Fic: The Oncoming Storm (Slash, AU, Janto 27/40 Act 2/3)
Author: d8rkmessngr
Pairing: Jack/OMC, Jack/?, Jack/Ianto eventually, het and slash
Rating: NC-17 (betaed)
Summary: He left Jack on the game station. Abandoned. But then…he came back…different. An AU look on what happens if things happened differently. Doctor Who 'verse with Torchwood later on. Be sure to read the warnings.
Warnings: Please read each chapter's individual warnings. Some parts down the road may briefly mention non-con, abuse, and/or violence. Dark in the beginning. Please note there are some dark thoughts as my boys are broken…for now. Each chapter will be labeled for your convenience.
Author's Notes: Please note this is an AU that will cross over DW to TW season one. I'm probably spoiling my own story, but it will eventually be Janto. There's a bit of a journey first. I hope you enjoy. I'm working on this and intend to post regularly every other day. And again, I always believe in happy endings. So without further ado…
Disclaimer: RTD and BBC owns them. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Warning For This Chapter: dark, evil Suzie, innuendos, language
Notes For This Chapter: Note there are parallels to "They Keep Killing Suzie"
Prologue + Ch , Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18. Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26, Ch 27 Act 1/3
Master Fic List: here
Chapter 27 - "They Keep Killing Suzie 2.0"
Act II: "But you can't Jack, because I'm the last thing left of Gwen Cooper, can't you see it?"
Jack stood over her body. Her scornful words rang harshly in his ears like echoes in a long, dark tunnel. He wasn't sure if he should grieve or not. It wasn't Suzie. Not the Suzie he first knew at least.
Or did he ever know her?
"Jack!" Owen was yelling from behind him. "I need to get Gwen back to the Hub!"
That's right. Gwen was dying, dead, now alive. Because Suzie had been trying to obtain forever.
"Did it work?" Tosh's anxious question drew his eyes back to Suzie's body.
"Jack?" Ianto sounded like he was standing right next to him and Jack turned numbly to check. The need to see Ianto was inexplicably strong and Jack stood there, confused on the dock.
"Oi! Jack, I need a hand here!" Owen was hollering, struggling to hold up a bewildered and dazed Gwen.
Jack blinked. He needed to get back to taking care of the living.
Jack gave Suzie one last look before he strode to Owen, feeling wooden and numb as he helped Owen take Gwen back to the SUV.
Suzie said something was coming for him in the dark.
It felt like it already had.
The Torchwood SUV was barely respecting the speed limit. Owen was either anxious to get Gwen back or anxious to get rid of the body bag laid out flat in the back. Jack suspected it was both; not that he blamed him though.
Jack drove Gwen's car back, trailing behind them, though he was in no hurry either.
"Jack?"
Ianto's voice came into his earpiece through a private channel. It was quiet, tentative.
Jack smiled bleakly. "Here. We're on our way back. Gwen's okay."
"I know. Owen already updated us."
Jack furrowed his brow. "Oh. Did you and Tosh need to know something else?"
"Sort of. Well, not Tosh really, but…uh, I'm sure she would as well if she wasn't too busy trying to double-check our systems to make sure there aren't any more surprises, not that we think there are any more surprises but you never can-aren't you going to stop me?" Ianto abruptly said, exasperated.
A glance at the rear mirror revealed he was smiling. "Why?" Jack murmured, his eyes steady on their SUV.
"Because I'm babbling. You're supposed to interrupt someone when they're babbling."
In truth, Jack would have, but the rolling vowels had washed soothingly over him and he didn't want to lose that.
"Were you babbling? I thought you always talked that way," Jack teased. He chuckled when he heard Ianto sputter. Jack sobered. "What did you want to know?"
Ianto paused. He could be heard clearing his throat before his voice lowered.
"Are you okay?"
The question shouldn't have affected him, but it tightened his chest. Jack took a deep breath. His hands curled and uncurled around the steering wheel.
"Would you believe me if I say yes?" Jack asked lightly.
"No, not particularly."
Jack's musing smile faded completely.
"I'm sorry about Suzie."
Jack knew Ianto was apologizing for a lot more; more than he could bear to think about. "Me, too," he said gruffly. He stared hard at the back of the SUV. He hoped Owen had remembered to tie the body bag down first as Gwen's car bumped over the uneven road. It was stupid, but the thought of Suzie's body jolting and crashing inside the SUV made him ill.
"Jack, stop thinking about it."
Ianto's voice cut into his gloom. Jack blinked.
"There was nothing that could have been done. Gwen was linked to her. It was either Gwen or Suzie. Suzie…she had her chance."
It was eerie how sometimes Ianto could voice his thoughts out loud, yet it sounded more like he was just echoing Jack’s as well as his own.
"That…" Jack began. He narrowed his eyes and squinted through the windshield. "Suzie wasn't always like that."
"What was she like then?" Ianto encouraged.
Jack stared at the blue lights on the rear of the SUV. He could see the shadows of Owen and Gwen, their heads close together, possibly talking, comforting, and maybe drawing strength from each other. And then, he thought about Suzie, with the six bullets he'd emptied into her, zipped up in a sterile body bag, about to be put back into cyro.
"Jack?"
"Alone," Jack finally said. "She was lonely. Torchwood doesn't invite many outsiders."
"You understood her," Ianto guessed. There was no recrimination in his voice.
Jack nodded to himself until he remembered Ianto couldn't see it. "Yeah," he rasped. She was a kindred spirit.
"Didn't mean you could have stopped her," Ianto said.
Jack squeezed the steering wheel until it hurt. "Her father was dying from cancer. Gwen said I should have taken that glove away from her. I should have thought about what it was doing to her. I might have led Suzie to this."
"Gwen was wrong. Suzie killed her father." Ianto paused briefly. "Tosh received the police reports. Someone had yanked out his ventilator."
Jack darkened. "Suzie."
"It's almost certain. We'll confirm with Gwen when you get back."
Jack smiled tightly. It seemed with each new piece of new information, all they learned was how wrong he had been about her. His shoulders slumped.
"She said she did this for us…I mean, Suzie and I." Jack paused. For some reason, it was important that Ianto understood. "I never asked for this."
"No, you didn't. She thought she did it for a good reason." Ianto sounded unusually harsh. "Made her sound more noble, but she would still be wrong. She was fooling herself."
The laugh tasted bitter leaving his throat. "Asked if I loved her. She said she loved me."
Ianto was quiet for a moment.
"I think she did. Or, at least, she really thought she did at the time."
There was a wiggling feeling inside him. Jack tightened his hold on the wheel. "You spoke to her, didn't you?"
"I uh…" Ianto hesitated. "I escorted her back into interrogation."
A chill went down his back.
"Damn it, Ianto. What do I always say? Never talk to a prisoner. They can screw with your head-"
"I know. I'd ignored her originally, but she…" Ianto laughed oddly. "She's very hard to ignore."
Jack exhaled. "What did you two talk about?"
"It doesn't matter."
Jack wanted to hit the steering wheel. "Ianto…before…did you hear what she said to me?" Jack stopped, the words stuck in his throat. He was afraid of saying it out loud, of acknowledging something he couldn't understand himself sometimes; the heady, confusing thrum-thrum banging in his head, so loud he couldn't think until it was too late.
"Jack." Ianto was a calm sonata that filled his head and quieted the harsh rapping that echoed in his head, his heart. "It doesn't matter what she said."
The bile rose to his throat, to the point it was hard to breathe. Jack blinked rapidly. "I see," he managed out hoarsely.
"What counts is here and now. The past doesn't matter, only if you let it." Ianto laughed nervously. "That sounds very cliché, but there you have it. Don't think about it."
Jack swallowed. He keep his foot on the pedal steady even if he wanted to stomp on the gas and veer for someplace where he wasn't known, where his face wasn't distributed everywhere like he was some cosmic joke, where he was a name, not some damn pronoun attached to another.
"Stop that. You're thinking again." Ianto sounded stern, yet there was little rancor in his voice. "The very least you could do is participate in a civil conversation with me rather than breathing heavily into the mobile. It's rather annoying."
Jack grinned weakly. "Get a lot of heavy breathing calls, do you?"
Ianto harrumphed. "Only from you right now. First you don't interrupt my babbling, then you pant over the line like a pervert. Your telephone etiquette is rather disappointing, Harkness."
A chuckle broke free, surprising Jack. "Sorry."
"Well…" Ianto made a show of giving it some thought. "I suppose you're forgiven this time; seeing as you are my employer."
"You're too kind. Well, what would you have me say here?"
"Aside from the poor imitation of a canine in summer? Anything."
The lump in his gut eased. Jack giggled. "Okay, what are you wearing?"
"Good God, you've graduated to harassment."
Jack laughed. "Hey, you gave no specifics to the conversation."
Ianto sniffed. "I was hoping for a bit more substance than just knowing what I was wearing."
"Fine, who are you voting for in the elections?"
Ianto groaned. "Even worse. I haven't had the taste for politics since London. Next topic, please."
"You are so pushy," Jack accused lightly. "Fine. Okay, what are you wearing?"
"Again?" Ianto complained half-heartedly. "Besides, you've already seen what I was wearing this morning."
"True, but that was before," Jack teased. "What about right now?"
"Very well, right now, I'm currently sitting in your office with absolutely nothing on."
The brakes screeched so loudly that Ianto heard it on the mobile. The SUV up front slowed to a halt.
"…Jack?" Ianto fairly squeaked.
Jack waved at Owen, who climbed out of the vehicle with a frown. The doctor gestured, "What?" and stood there, scowling as Jack waved him back in.
Ianto was talking rapidly in his ear, probably frantic when Jack didn't answer right away. His words finally filtered into Jack's conscious when they finally started moving again.
"…not even my socks! Still clothed completely and nowhere near your office and-"
"It's all right," Jack interrupted. "It's fine. I uh…had to brake rather unexpectedly. Um…squirrel."
"Squirrel?" Ianto sounded skeptical. "You stopped because of a squirrel?"
Jack bit back the nervous giggle in the back of his throat. "Uh huh."
Ianto hemmed, not quite believing him. "Must be a very large rodent to make you stop so abruptly." Ianto could be heard fidgeting.
"Jack? You know I'm really not…you know…"
Jack pretended to sigh. "No? Darn. I'm telling you, the images I saw-"
"Don't," Ianto yelped. "No need to tell me!"
Jack snickered. "You started it."
Ianto sighed. "Don't remind me," he muttered mournfully. "Can we please talk about something else?"
Jack pouted. "Fine, how about we talk about your current research project?" Jack challenged.
"What proj-oh." Ianto sounded flustered.
Jack chuckled. "I don't know whether I should be flattered or intrigued."
"Neither," Ianto returned crisply. "I was-"
"Curious, I know." Jack smiled tightly. "Just a little extracurricular research."
"Well," Ianto joked wanly. "You know me."
Did he? Or like Suzie, Ianto saw something in those videos she mentioned and thought-Jack's mouth pressed thin. Did it really matter? It was just sex.
"I just wanted to know what I was getting into," Ianto said quietly. "You must think me a fool."
Jack smiled sadly. "A fool is not one of the things you are."
"Suzie…" Ianto hesitated. Jack could hear him take a deep breath. "Suzie thought we were…well, you know."
Jack sighed. "Look, she was trying to-"
"I told her we weren't like that. It was different."
At the 'we', Jack blinked hard.
"Was…" Ianto stopped. "Was I lying to her?"
Was he? Jack touched the earpiece; he imagined it was Ianto's cheek.
"I don't know," Jack confessed. "Do you wish you were lying to her?"
"I wish you would stop answering my questions with a question," Ianto said, exasperatedly. He paused.
"I don't think I want to be lying to her."
"Oh." A warm glow collected in his gut where that ever-present lump was. It shrank and Jack found it easier to breathe around it.
The line fell silent.
The familiar cityscape rose before them.
"Almost there," Jack told him. "Ten minutes."
"I see you on the screen."
Somehow knowing Ianto was watching the screen, keeping an eye on him, even if it wasn't just him, made Jack smile.
"Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"It really doesn't matter," Ianto told him in a soft voice. "Not to me. Only what I see before me."
Jack was at a loss of words. He cleared his throat.
"Almost there," Jack said thickly.
"Good." There was a satisfaction in Ianto's voice that ran deeper than the acknowledgment that they were coming back to base. Jack's hands loosened around the wheel.
"Anything else you want to talk about?" Ianto generously offered.
Suddenly, Jack grinned wickedly.
"Sure…what are you wearing tomorrow?"
"Jack!"
Conclusion
Additional Notes: Many thanks to soullessminion for betaing this chapter. And trtmx for her magic trick that saved my sanity! LOL.
Pairing: Jack/OMC, Jack/?, Jack/Ianto eventually, het and slash
Rating: NC-17 (betaed)
Summary: He left Jack on the game station. Abandoned. But then…he came back…different. An AU look on what happens if things happened differently. Doctor Who 'verse with Torchwood later on. Be sure to read the warnings.
Warnings: Please read each chapter's individual warnings. Some parts down the road may briefly mention non-con, abuse, and/or violence. Dark in the beginning. Please note there are some dark thoughts as my boys are broken…for now. Each chapter will be labeled for your convenience.
Author's Notes: Please note this is an AU that will cross over DW to TW season one. I'm probably spoiling my own story, but it will eventually be Janto. There's a bit of a journey first. I hope you enjoy. I'm working on this and intend to post regularly every other day. And again, I always believe in happy endings. So without further ado…
Disclaimer: RTD and BBC owns them. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Warning For This Chapter: dark, evil Suzie, innuendos, language
Notes For This Chapter: Note there are parallels to "They Keep Killing Suzie"
Prologue + Ch , Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18. Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26, Ch 27 Act 1/3
Master Fic List: here
Chapter 27 - "They Keep Killing Suzie 2.0"
Act II: "But you can't Jack, because I'm the last thing left of Gwen Cooper, can't you see it?"
Jack stood over her body. Her scornful words rang harshly in his ears like echoes in a long, dark tunnel. He wasn't sure if he should grieve or not. It wasn't Suzie. Not the Suzie he first knew at least.
Or did he ever know her?
"Jack!" Owen was yelling from behind him. "I need to get Gwen back to the Hub!"
That's right. Gwen was dying, dead, now alive. Because Suzie had been trying to obtain forever.
"Did it work?" Tosh's anxious question drew his eyes back to Suzie's body.
"Jack?" Ianto sounded like he was standing right next to him and Jack turned numbly to check. The need to see Ianto was inexplicably strong and Jack stood there, confused on the dock.
"Oi! Jack, I need a hand here!" Owen was hollering, struggling to hold up a bewildered and dazed Gwen.
Jack blinked. He needed to get back to taking care of the living.
Jack gave Suzie one last look before he strode to Owen, feeling wooden and numb as he helped Owen take Gwen back to the SUV.
Suzie said something was coming for him in the dark.
It felt like it already had.
The Torchwood SUV was barely respecting the speed limit. Owen was either anxious to get Gwen back or anxious to get rid of the body bag laid out flat in the back. Jack suspected it was both; not that he blamed him though.
Jack drove Gwen's car back, trailing behind them, though he was in no hurry either.
"Jack?"
Ianto's voice came into his earpiece through a private channel. It was quiet, tentative.
Jack smiled bleakly. "Here. We're on our way back. Gwen's okay."
"I know. Owen already updated us."
Jack furrowed his brow. "Oh. Did you and Tosh need to know something else?"
"Sort of. Well, not Tosh really, but…uh, I'm sure she would as well if she wasn't too busy trying to double-check our systems to make sure there aren't any more surprises, not that we think there are any more surprises but you never can-aren't you going to stop me?" Ianto abruptly said, exasperated.
A glance at the rear mirror revealed he was smiling. "Why?" Jack murmured, his eyes steady on their SUV.
"Because I'm babbling. You're supposed to interrupt someone when they're babbling."
In truth, Jack would have, but the rolling vowels had washed soothingly over him and he didn't want to lose that.
"Were you babbling? I thought you always talked that way," Jack teased. He chuckled when he heard Ianto sputter. Jack sobered. "What did you want to know?"
Ianto paused. He could be heard clearing his throat before his voice lowered.
"Are you okay?"
The question shouldn't have affected him, but it tightened his chest. Jack took a deep breath. His hands curled and uncurled around the steering wheel.
"Would you believe me if I say yes?" Jack asked lightly.
"No, not particularly."
Jack's musing smile faded completely.
"I'm sorry about Suzie."
Jack knew Ianto was apologizing for a lot more; more than he could bear to think about. "Me, too," he said gruffly. He stared hard at the back of the SUV. He hoped Owen had remembered to tie the body bag down first as Gwen's car bumped over the uneven road. It was stupid, but the thought of Suzie's body jolting and crashing inside the SUV made him ill.
"Jack, stop thinking about it."
Ianto's voice cut into his gloom. Jack blinked.
"There was nothing that could have been done. Gwen was linked to her. It was either Gwen or Suzie. Suzie…she had her chance."
It was eerie how sometimes Ianto could voice his thoughts out loud, yet it sounded more like he was just echoing Jack’s as well as his own.
"That…" Jack began. He narrowed his eyes and squinted through the windshield. "Suzie wasn't always like that."
"What was she like then?" Ianto encouraged.
Jack stared at the blue lights on the rear of the SUV. He could see the shadows of Owen and Gwen, their heads close together, possibly talking, comforting, and maybe drawing strength from each other. And then, he thought about Suzie, with the six bullets he'd emptied into her, zipped up in a sterile body bag, about to be put back into cyro.
"Jack?"
"Alone," Jack finally said. "She was lonely. Torchwood doesn't invite many outsiders."
"You understood her," Ianto guessed. There was no recrimination in his voice.
Jack nodded to himself until he remembered Ianto couldn't see it. "Yeah," he rasped. She was a kindred spirit.
"Didn't mean you could have stopped her," Ianto said.
Jack squeezed the steering wheel until it hurt. "Her father was dying from cancer. Gwen said I should have taken that glove away from her. I should have thought about what it was doing to her. I might have led Suzie to this."
"Gwen was wrong. Suzie killed her father." Ianto paused briefly. "Tosh received the police reports. Someone had yanked out his ventilator."
Jack darkened. "Suzie."
"It's almost certain. We'll confirm with Gwen when you get back."
Jack smiled tightly. It seemed with each new piece of new information, all they learned was how wrong he had been about her. His shoulders slumped.
"She said she did this for us…I mean, Suzie and I." Jack paused. For some reason, it was important that Ianto understood. "I never asked for this."
"No, you didn't. She thought she did it for a good reason." Ianto sounded unusually harsh. "Made her sound more noble, but she would still be wrong. She was fooling herself."
The laugh tasted bitter leaving his throat. "Asked if I loved her. She said she loved me."
Ianto was quiet for a moment.
"I think she did. Or, at least, she really thought she did at the time."
There was a wiggling feeling inside him. Jack tightened his hold on the wheel. "You spoke to her, didn't you?"
"I uh…" Ianto hesitated. "I escorted her back into interrogation."
A chill went down his back.
"Damn it, Ianto. What do I always say? Never talk to a prisoner. They can screw with your head-"
"I know. I'd ignored her originally, but she…" Ianto laughed oddly. "She's very hard to ignore."
Jack exhaled. "What did you two talk about?"
"It doesn't matter."
Jack wanted to hit the steering wheel. "Ianto…before…did you hear what she said to me?" Jack stopped, the words stuck in his throat. He was afraid of saying it out loud, of acknowledging something he couldn't understand himself sometimes; the heady, confusing thrum-thrum banging in his head, so loud he couldn't think until it was too late.
"Jack." Ianto was a calm sonata that filled his head and quieted the harsh rapping that echoed in his head, his heart. "It doesn't matter what she said."
The bile rose to his throat, to the point it was hard to breathe. Jack blinked rapidly. "I see," he managed out hoarsely.
"What counts is here and now. The past doesn't matter, only if you let it." Ianto laughed nervously. "That sounds very cliché, but there you have it. Don't think about it."
Jack swallowed. He keep his foot on the pedal steady even if he wanted to stomp on the gas and veer for someplace where he wasn't known, where his face wasn't distributed everywhere like he was some cosmic joke, where he was a name, not some damn pronoun attached to another.
"Stop that. You're thinking again." Ianto sounded stern, yet there was little rancor in his voice. "The very least you could do is participate in a civil conversation with me rather than breathing heavily into the mobile. It's rather annoying."
Jack grinned weakly. "Get a lot of heavy breathing calls, do you?"
Ianto harrumphed. "Only from you right now. First you don't interrupt my babbling, then you pant over the line like a pervert. Your telephone etiquette is rather disappointing, Harkness."
A chuckle broke free, surprising Jack. "Sorry."
"Well…" Ianto made a show of giving it some thought. "I suppose you're forgiven this time; seeing as you are my employer."
"You're too kind. Well, what would you have me say here?"
"Aside from the poor imitation of a canine in summer? Anything."
The lump in his gut eased. Jack giggled. "Okay, what are you wearing?"
"Good God, you've graduated to harassment."
Jack laughed. "Hey, you gave no specifics to the conversation."
Ianto sniffed. "I was hoping for a bit more substance than just knowing what I was wearing."
"Fine, who are you voting for in the elections?"
Ianto groaned. "Even worse. I haven't had the taste for politics since London. Next topic, please."
"You are so pushy," Jack accused lightly. "Fine. Okay, what are you wearing?"
"Again?" Ianto complained half-heartedly. "Besides, you've already seen what I was wearing this morning."
"True, but that was before," Jack teased. "What about right now?"
"Very well, right now, I'm currently sitting in your office with absolutely nothing on."
The brakes screeched so loudly that Ianto heard it on the mobile. The SUV up front slowed to a halt.
"…Jack?" Ianto fairly squeaked.
Jack waved at Owen, who climbed out of the vehicle with a frown. The doctor gestured, "What?" and stood there, scowling as Jack waved him back in.
Ianto was talking rapidly in his ear, probably frantic when Jack didn't answer right away. His words finally filtered into Jack's conscious when they finally started moving again.
"…not even my socks! Still clothed completely and nowhere near your office and-"
"It's all right," Jack interrupted. "It's fine. I uh…had to brake rather unexpectedly. Um…squirrel."
"Squirrel?" Ianto sounded skeptical. "You stopped because of a squirrel?"
Jack bit back the nervous giggle in the back of his throat. "Uh huh."
Ianto hemmed, not quite believing him. "Must be a very large rodent to make you stop so abruptly." Ianto could be heard fidgeting.
"Jack? You know I'm really not…you know…"
Jack pretended to sigh. "No? Darn. I'm telling you, the images I saw-"
"Don't," Ianto yelped. "No need to tell me!"
Jack snickered. "You started it."
Ianto sighed. "Don't remind me," he muttered mournfully. "Can we please talk about something else?"
Jack pouted. "Fine, how about we talk about your current research project?" Jack challenged.
"What proj-oh." Ianto sounded flustered.
Jack chuckled. "I don't know whether I should be flattered or intrigued."
"Neither," Ianto returned crisply. "I was-"
"Curious, I know." Jack smiled tightly. "Just a little extracurricular research."
"Well," Ianto joked wanly. "You know me."
Did he? Or like Suzie, Ianto saw something in those videos she mentioned and thought-Jack's mouth pressed thin. Did it really matter? It was just sex.
"I just wanted to know what I was getting into," Ianto said quietly. "You must think me a fool."
Jack smiled sadly. "A fool is not one of the things you are."
"Suzie…" Ianto hesitated. Jack could hear him take a deep breath. "Suzie thought we were…well, you know."
Jack sighed. "Look, she was trying to-"
"I told her we weren't like that. It was different."
At the 'we', Jack blinked hard.
"Was…" Ianto stopped. "Was I lying to her?"
Was he? Jack touched the earpiece; he imagined it was Ianto's cheek.
"I don't know," Jack confessed. "Do you wish you were lying to her?"
"I wish you would stop answering my questions with a question," Ianto said, exasperatedly. He paused.
"I don't think I want to be lying to her."
"Oh." A warm glow collected in his gut where that ever-present lump was. It shrank and Jack found it easier to breathe around it.
The line fell silent.
The familiar cityscape rose before them.
"Almost there," Jack told him. "Ten minutes."
"I see you on the screen."
Somehow knowing Ianto was watching the screen, keeping an eye on him, even if it wasn't just him, made Jack smile.
"Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"It really doesn't matter," Ianto told him in a soft voice. "Not to me. Only what I see before me."
Jack was at a loss of words. He cleared his throat.
"Almost there," Jack said thickly.
"Good." There was a satisfaction in Ianto's voice that ran deeper than the acknowledgment that they were coming back to base. Jack's hands loosened around the wheel.
"Anything else you want to talk about?" Ianto generously offered.
Suddenly, Jack grinned wickedly.
"Sure…what are you wearing tomorrow?"
"Jack!"
Conclusion
Additional Notes: Many thanks to soullessminion for betaing this chapter. And trtmx for her magic trick that saved my sanity! LOL.