In Sickness and in Health (52/52)
Title: In Sickness and in Health
Author: welsh_scotsman
Author’s note: Wow. After nearly three years in the making, this fic is finally cooked. A huge thank you to everyone who has read/ commented/ contributed to this fic over all of that time and who have put up with my endless angsting about how hard it is and how I’ll never finish it. And thank you to you, who stayed with Ianto until the end.
Summary: Ianto looks after everyone, but who looks after him?
Chapter Summary: It’s a week after the events of the trial
Spoilers: None
Warning: Occasional language, references to child abuse,
Rating: 15
http://welsh-scotsman.livejournal.com/6120.html chapter one
Chapter Fifty Two - one week later
“Ianto, have you got those files I needed?” asked Tosh as she entered the Tourist Office.
“Yep. They should be on the desk,” replied Ianto as he indicated vaguely towards the desk from where he was rearranging some tourist brochures that had been knocked over when some over-excited and, admittedly, very drunk tourists had staggered in asking if this was the way to Amarillo.
“Yep. Found them. Thanks,” said Tosh as she located the manila files and scooped them up. Instead of leaving however, she took the time to survey her friend. Over the past week or so, he had definitely improved from the wreck he had been in the days leading up to the trial and this was all well and good, but she couldn’t help thinking that he was doing rather too well.
Once he’d finished with the brochures, Ianto turned round and was surprised to see Tosh still standing awkwardly by the desk. “Was there anything else you needed?” he asked as he walked towards her.
Tosh shook her head. “No, I just...”She looked at him. “You are okay, aren’t you?” she asked as she gave him a searching look as if she could read his mind.
Ianto inclined his head and gave her a small smile. “Yes. Thank you.” Tosh hesitated and glanced over at the shelves. “Really, Tosh. I’m okay.”He gave her another small genuine smile. “I’m coping.”
Tosh nodded. “You sure?”
“Yeah. Jack’s been great and I’ve had some time to get my head around it all and catch up on some sleep and...it’s okay.”
Tosh hummed non-committally as she ran her fingers along the grain of the wood on the desk. “What about your mum and your sister?”
Ianto was contemplative as he moved around her and into the small office behind the beaded curtains. “I spoke to Rhiannon,” he admitted quietly.
Tosh followed him. “How did that go?” she asked casually as she leant against the doorframe.
Ianto shrugged as he turned to face her and leant against the desk behind him, hands in his pockets, legs crossed at the ankles. He was silent for a while, as if he was trying to work out how to describe it. “It was awkward,” he finally admitted with a sad smile.
“It would be,” said Tosh neutrally. “A lot has happened.”
“Mmm,” Ianto inclined his head in acknowledgement. “She hates Mam.”
“She would.”
“Mmm.” Ianto scuffed the toe of his foot along the floor.
“And what are your feelings towards her?” asked Tosh neutrally.
Ianto shrugged.
“You should talk to her,” said Tosh calmly.
Ianto’s gaze flicked up. “Why?”
Tosh shrugged. “To get answers. Closure. I don’t know.”
Ianto’s lip quirked. “The trial was meant to do that, Tosh and look where that got us.”
“I know but you’re curious.”
“Maybe...” murmured Ianto non-committally.
An awkward silence fell upon them until Ianto spoke. “And then what? I just forgive and forget?”
“No, but at least you’ll get all the facts. See why she acted the way she did.”
“She acted the way she did because she’s selfish,” stated Ianto bitterly.
Tosh inclined her head. “And so you’ll know.” She picked up the files from where she’d set them down behind her. “It’s worth a thought anyway,” she said, giving him a small smile before heading back down into the Hub.
“S’ppose...”murmured Ianto as he stared after her.
She had a point; he couldn’t just leave it like this when he’d spent so long believing his mother to be a good person. He needed to understand why she did what she did and why it had taken her so long to get in touch. Maybe she had a perfectly legitimate reason for not doing so.
He smirked to himself as he turned to find the accounts Jack had wanted checking over. Yeah, and pigs would fly. He’d just got rid of one good-for-nothing parent, he didn’t need to bring another one into his life; he’d had enough of that to last him a lifetime. The truth of the matter was that Carys hadn’t come when he’d needed her and he’d suffered for it. She didn’t know though, a small voice in the back of his mind reminded him. He exhaled in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. That wasn’t his problem though. He shouldn’t have to deal with her guilt on top of everything else. She’d left, and whilst he could empathise with why, he couldn’t bring himself to ignore the fact that she had still chosen to stay away. As Strutt of all people had pointed out, if she was such a responsible parent, she would have taken her children with her. She had not and it was because of that choice that everything following it happened.
Ianto refused to dwell on the issue any further and so, gathering the accounts he’d been working on earlier, he left the office and turned the open sign to closed before locking up and heading down into the Hub.
Despite it being just gone seven, the Hub was a hive of activity with Owen dissecting a jellyfish-like alien in the medibay; his language as colourful as the corpse on the table, Tosh cross-referencing the data from the files he’d given her with the data she’d taken from the UNIT files, and Gwen having left a scan running whilst she corroborated with Andy down at the police station. Jack, as usual, was surveying his kingdom from the balcony that ran around the whole of the Hub; hands shoved deep in his pockets as he watched his friends working. Ianto caught his eye and, indicating the files he was carrying, made his way to Jack’s office, unsurprised when Jack joined him mere minutes later.
“You completed them then,” stated Jack casually as he took them and flicked through them.
Ianto inclined his head and leant against Jack’s desk. “Of course. Although I have to say, UNIT’s arithmetic leaves much to be desired.”
Jack’s lip quirked in amusement. “Is that so?”
“Yep. You’d think given how often they insist they’re better than us, they’d be able to do a simple cross-reference of easily accessible data.”
Jack glanced up at Ianto’s impassive features and smiled. “And how easily accessible was this data?”
Ianto shrugged. “I found it,” he said innocently.
Jack’s smile broadened into a grin. “You hid it, didn’t you?”
Ianto inclined his head and a small smile graced his lips. “Of course. Couldn’t have them snooping around whilst we were away, could we?”
“Indeed not...”murmured Jack.
“Right, Harkness. From what I can gather, Mr Slimey over there functions through osmosis of the liver whereby hydrous oxide of the placenta is diffused via the ochetarous tract which then converts said hydrous oxide into apparently functional forms such as sulphur oxide - hence the whole dissolving tables when he breathes thing,” stated Owen as he walked into the office.
“Thanks, Owen. Now just write that into a vaguely understandable report and I’ll be happy,” said Jack, giving him one of his biggest grins.
Owen glared at him and turned to leave before turning back as if something had just occurred to him. “For a secret organisation that is not accountable to anyone, why is there so much bloody paperwork? I mean, what is the actual point?”
“It’s so that when we die, everything we found out is written down and archived for future generations,” said Ianto drily.
Owen blanched. “Yeah. Thanks for that, Teaboy; cheerful as ever I see.”
Ianto inclined his head. “Of course,” he murmured as he moved to organise the stacks of paperwork on Jack’s desk into some sort of logical order. Owen looked at him for several moments, his head slightly tilted as an unreadable expression crossed his features.
“Owen,” Jack gently drew his colleague’s attention back to himself.
“Mmm?” Owen’s focus eventually resettled on the Immortal to the left of him.
“He’s fine.” Jack smiled reassuringly. “Really.”
Owen’s gaze flicked back over to Ianto who was apparently oblivious to their exchange before he nodded. “Better get on with this report then, hadn’t I?” he said as he made to leave.
“Actually, that can wait until tomorrow - no point doing it now when it’s practically home time anyway. Why don’t you and Tosh get off home and we’ll lock up here and call Gwen and tell her she can go as well.”
“You sure?”
“Course. Go on.”
Not one to need telling twice, Owen nodded and, with one last glance over at Ianto, left the office, calling to Tosh that he was buying the first round as he did so. Jack watched him go in amusement before turning back to Ianto.
“I’m too nice for my own good sometimes,” he said light-heartedly as he wandered over and leant back against the desk with his arms crossed.
Ianto raised an eyebrow but did not look up from the form he was filling in. “You keep believing that,” he murmured patronisingly as he finished what he was doing and handed Jack the form. “You need to sign sections nine and ten.”
Jack glanced down at the paper in dismay. “Someone up there hates me.”
“Yeah. The Home Secretary unless you get that done soon,” stated Ianto drily as he made to leave.
“Where you going?”
Ianto turned in the doorway. “To feed the inmates. We can’t have their starvation ruining your facade of niceness now, can we?”
“S’ppose...”
Ianto smiled and, taking pity on him wandered back over and rested his hands on the tops of the other man’s arms. “And, if you’re really nice, I’ll let you order the pizza and choose the film when we go back to mine.”
Jack’s hands slipped up to caress Ianto’s waist under his jacket as he spoke. “How nice exactly are we talking about here?”
Ianto pretended to think about this. “A finish sections nine and ten by the time I get back and we’ll see sort of nice?” He then winked before slipping out of Jack’s hold and leaving the office.
Jack just shook his head, a smile still fixed firmly on his features as he watched him go. To say he was proud of the young man’s progress over the last week was something of an understatement. It was as if the months of stress and hardship that had previously dogged Ianto’s life had just disappeared. Jack’s gaze dropped to the form next to him. Externally anyway. Internally, he knew Ianto was still affected by the outcome of the trial and the revelations it presented - the changed locks and minutes spent staring into space proved that. Yet despite this, Jack knew that Ianto was gradually getting back to normal again; he was sleeping and eating a lot better and for that, Jack was grateful. He had been terrified that the trial’s outcome would result in Ianto spiralling into yet another deep, dark depression and so he had been pleasantly surprised when Ianto had simply dusted himself down as if to say enough was enough, and thrown himself back into life at the Hub. The catalogue of UNIT’s admin failures and the backlog of reports had been so drastic that it was unlikely that Ianto was able to think about anything else in the hours and days he spent sorting them into some sort of logical order.
Jack had briefly worried that it would be too much too soon, but he was surprised to find that the work somehow focused Ianto. So resolutely unbreakable was its grip that Ianto had managed to make a foundation upon which he stabilised the rest of his life. By returning to work, the young man was able to take stock of his life and work toward recovering from the shockwave of the trial. It was actually quite inspiring.
Jack exhaled, still smiling as he looked downward to contemplate his boots. The Welshman’s remarkable fortitude had always been very charming. Jack remembered back to the first few months of their relationship. Even awash in a sea of broiling despair and loss, having essentially lost his raison d’etre, Ianto had merely searched for another path. Given his past, it made sense. He was used to it. Jack had been the one to reach out. He wasn’t a stranger to that kind of loss. Immortality came with certain inevitabilities. But the Welshman had simply kept his calm and looked him in the eye proud and defiant.
Jack shifted. Ianto moved Jack in a way the immortal had not been moved for many years. There was fire to the younger man that awoke a more ancient heat in Jack and he saw it burning in Ianto now. And Jack hungered for it.
The trial had absorbed much of their lives in the months leading up to it and the week before it especially. There hadn’t been much time or inclination to think about sex, and Jack understood and respected that. Jack shifted again. However, it had been over two weeks and seeing Ianto like this, so strong and young and powerful pulled at Jack’s very being.
“Hard at work I see,” stated Ianto in amusement as he re-entered the office, startling Jack as he did so.
Jack jumped and moved around to sit in his chair. “I was thinking.”
Ianto smirked as he wandered around to perch against the desk. “I could see that. The question is: what about?”
Jack smiled and turned to face him. “What do you want me to be thinking about?”
Ianto raised an eyebrow before leaning in closer. “What do you want me to want you to be thinking about?” he murmured, as his arm trailed along the back of Jack’s chair and the warmth of his breath ghosted against Jack’s cheek.
Jack’s breath hitched and he inclined his head slightly to the left. “We could be here all night,” he murmured as his gaze met Ianto’s.
“We could indeed...,”murmured Ianto as he leant in closer so that their lips were barely millimetres apart. He kissed him chastely on the cheek. “Or we could just go back to mine,” he stated casually as he moved away and straightened his jacket. Jack felt a familiar ripple of sensation run throughout his body.
“Indeed we could...”he murmured, feeling a slow grin spread across his face as he allowed his eyes to roam over Ianto’s lean form.
The younger man waited for him to meet his eye before amending. “After you’ve finished your report of course.”
Jack’s face fell. “But...”
Ianto let his fingers trail slowly along the grain of the wooded desk. “We can’t have you upsetting the Home Secretary now can we?” he murmured coyly. His gaze flicked up to meet Jack’s eye. “Of course...if one just happened to find a replica of the form that just happened to have your signature forged on it...well, anything could happen.”
Jack’s grin returned to full force. “You really do think of everything.”
Ianto inclined his head. “Of course.”
Ianto could practically feel Jack’s anticipation as they turned into the parking area, and suddenly, he realised that Jack didn’t care about anything that had happened or anything that had been unearthed. To him, it made no difference- he didn’t think any less of him because of it, and for that, Ianto loved him even more. He knew it couldn’t have been easy for the Immortal having to juggle both the demands of the Rift and the demands of Ianto’s personal life and yet, somehow, Jack had found a way to hide the strain and be the rock Ianto had needed. What more, he had done it because he had wanted to. Because he cared; because he believed Ianto to be worth it.
“What you smiling about?” asked Jack in amusement.
Ianto glanced over at him and felt his grin widen. This man was so very beautiful. “Nothing,” he murmured softly as he leant across and kissed him. Tenderly. Properly. The way he deserved to be as if he meant everything in the world. Ianto threaded his fingers through the dark hair and deepened the kiss. At that moment in time, he did. He felt the warmth of Jack’s hands on his back; steadying and encouraging him in equal measures and all he wanted right here and right now was this amazing man.
He broke the kiss and shifted to nuzzle at Jack’s jaw. “You know...I have a perfectly good bed inside...”He felt Jack grin against his cheek.
“Is that so?”
“Mmhm.” He nipped lightly at Jack’s ear. “And if you’re really lucky, I’ll even let you keep the coat on...”
“Well when you put it like that, how can one refuse?” murmured Jack.
Ianto pulled away and opened the door. “My thoughts exactly.”
Ianto allowed Jack to precede him up the stairs to their flat; smirking in amusement when the Immortal couldn’t find his keys.
“Looking for these?” he murmured as he produced the offending items from his pocket.
“How...?”
Ianto winked. “That would be telling,” he said as he slid in front of the other man and went about unlocking the door. He felt the warmth of the Immortal at his back, cuddling up to him and chuckling into his ear. Ianto smiled and leaned into the kiss Jack placed on his cheek and neck; an amused smirk gracing his features.
Jack grinned and kissed him again. “You’ll have to show me then,” he murmured against his ear.
“Maybe...,” murmured Ianto non-committally as he opened the door. He stood aside and offered Jack entry in a cavalier show of chivalry. “If you’re lucky.” He winked and gestured inside. “After you.” Jack stepped inside, laughing at him.
Jack stepped inside, laughing at him. “I do believe you’re teasing me, Mr Jones.”
“I do believe you’re correct, Captain,” grinned Ianto as he stepped in after him and closed the door behind them. Neither of them noticed the shadowy figure in the distance.
http://welsh-scotsman.livejournal.com/37038.html#cutid1 part two