's freezing out here. It's bloody winter, for God's sakes!"
"Owen declared war," mumbled Ianto against the captain's neck. "There is no time to think about the clothes when it's war-time."
Jack chuckled. "The girls know better, I guess. They survived longer on the battlefield than you did and they both have their coats on." Jack shifted his head to let Ianto take a look at the three figures that were still throwing the balls at each other, clearly not being weary of the game at all.
"Okay, I have to acknowledge that Owen still keeps his ground despite having only that crazy jumper on." Jack added.
"Yes, so that makes me the weakest link…" Ianto murmured as he nuzzled against Jack's shoulder and put his head down again. He wasn't cold that much anymore, but he felt more exhausted by the minute.
"Nah." Jack protested. "You're not weak. You're just tired. You'll have a nice long sleep tonight and you can whitewash Owen tomorrow if you'd like. And I'm almost sure that with a little bit of sweet talk you can persuade me to assist. Does it sound all right?"
Jack felt Ianto's sideburn brush against his jaw line twice as the young man gave a small nod.
"Attaboy!" Jack stroked his lover's hair and pulled his coat tighter around them.
He noticed that Gwen left Owen and Tosh for each other and she now hurried towards them. She wore gloves, but the melted snow made her hands cold either way, so she rubbed them together constantly to keep them warm.
"Sorry, no room for another poor freezing soul in here…" Jack announced when she approached them.
"That's all right." Gwen smiled. "I'm not cold. It's just my hands. But don't worry, I can help myself…"
Gwen stepped next to Jack, pulled the glove off her left hand and slipped her chilled fingers into Jack's coat pocket.
"Oh, okay. Now I don't feel used at all…" said Jack, pulling a face as if he was truly offended.
"Oh, stop it, we all know you enjoy it." Gwen snuggled up to the Jack's side and put her free hand on Ianto's back. She started to draw small circles on the Welshman's back to help Jack warming him up. She looked up at the captain's face. "Jack Harkness. Always wants to be the center of attention. Now you get your attention. I don't want to hear you complain!"
"Oh, no, I'm not complaining, not at all. It's Christmas Eve and I'm fully at your service. Hey, Tosh, Owen! I still have an empty pocket if you'd like to consider some hand-warming…" He shouted at the others' direction. "I have pockets on my trousers too, but those are a bit more of a trouble to get to, because Ianto seems to stick to me right now, but if you encourage him, maybe he'll let you slip a hand in."
Owen and Tosh had stopped the fight some minutes ago and they were now trying to pull themselves together. Tosh attempted to brush the remains of snow out of her hair with her fingers. Like it had mattered - her hair was already soaking wet all over anyway. She tied it up in a ponytail and glanced at Owen, who was doubled up, panting, trying to catch his breath. It was no wonder he got fagged: he was highly outnumbered all along during the battle. After they heard Jack's declaration about his pockets Tosh looked back at Owen, pointed her index finger to her temple and started to draw little circles in the air with it, suggesting to him that their boss has definitely gone mad while they were engrossed in the game. Owen grinned back at her and straightened up finally.
In that moment soft music filled the air of the Roald Dahl Plass. It came from the loudspeakers that provided Christmas themed music at daytime to enhance the Christmas spirit and to put the city in mood for the holidays. They all surprised and looked around as if they could catch the sight of the person who made the speakers work in that late hour.
"This is beautiful!" breathed Tosh as they listened to the melodic tunes of 'White Christmas' standing on the deserted square in the snowfall on Christmas Eve.
But she was amused even more when Owen took her hand, pulled her close to himself and started to move, making her move with him. Tosh couldn't believe Owen was dancing, but it was even harder to believe the doctor was dancing with her. At first she didn't even know how to touch him, but soon she relaxed against him and let him take the lead completely.
Gwen, Jack and Ianto watched them from just a few meters away. They remained in the same position, holding onto each other tight, barely talking. Although, after a while a mischievous smile appeared on Jack's face.
"I can tell from here where I'm standing that Tosh's blushing," he said.
"She looks so happy," Gwen enthused.
"It was bloody time for him to make Tosh happy just once," murmured Ianto on a drowsy voice.
Both Jack and Gwen turned to him with confused faces.
"What?" He tutted. "Owen acts like a real prat sometimes and it usually comes out of him even more when he talks to Tosh. Don't you say you haven't noticed yet! Sometimes I so want to kick him in the arse..."
Jack chuckled at Ianto's combative statement, but he giggled even more, when the young man finished the sentence with a huge yawn.
"Maybe you're right Ianto, but you have to admit that today Owen is a good boy. It's like as if he tried to make amends for all his naughtiness by acting nice for one day."
"Yeah." Sighed Ianto as he put his head back on Jack's shoulder and closed his eyes. He muttered his last words half asleep "But Father Christmas cannot be fooled so easily."
"Hey, don't you nod off on me, Ianto Jones! You're a heavy thing to carry." Jack protested. "You hear me?"
There wasn't any reaction coming from the Welshman.
"Shouldn't we go in now, Jack?" Gwen asked.
"Yes, we should. Let's call out for the love birds then!"
"Don't you dare using that term in front of them!" Gwen admonished him.
Jack didn't answer. But he didn't call for Owen and Tosh and he didn't move either. He opened his ear and listened to the music. He watched the snowflakes falling. He was vividly aware of the world around him, of Owen and Tosh, still dancing in front of the water tower, of Gwen holding onto his arm, of Ianto, nearly asleep in his arms. No aliens around, no deaths, no pain, just the sense of togetherness.
"One more minute." He said "Just give me one more minute."
And for the first time in God knows how many years Jack finally stopped to appreciate life for one minute in eternity.
***
A/N: Thanks for reading! Feedbacks are very much appreciated! (English is my second language, so I can always use some encouragement.. :) Thank you again!
Author: veronikazita
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato
Pairing(s): Jack/Ianto, Owen/Tosh
Fandom: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, fluff, friendship, family
Spoilers: none
Rating: PG
Beta: saltthetardisdoors (tumblr)
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood and its characters, they all belong to Russell T. Davis and the BBC.
Summary: It was just a Chritmas Eve on which - quite surprisingly - the world didn't need saving...
It was Christmas Eve in Cardiff, a snowy, chilly night. Any foreigner who would have chosen this time of the year to visit the city would have assumed it was dead, just a shell, a labyrinth of empty streets. There was no traffic on the roadways, no sign of life outside at all. Even the Weevils didn't venture to come out of the sewer system, first, because they couldn't stand the cold, and second, because their soles were extremely sensitive to anything colder than the water down in the canals.
And all the population of Cardiff spent the night inside too, celebrating in their warm homes with their loved ones, trying to make the best of the holiday.
Nobody had any idea about the intense battle that was going on at the very center of the city, right under the water tower. There were a few figures on the square and they were moving constantly, changing positions every time their enemy moved. Snow-wreaths appeared around the fighters' feet as they got a foothold on the ground every time they had avoided to be hit. Heavy gasping filled the air and the wind took away the sound of screams towards the bay.
They were screams of laughter actually, and they got even louder, when Owen Harper - greatly appreciated Doctor of the Torchwood institute and second in command - fell on his butt as a result of a snowball hitting him right in the middle of the chest, making him loose his balance on the slippery ground.
"Now that was a nice shot!" Ianto complemented Gwen, as he was laughing hard at Owen's misery. They shared a high-five and then Ianto squatted down beside Tosh to help her to produce some more snowballs. Owen was recovering fast and they were completely out of ammo. In less than half a minute they were under attack again.
Tosh stood up with an armful of snowballs and started to fling the cold little spheres towards Owen and not without any success.
Tosh had nobody and she'd decided it would have been pointless to spend Christmas at home, in an empty flat, alone with her thoughts, so she accepted Jack's offer to stay in for the night. She knew that Gwen was about to stay around too, since Rhys was away for Christmas, thanks to that, 'bloody schedule,' at Harwoods lorry, as Gwen has mentioned more than once since Rhys went off.
Tosh had been enjoying herself throughout the afternoon. The Hub was so quiet and peaceful all along: the computers didn't beep, not once, to point out some Rift activity, there was no corpse lying on Owen's slab and there wasn't any work to do at all. It was a bit weird though, but Tosh definitely liked it. They spent the afternoon chatting in the meeting room, each of them eating up a good amount of takeaway food during the conversation. Slowly the day turned into evening and suddenly Tosh noticed that Owen and Ianto were on their feet, rushing out of the room, bumping into each other at the doorframe as both of them tried to be the first who gets out.
"Look at the excited five year olds!" Jack shouted after them, as he headed downstairs too.
"You're coming too, aren't you, Tosh?" Gwen took her arm and pulled her up from the chair.
Tosh followed her and tried to find out what had made the boys so enthusiastic. She wasn't paying attention to the conversation in last few minutes, not since Owen started showing off with his great experiences in snow fighting… 'Oh, that must be it then. Another challenge to decide who has the upper hand… But this time it means we all go out to the cold,' she thought, and she was right. By the time she got down she saw Ianto standing by the cogwheel door. He was tapping on the floor with his shoes impatiently.
"If your snow balls fly as fast as you pull that jumper on, than God help you, Owen," Ianto teased him.
Tosh glanced at Owen's direction and saw that he was pulling the green jumper around his head. The green jumper with the Reindeer on the front, the one she gave him for Christmas, clearly as a joke. The one she thought he would never wear. Now he was struggling to get into that jumper… Tosh smiled secretly to herself.
"Stop mocking around Tea-Boy, and start praying for mercy, because you will never forget what you get from me tonight." Owen warned Ianto.
Tosh took her coat from Gwen's hand when she offered it to her; she put it on and joined Gwen and Jack, who waited next to Ianto, already dressed.
"Oh, yes?" Ianto asked Owen, who was already standing beside him, wearing his funny jumper. Ianto filliped his finger against the Doctor's ear. "Then show me what you've got!"
Owen reached out for Ianto's tie and pulled on it a bit, then ran out of the cogwheel door and up the stairs. "Race ya!" he shouted back, and Ianto followed him.
Jack's voice echoed after them across the corridor, "Hey, what about your coats?"
"Oi!" Ianto cried out as a ball hit him hard on the side of his head. His ear filled with drops of ice-cold snow and on the top of that he was even partially deafened for a few seconds after the attack.
"Hey, Owen, draw it mild! Targeting the head is not fair, not even in a snow fight!" Jack called out to the doctor, who was still trying to get out of the way of the shower of snowballs the girls sprinkled him with.
"Oh, really?" Owen shouted back, grinning. "And is it fair that your lover boy aims at me, and only me? He hasn't wasted a single ball on Gwen or Tosh yet…"
"That's because he - unlike you - knows what chivalry means." Answered Jack with a cheeky smile playing in the corner of his mouth. He was standing not far from them but he didn't involve himself in the fight.
Ianto left the others behind and now approached Jack rubbing his bare hands together to warm them up a bit. He was wearing no suit, only a waistcoat over his bright-coloured shirt. His silk tie and shirtsleeves were dappled with water patches - the 'wounds' he suffered in the battle.
"So you waved the white flag…" Jack gave him a warm smile as Ianto came to a halt in front of him.
"Yes, I did. It was enough fun for this Christmas Eve. I feel kinda tired anyway."
"You didn't have much sleep last night, did you?" Jack questioned. "I felt you shifting in the bed all night."
"I couldn't sleep." Ianto approved. "I dunno why, though. Guess we had too much action lately and I simply can't switch my mind off yet properly. I'm actually surprised that so far this silent night is really silent, and we're not in the middle of an extraterrestrial invasion right now. Aliens like to screw up Christmas."
"Oh yes," Jack chuckled. "And now imagine that Torchwood gets only the remains of the Christmas pudding…" He remembered all of those stories The Doctor told him about his Christmas nights: nasty aliens with huge spaceships, a bit of explosion here, loads of screaming people there, not to mention some tough decisions to make - basically an end of the world for every December. Jack looked up at the sky and let his mind wander over where The Doctor could have been at that very moment. He hoped he was safe and wished him a silent Merry Christmas, still looking at the stars.
Standing beside him, Ianto folded his arms across his chest and tucked his hands in his armpits. He desperately tried to ignore the cold wind that relentlessly slipped under the thin material of his shirt, giving him goose bumps all over his sensitive skin. He realized in a minute though, that he was just making a redundant effort by trying to keep his mind busy with concentrating on the snow fight; the wind wasn't going to stop blowing merely by wishing it. Besides, if he wasn't going to go down to the Hub to pick up his coat, he could look forward to a Christmas spent in Jack's bed, but more likely with a box of tissue than with Jack himself. He mused a bit at this thought and he was just about to head for the bay, when Jack finally stopped gazing at the sky and made him halt abruptly by making a rather loud outcry.
"Jesus Christ, Ianto, I feel cold just looking at you!" Jack reached out for him, taking both of his hands in his. He pulled Ianto closer, driving their hands under his coat, around his own torso, making Ianto's palms rest on his back. Then Jack pulled back his own hands and tried to cover Ianto with his coat as much as he could. "I thought you said you want no more fighting today," Ianto heard him whisper in his ear.
"No, I was just…" He started, but Jack interrupted him. He raised one hand to Ianto's cheek and caressed it with his thumb.
"You know, Ianto, violet suits you, it really does… But not on those beautiful lips." Jack pulled his warm thumb over Ianto's ice-cold lips and watched as the sigh the young man let out became visible and turned the air denser between them for a moment.
Ianto shifted closer to him and laid his head on Jack's shoulder.
"I told you two to put on your coats. It's freezing out here. It's bloody winter, for God's sakes!"
"Owen declared war," mumbled Ianto against the captain's neck. "There is no time to think about the clothes when it's war-time."
Jack chuckled. "The girls know better, I guess. They survived longer on the battlefield than you did and they both have their coats on." Jack shifted his head to let Ianto take a look at the three figures that were still throwing the balls at each other, clearly not being weary of the game at all.
"Okay, I have to acknowledge that Owen still keeps his ground despite having only that crazy jumper on." Jack added.
"Yes, so that makes me the weakest link…" Ianto murmured as he nuzzled against Jack's shoulder and put his head down again. He wasn't cold that much anymore, but he felt more exhausted by the minute.
"Nah." Jack protested. "You're not weak. You're just tired. You'll have a nice long sleep tonight and you can whitewash Owen tomorrow if you'd like. And I'm almost sure that with a little bit of sweet talk you can persuade me to assist. Does it sound all right?"
Jack felt Ianto's sideburn brush against his jaw line twice as the young man gave a small nod.
"Attaboy!" Jack stroked his lover's hair and pulled his coat tighter around them.
He noticed that Gwen left Owen and Tosh for each other and she now hurried towards them. She wore gloves, but the melted snow made her hands cold either way, so she rubbed them together constantly to keep them warm.
"Sorry, no room for another poor freezing soul in here…" Jack announced when she approached them.
"That's all right." Gwen smiled. "I'm not cold. It's just my hands. But don't worry, I can help myself…"
Gwen stepped next to Jack, pulled the glove off her left hand and slipped her chilled fingers into Jack's coat pocket.
"Oh, okay. Now I don't feel used at all…" said Jack, pulling a face as if he was truly offended.
"Oh, stop it, we all know you enjoy it." Gwen snuggled up to the Jack's side and put her free hand on Ianto's back. She started to draw small circles on the Welshman's back to help Jack warming him up. She looked up at the captain's face. "Jack Harkness. Always wants to be the center of attention. Now you get your attention. I don't want to hear you complain!"
"Oh, no, I'm not complaining, not at all. It's Christmas Eve and I'm fully at your service. Hey, Tosh, Owen! I still have an empty pocket if you'd like to consider some hand-warming…" He shouted at the others' direction. "I have pockets on my trousers too, but those are a bit more of a trouble to get to, because Ianto seems to stick to me right now, but if you encourage him, maybe he'll let you slip a hand in."
Owen and Tosh had stopped the fight some minutes ago and they were now trying to pull themselves together. Tosh attempted to brush the remains of snow out of her hair with her fingers. Like it had mattered - her hair was already soaking wet all over anyway. She tied it up in a ponytail and glanced at Owen, who was doubled up, panting, trying to catch his breath. It was no wonder he got fagged: he was highly outnumbered all along during the battle. After they heard Jack's declaration about his pockets Tosh looked back at Owen, pointed her index finger to her temple and started to draw little circles in the air with it, suggesting to him that their boss has definitely gone mad while they were engrossed in the game. Owen grinned back at her and straightened up finally.
In that moment soft music filled the air of the Roald Dahl Plass. It came from the loudspeakers that provided Christmas themed music at daytime to enhance the Christmas spirit and to put the city in mood for the holidays. They all surprised and looked around as if they could catch the sight of the person who made the speakers work in that late hour.
"This is beautiful!" breathed Tosh as they listened to the melodic tunes of 'White Christmas' standing on the deserted square in the snowfall on Christmas Eve.
But she was amused even more when Owen took her hand, pulled her close to himself and started to move, making her move with him. Tosh couldn't believe Owen was dancing, but it was even harder to believe the doctor was dancing with her. At first she didn't even know how to touch him, but soon she relaxed against him and let him take the lead completely.
Gwen, Jack and Ianto watched them from just a few meters away. They remained in the same position, holding onto each other tight, barely talking. Although, after a while a mischievous smile appeared on Jack's face.
"I can tell from here where I'm standing that Tosh's blushing," he said.
"She looks so happy," Gwen enthused.
"It was bloody time for him to make Tosh happy just once," murmured Ianto on a drowsy voice.
Both Jack and Gwen turned to him with confused faces.
"What?" He tutted. "Owen acts like a real prat sometimes and it usually comes out of him even more when he talks to Tosh. Don't you say you haven't noticed yet! Sometimes I so want to kick him in the arse..."
Jack chuckled at Ianto's combative statement, but he giggled even more, when the young man finished the sentence with a huge yawn.
"Maybe you're right Ianto, but you have to admit that today Owen is a good boy. It's like as if he tried to make amends for all his naughtiness by acting nice for one day."
"Yeah." Sighed Ianto as he put his head back on Jack's shoulder and closed his eyes. He muttered his last words half asleep "But Father Christmas cannot be fooled so easily."
"Hey, don't you nod off on me, Ianto Jones! You're a heavy thing to carry." Jack protested. "You hear me?"
There wasn't any reaction coming from the Welshman.
"Shouldn't we go in now, Jack?" Gwen asked.
"Yes, we should. Let's call out for the love birds then!"
"Don't you dare using that term in front of them!" Gwen admonished him.
Jack didn't answer. But he didn't call for Owen and Tosh and he didn't move either. He opened his ear and listened to the music. He watched the snowflakes falling. He was vividly aware of the world around him, of Owen and Tosh, still dancing in front of the water tower, of Gwen holding onto his arm, of Ianto, nearly asleep in his arms. No aliens around, no deaths, no pain, just the sense of togetherness.
"One more minute." He said "Just give me one more minute."
And for the first time in God knows how many years Jack finally stopped to appreciate life for one minute in eternity.
***
A/N: Thanks for reading! Feedbacks are very much appreciated! (English is my second language, so I can always use some encouragement.. :) Thank you again!