Moving On - 13/18
Title: Moving On
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, references to past Ianto/Lisa
Rating: R
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Some information and events from s1,2. None for s3.
Summary: Lisa is gone, and Ianto is starting to move on with his life, but it isn't always as easy as it sounds.
Author's Note: Sequel to Guilt and Turning Point.
Thanks to: My sister angelzbabe1989 for stepping in as beta, morbid_sparks for all of her support and idea bouncing through the writing of this, and pinkfairy727 for cheerleading even when she doesn't know what happens.
For previous chapters see Master list for this fic
Note #2: Ok, so I know, I'm a day late again. But LJ and I were not getting along very well yesterday afternoon...
Chapter Thirteen
Ianto drifted into wakefulness at the same moment as he realised his neck was killing him. He reached out an arm blindly to grope for his alarm clock and encountered, instead of the bedside cabinet and lamp he’d expected, a solid wall.
He cracked open one eye and realised that the reason for this, and also for the ache that was making itself known right down his back now, was that he wasn’t in his own bed.
It was a few more moments before he realised that where he was was the sofa in the Hub, and several seconds on top of that before a slight movement under him brought it to his attention that he wasn’t alone.
Quite how he’d come to be waking up sprawled on top of Jack on the sofa - fully clothed, no less - took another minute to filter its way through his only semi-awake brain. He remembered sitting here with Jack last night while he told stories of past escapades in the Hub, and then… he must have fallen asleep on him.
He carefully levered himself upright, trying not to disturb Jack, who appeared to be still asleep. He didn’t know if it was that he’d been unsuccessful or if Jack hadn’t really been asleep to start with, but just moments after he twisted to perch on the edge of the sofa instead of Jack, Jack sat up to join him, shaking out shoulders that were clearly little better than Ianto’s.
Ianto rolled his stiff shoulders and lifted his wrist so he could peer blearily at his watch. A little after 7.30, which meant they had a while before any of the others were likely to show up. Time enough to clean up and change into the spare set of clothing he hoped he still had downstairs.
He rolled his head, his neck twinging painfully as he did so. “The next…” he started huskily, breaking off to clear his throat. “The next time we sleep together,” he said, turning his head towards Jack as much as he could without tweaking a sore muscle in his neck. “It is going to be in a proper bed. My neck is going to kill me all day.”
A warm hand landed on the back of his neck a moment later, gently rubbing at the tense muscles. “Next time?” Jack’s voice sounded hopeful.
Ianto groaned deep in his throat as Jack’s fingers manipulated the sore spots of his neck and shoulders. “Mmmm…yeah. Next time.” He closed his eyes and let his head drop back as the tendons loosened. “Perhaps with… oh yes, just there… with a few less clothes too. Next time.”
He knew in the back of his mind that he was being rather forward, but he didn’t see any point in being coy - and Jack didn’t exactly seem to mind.
He was limp and relaxed by the time Jack’s hand disappeared from his neck, replaced for a fraction of a second with his lips before Jack blew out an obvious breath and shifted away from him on the sofa.
“Okay, we both need to go and get cleaned up and changed before the others start to arrive,” he said firmly, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself as much as he was Ianto.
Ianto glanced at his watch again, realising with dismay that Jack was right. “All right,” he breathed. “But first.” He twisted and caught Jack around the back of his neck, winding his fingertips into the ends of his hair. He pulled Jack towards him, joining their lips in a brief but warm kiss, morning breath be damned.
“Good morning,” he said quietly as he drew back. “I just had to do that. And now I’ll go.” He could feel Jack’s eyes on his back - or more likely, he decided, his arse - as he headed down to collect clean clothes and wash up in the communal bathrooms.
There was no one in sight when he re-emerged a while later; evidently none of the rest of the team had arrived yet, and he assumed Jack himself was either still getting ready or had disappeared out for a walk. He wasn’t particularly worried either way.
Dropping his suit jacket over a railing, Ianto headed up to the kitchen area. Slightly annoyingly, just as Jack had predicted the night before, the final panel of the coffee machine slid back into place easily now that he’d had a night’s sleep - even if it had been on a sofa - and was no longer frustrated with it.
Despite his confidence in his own skills, it was with more than a little trepidation that he loaded the beans and flicked the ‘on’ switch. It clicked into its cycle a nervous second later, a little louder than it had been before but still working. Relieved, he set about preparing the rest of the machine so there would be fresh coffee by the time Jack appeared again.
In a flash of perfect timing, the coffee finished, Jack appeared from the hatch under his office and Tosh walked in the door all at the same moment.
A wide smile spread across Jack’s face as he crossed the Hub towards Ianto. “Is that coffee I sense brewing?”
“It is indeed,” he smiled back, noticing that Tosh had dropped her bag and was following Jack up to the kitchen area looking almost as pleased as him.
“I told you you’d get it back on just fine this morning, didn’t I?” Jack said smugly as he came within reach.
Ianto nodded and pulled the milk out of the fridge. “You did,” he admitted, “but if you’re going to gloat about it, then Tosh is getting the first cup.” He doctored it to her liking and reached past Jack to hand it to her.
“Thanks, Ianto,” Tosh replied, humming happily as she took a sip.
“If I say I’m sorry for gloating will you give me a coffee?” Jack said as Ianto prepared another mug.
Ianto looked up and barely withheld a chuckle at the overly-exaggerated contrite look on Jack’s face. “I’ll think about it,” he told him while making sure the second mug was just to Jack’s liking.
“I’m very sorry,” Jack repeated, pouting a little, playful affection warring with a tinge of actual contrition in his eyes. The expression was rather irresistible, and despite the knowledge that Tosh was still right there next to them, Ianto leant forward and pressed a chaste kiss to the protruding lip.
“Okay, okay,” he sighed as he pulled back and handed over the mug. “But only because my shoulders would be agony right now if not for your magic fingers.”
Jack closed his eyes blissfully as he took a long sip from the mug, and there was a squeak from Tosh.
Ianto strongly suspected he knew the cause, but turned away from the preparation of his own cup of coffee to look questioningly at her. “Everything okay, Tosh?” he asked mildly.
Tosh’s gaze switched rapidly between them, a hopeful smile waiting to break free on her lips. “You two,” she started. “Are you actually…?” She raised her eyebrows indicatively.
Ianto shared a momentary glance with Jack and knew they were more or less on the same page about this. Tosh had, after all, been rather instrumental in this finally happening.
Jack sidled closer to him, his free hand coming to rest on the small of Ianto’s back. “Are we actually what?” he asked with a tone of faux-innocence that was utterly ridiculous on him.
Tosh shook her head at them. “You know. You’re…” One hand flailed as she searched for an appropriate word.
“We haven’t actually given it a name, really,” Ianto jumped in, taking pity on her. “But yes, we’re… something. Together.”
A truly happy grin spread across Tosh’s face. “I knew it!” she said triumphantly. “You’ve been getting on far too well for you not to have sorted this out.”
Ianto suspected the tips of his ears might be pinkening slightly as she beamed at them. “Perhaps,” he allowed. “Can you sort of… keep this to yourself for now, though?”
“We will tell Gwen and Owen, just not quite yet,” Jack added when Tosh looked uncertain.
“Of course,” she said softly. “But…”
“We just want to keep it quiet while it’s still so new,” Ianto explained. “And, well, we want to keep it out of work anyway. It’ll start getting too messy if we let the two overlap too much.”
Ianto shot a sidelong glance at Jack as he spoke. They hadn’t technically discussed any of this, but given the pattern they’d already fallen into since that first proper kiss, Ianto thought that Jack would agree. He was relieved to see Jack’s small nod.
“Okay,” Tosh said. “Just…”
She was interrupted when the sirens went off over the cog door, heralding Gwen’s arrival.
Jack swiftly took a small step away from Ianto, spinning on his heel and nodding back at him as if he had just finished a perfectly innocuous conversation. The affectionate crinkle of his eyes wouldn’t be visible from the angle of the entrance.
“Later,” he said, taking what remained of his mug of coffee down to his office. Tosh smiled at him once more and followed Jack down to her desk.
Ianto finished preparing his own cup of coffee and waited. Sure enough, just as he’d expected, Gwen appeared at his side within minutes.
“Ooh, is the coffee machine fixed?” she asked excitedly.
Ianto raised an eyebrow at her; he thought it was fairly obvious that it was. Setting his own cup down on the counter, he poured a cup for Gwen - just in case she needed further convincing.
“You’re a star, Ianto Jones,” she said, wrapping her fingers around the mug.
“Gwen! Ianto!” Jack called up to them. “We can’t waste time waiting for Owen! Meeting, my office, two minutes! We need to find this kid!”
With none of the locations they’d tried the day before having proved useful, they’d set about digging a little deeper, and attempting to find any other known associates that they could try in their search.
They’d been sifting through what scant information they had for over an hour before Ianto noticed quite how quickly time was passing - and how late it was with, as of yet, no sign of Owen.
“I know that this is Owen we’re talking about,” he ventured. “But it’s half past ten. He’s usually here by now, especially if there’s something going on.”
Jack frowned, taking a look at his watch as if he suspected Ianto of misleading him about exactly how late it was. “I hope he hasn’t done anything stupid,” he said quietly, almost under his breath. “I’ll just…”
Jack was interrupted when his phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket and looked at the screen before answering; whoever it was, the name that had come up clearly surprised him a little.
“Owen,” he said overly brightly, answering that question. “So nice of you to let us know you’re still alive.”
He paused, and Ianto could hear the faint noises from the other end of the line that told him Owen was saying something. Something that made Jack sit up straighter. “You’ve what? All right, just stay there. Don’t go anywhere, and don’t let him go anywhere either. We’ll be there shortly.”
He hung up. “Owen’s got the kid,” he announced authoritatively, standing up. “Let’s go see what he knows.” He grabbed the transducer device from his desk and tossed it to Gwen. “We’ll take this with us; jog his memory.”
Ianto hesitated for just a moment before following the lead of Tosh and Gwen and standing up to follow him. He wasn’t entirely sure if Jack had intended to include him in the statement or not, but he was going with them whether he had or not. It was high time he got over this fear of leaving the Hub on a case-related expedition, he told himself. He’d never let fear rule him before, and he’d been letting it do so for too long now.
And it wasn’t as if they were headed out to meet some ferocious creature. This was a nineteen year old kid. Nothing to worry about.
He grabbed his jacket from the railings where he’d left it - it wasn’t quite cold enough that day to need his coat as well - and started to follow the others down to the garage.
Jack let Gwen and Tosh outstrip him, pausing and turning back to face Ianto.
“I’m coming with you,” Ianto said before Jack had a chance to say anything against the idea. “I need to get over this ridiculous phobia about going into the field before it gets any more out of control.” He gave Jack a steady look, despite the butterflies that had appeared in his belly as the reality set in.
Jack reached out as if to grab him before catching himself and clenching his fists at his sides. “Okay,” he said tensely. “But...” Ianto could see Jack’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard. “Just be careful, all right? I… Don’t get hurt.” If anything, he looked more nervous about Ianto leaving the Hub with them than Ianto himself felt.
They pulled up outside a rather disreputable pub quarter of an hour later, the Sunday morning traffic proving heavier than expected. They found Owen sitting at a table on the far side of the bar with a scruffy looking youth, two glasses on the table in front of them. They appeared to be mid-conversation.
“Well, this looks nice and cosy,” Jack announced as they approached. “I hope you’re holding out for flowers,” he told the young man, who just looked confused as the four of them pulled chairs around the table.
“Okay, what’s going on?” he asked, clearly nervous at having the attention of all five of them focussed on him. “If this is about them dodgy fags I swear I dunno what happened to them. I just…”
The torrent of words came to an abrupt halt when Gwen handed Jack the device and he, in turn, set it on the table in front of them. Ianto thought he looked even more scared than he had a few seconds previously.
“I… uhh…”
“You might like to know that we’re probably the only ones you can actually tell about this,” Jack said, more gently than Ianto would have expected. Clearly he had noticed the barely concealed terror on Bernie’s face too.
“Where did you get it?” Ianto prompted when Bernie looked blank and stayed silent.
“Me and a mate was using this lockup down on Moira Street to… well, we was using it, anyway. Used to belong to this old guy, bit soft in the head. He had all sorts of rubbish in there. We chucked most of it, but there’s some left.” He gestured jerkily towards the device. “Found that in this biscuit tin with old coins and weird rocks and stuff. I took it cos I thought it might be worth something, you know? Like on one of them TV shows they have on in the mornings, Cash in the Attic and that.”
Ianto exchanged a slightly incredulous look with Tosh as Owen poorly stifled a laugh. Just the idea…
“Hey, you never know,” Bernie protested. “So I took it home with me, and then that thing turns on and starts lighting up and stuff.” He leant forward across the table. “It makes you see stuff. People. Real people. Real things, too. I was down the bay one night and it lit up and I seen this woman with a bundle all wrapped up. It was dark and she was creeping around, putting it in the water all secret, like.”
Ianto had a horrible feeling he knew where this story was going.
Bernie shook his head and sat up a bit. “I was weird, cos it was like I was her. I knew that she was scared, that she knew what she was doing was wrong. I didn’t even have to see to know it was her baby what was all wrapped up. Dead. No one even knew about it. She just put it in the water and ran away.”
Ianto suppressed a shudder at the thought of someone doing that, and from the corner of his eye he could see Gwen doing the same.
“Then I realised, I knew her,” Bernie continued. “She’s old now, but she lives up by the church. So I goes up to see her and I told her what I seen, and she gave me money not to tell anyone.”
“You blackmailed her?” Owen asked.
Bernie shook his head vigorously. “No, no I didn’t. She offered. Seriously, I’ve seen things you wouldn’t even believe. There’s that old bridge on Penfro Street. I saw a man, following this girl home from a dance…”
Owen interrupted him. “Yeah, I know. I saw it.” He shook his head. “Jack, I don’t think he knows anything else.”
Jack nodded and scooped up the device from the table, slipping it into his pocket. “Yeah, I agree. Let’s go.”
They all started to get up.
“Been nice meeting you, Bernie,” Jack said mildly. Ianto turned to leave, Gwen just in front of him.
“Hey! Oi!” Bernie called from behind them. “You can’t just take that, that’s mine!” Ianto and Gwen both ignored it, carrying on walking. Ianto could feel Tosh just behind him, doing the same.
“So you don’t want the other half, then?” Bernie cried out. That stopped them. Ianto turned around to look back at him.
“The other half?” Jack asked demandingly.
Bernie nodded. “Yeah, it’s back at my place.”
Ianto could see Jack’s shoulders heave. “All right, guys,” he declared. “Looks like we’re escorting young Bernie here home.”
Bernie’s house, when they reached it, was ramshackle and dirty but liveable…just about. Ianto wasn’t actually a clean freak, despite what the others occasionally said, but he had to fight the urge to start tidying the place up.
Even in the disarray, Bernie found them the tin almost the moment they came through the front door.
Jack pried the lid off and pulled out another section of the device that looked almost identical to the first. “The other half,” he said decidedly. He pulled the first half from his pocket and handed both parts to Tosh.
Gwen took the rest of the tin and rifled through it. “Weird rocks,” she said, holding one up. “Foreign coins…”
Jack glanced over. “Alien rocks. Alien coins. That stuff washes through the Rift all the time. I bet a lot of people have some and don’t even know it’s alien.”
Ianto watched as Tosh fiddled with the two halves of the device, trying to fit them together.
“Bernie, was this in two pieces when you found it?” Jack asked the youth.
Bernie looked like he was about to answer, but was interrupted when Tosh cried out in triumph. “I’ve got it! Just like clicking Lego together.”
Ianto took a step closer to Tosh, curious, but he noticed from the corner of his eye that Bernie had started to look even more nervous than before.
Jack and the others joined Ianto next to Tosh a few moments later, Jack taking the assembled item and looking closely at it for a second or two. Gwen tugged it from his fingers after a minute to have a look herself.
Owen was the first to take a step back, tugging the zip on his jacket a little higher and making for the door. “Come on, you lot,” he said, nodding towards the exit.
Jack nodded. Tosh picked up the tin that Gwen had abandoned on the table. “We’ll just take this with us, too,” she smiled at Bernie before following Owen out of the door.
“So you’re not going to arrest me or anything?” Bernie asked Jack, picking at his fingers.
“We’re not the police,” Jack said simply.
“But I robbed them!” Bernie protested. Ianto wondered for a moment if he actually wanted to be arrested.
“Yes,” Jack agreed. “I know.”
“And now you’re robbing me.”
Jack shrugged. “So call the cops.” With that, he swept out of the door. Ianto hurried to follow him, Gwen behind him.
They were a ways down the street before they realised Gwen wasn’t right behind them, when she yelled out to them. “Jack! Jack!”
They all twisted back to see what the problem was. Gwen had the device in her hands and she appeared to have become transfixed by it.
It took Ianto a few seconds for it to click quite what was going on, by which point Jack was already running towards her, crying out to stop her. Along with Tosh and Owen, he took chase.
By the time they reached her, Gwen was clearly becoming aware of her surroundings again, but she looked terrified.
Jack pulled the machine away from her, shaking his head. “What were you thinking, Gwen?”
Gwen didn’t seem to have heard Jack’s words, as she stared right past him. “Oh God,” she whispered. “He’s going to die.”
Chapter Fourteen
As always, comments and concrit are loved!
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, references to past Ianto/Lisa
Rating: R
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Some information and events from s1,2. None for s3.
Summary: Lisa is gone, and Ianto is starting to move on with his life, but it isn't always as easy as it sounds.
Author's Note: Sequel to Guilt and Turning Point.
Thanks to: My sister angelzbabe1989 for stepping in as beta, morbid_sparks for all of her support and idea bouncing through the writing of this, and pinkfairy727 for cheerleading even when she doesn't know what happens.
For previous chapters see Master list for this fic
Note #2: Ok, so I know, I'm a day late again. But LJ and I were not getting along very well yesterday afternoon...
Chapter Thirteen
Ianto drifted into wakefulness at the same moment as he realised his neck was killing him. He reached out an arm blindly to grope for his alarm clock and encountered, instead of the bedside cabinet and lamp he’d expected, a solid wall.
He cracked open one eye and realised that the reason for this, and also for the ache that was making itself known right down his back now, was that he wasn’t in his own bed.
It was a few more moments before he realised that where he was was the sofa in the Hub, and several seconds on top of that before a slight movement under him brought it to his attention that he wasn’t alone.
Quite how he’d come to be waking up sprawled on top of Jack on the sofa - fully clothed, no less - took another minute to filter its way through his only semi-awake brain. He remembered sitting here with Jack last night while he told stories of past escapades in the Hub, and then… he must have fallen asleep on him.
He carefully levered himself upright, trying not to disturb Jack, who appeared to be still asleep. He didn’t know if it was that he’d been unsuccessful or if Jack hadn’t really been asleep to start with, but just moments after he twisted to perch on the edge of the sofa instead of Jack, Jack sat up to join him, shaking out shoulders that were clearly little better than Ianto’s.
Ianto rolled his stiff shoulders and lifted his wrist so he could peer blearily at his watch. A little after 7.30, which meant they had a while before any of the others were likely to show up. Time enough to clean up and change into the spare set of clothing he hoped he still had downstairs.
He rolled his head, his neck twinging painfully as he did so. “The next…” he started huskily, breaking off to clear his throat. “The next time we sleep together,” he said, turning his head towards Jack as much as he could without tweaking a sore muscle in his neck. “It is going to be in a proper bed. My neck is going to kill me all day.”
A warm hand landed on the back of his neck a moment later, gently rubbing at the tense muscles. “Next time?” Jack’s voice sounded hopeful.
Ianto groaned deep in his throat as Jack’s fingers manipulated the sore spots of his neck and shoulders. “Mmmm…yeah. Next time.” He closed his eyes and let his head drop back as the tendons loosened. “Perhaps with… oh yes, just there… with a few less clothes too. Next time.”
He knew in the back of his mind that he was being rather forward, but he didn’t see any point in being coy - and Jack didn’t exactly seem to mind.
He was limp and relaxed by the time Jack’s hand disappeared from his neck, replaced for a fraction of a second with his lips before Jack blew out an obvious breath and shifted away from him on the sofa.
“Okay, we both need to go and get cleaned up and changed before the others start to arrive,” he said firmly, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself as much as he was Ianto.
Ianto glanced at his watch again, realising with dismay that Jack was right. “All right,” he breathed. “But first.” He twisted and caught Jack around the back of his neck, winding his fingertips into the ends of his hair. He pulled Jack towards him, joining their lips in a brief but warm kiss, morning breath be damned.
“Good morning,” he said quietly as he drew back. “I just had to do that. And now I’ll go.” He could feel Jack’s eyes on his back - or more likely, he decided, his arse - as he headed down to collect clean clothes and wash up in the communal bathrooms.
There was no one in sight when he re-emerged a while later; evidently none of the rest of the team had arrived yet, and he assumed Jack himself was either still getting ready or had disappeared out for a walk. He wasn’t particularly worried either way.
Dropping his suit jacket over a railing, Ianto headed up to the kitchen area. Slightly annoyingly, just as Jack had predicted the night before, the final panel of the coffee machine slid back into place easily now that he’d had a night’s sleep - even if it had been on a sofa - and was no longer frustrated with it.
Despite his confidence in his own skills, it was with more than a little trepidation that he loaded the beans and flicked the ‘on’ switch. It clicked into its cycle a nervous second later, a little louder than it had been before but still working. Relieved, he set about preparing the rest of the machine so there would be fresh coffee by the time Jack appeared again.
In a flash of perfect timing, the coffee finished, Jack appeared from the hatch under his office and Tosh walked in the door all at the same moment.
A wide smile spread across Jack’s face as he crossed the Hub towards Ianto. “Is that coffee I sense brewing?”
“It is indeed,” he smiled back, noticing that Tosh had dropped her bag and was following Jack up to the kitchen area looking almost as pleased as him.
“I told you you’d get it back on just fine this morning, didn’t I?” Jack said smugly as he came within reach.
Ianto nodded and pulled the milk out of the fridge. “You did,” he admitted, “but if you’re going to gloat about it, then Tosh is getting the first cup.” He doctored it to her liking and reached past Jack to hand it to her.
“Thanks, Ianto,” Tosh replied, humming happily as she took a sip.
“If I say I’m sorry for gloating will you give me a coffee?” Jack said as Ianto prepared another mug.
Ianto looked up and barely withheld a chuckle at the overly-exaggerated contrite look on Jack’s face. “I’ll think about it,” he told him while making sure the second mug was just to Jack’s liking.
“I’m very sorry,” Jack repeated, pouting a little, playful affection warring with a tinge of actual contrition in his eyes. The expression was rather irresistible, and despite the knowledge that Tosh was still right there next to them, Ianto leant forward and pressed a chaste kiss to the protruding lip.
“Okay, okay,” he sighed as he pulled back and handed over the mug. “But only because my shoulders would be agony right now if not for your magic fingers.”
Jack closed his eyes blissfully as he took a long sip from the mug, and there was a squeak from Tosh.
Ianto strongly suspected he knew the cause, but turned away from the preparation of his own cup of coffee to look questioningly at her. “Everything okay, Tosh?” he asked mildly.
Tosh’s gaze switched rapidly between them, a hopeful smile waiting to break free on her lips. “You two,” she started. “Are you actually…?” She raised her eyebrows indicatively.
Ianto shared a momentary glance with Jack and knew they were more or less on the same page about this. Tosh had, after all, been rather instrumental in this finally happening.
Jack sidled closer to him, his free hand coming to rest on the small of Ianto’s back. “Are we actually what?” he asked with a tone of faux-innocence that was utterly ridiculous on him.
Tosh shook her head at them. “You know. You’re…” One hand flailed as she searched for an appropriate word.
“We haven’t actually given it a name, really,” Ianto jumped in, taking pity on her. “But yes, we’re… something. Together.”
A truly happy grin spread across Tosh’s face. “I knew it!” she said triumphantly. “You’ve been getting on far too well for you not to have sorted this out.”
Ianto suspected the tips of his ears might be pinkening slightly as she beamed at them. “Perhaps,” he allowed. “Can you sort of… keep this to yourself for now, though?”
“We will tell Gwen and Owen, just not quite yet,” Jack added when Tosh looked uncertain.
“Of course,” she said softly. “But…”
“We just want to keep it quiet while it’s still so new,” Ianto explained. “And, well, we want to keep it out of work anyway. It’ll start getting too messy if we let the two overlap too much.”
Ianto shot a sidelong glance at Jack as he spoke. They hadn’t technically discussed any of this, but given the pattern they’d already fallen into since that first proper kiss, Ianto thought that Jack would agree. He was relieved to see Jack’s small nod.
“Okay,” Tosh said. “Just…”
She was interrupted when the sirens went off over the cog door, heralding Gwen’s arrival.
Jack swiftly took a small step away from Ianto, spinning on his heel and nodding back at him as if he had just finished a perfectly innocuous conversation. The affectionate crinkle of his eyes wouldn’t be visible from the angle of the entrance.
“Later,” he said, taking what remained of his mug of coffee down to his office. Tosh smiled at him once more and followed Jack down to her desk.
Ianto finished preparing his own cup of coffee and waited. Sure enough, just as he’d expected, Gwen appeared at his side within minutes.
“Ooh, is the coffee machine fixed?” she asked excitedly.
Ianto raised an eyebrow at her; he thought it was fairly obvious that it was. Setting his own cup down on the counter, he poured a cup for Gwen - just in case she needed further convincing.
“You’re a star, Ianto Jones,” she said, wrapping her fingers around the mug.
“Gwen! Ianto!” Jack called up to them. “We can’t waste time waiting for Owen! Meeting, my office, two minutes! We need to find this kid!”
With none of the locations they’d tried the day before having proved useful, they’d set about digging a little deeper, and attempting to find any other known associates that they could try in their search.
They’d been sifting through what scant information they had for over an hour before Ianto noticed quite how quickly time was passing - and how late it was with, as of yet, no sign of Owen.
“I know that this is Owen we’re talking about,” he ventured. “But it’s half past ten. He’s usually here by now, especially if there’s something going on.”
Jack frowned, taking a look at his watch as if he suspected Ianto of misleading him about exactly how late it was. “I hope he hasn’t done anything stupid,” he said quietly, almost under his breath. “I’ll just…”
Jack was interrupted when his phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket and looked at the screen before answering; whoever it was, the name that had come up clearly surprised him a little.
“Owen,” he said overly brightly, answering that question. “So nice of you to let us know you’re still alive.”
He paused, and Ianto could hear the faint noises from the other end of the line that told him Owen was saying something. Something that made Jack sit up straighter. “You’ve what? All right, just stay there. Don’t go anywhere, and don’t let him go anywhere either. We’ll be there shortly.”
He hung up. “Owen’s got the kid,” he announced authoritatively, standing up. “Let’s go see what he knows.” He grabbed the transducer device from his desk and tossed it to Gwen. “We’ll take this with us; jog his memory.”
Ianto hesitated for just a moment before following the lead of Tosh and Gwen and standing up to follow him. He wasn’t entirely sure if Jack had intended to include him in the statement or not, but he was going with them whether he had or not. It was high time he got over this fear of leaving the Hub on a case-related expedition, he told himself. He’d never let fear rule him before, and he’d been letting it do so for too long now.
And it wasn’t as if they were headed out to meet some ferocious creature. This was a nineteen year old kid. Nothing to worry about.
He grabbed his jacket from the railings where he’d left it - it wasn’t quite cold enough that day to need his coat as well - and started to follow the others down to the garage.
Jack let Gwen and Tosh outstrip him, pausing and turning back to face Ianto.
“I’m coming with you,” Ianto said before Jack had a chance to say anything against the idea. “I need to get over this ridiculous phobia about going into the field before it gets any more out of control.” He gave Jack a steady look, despite the butterflies that had appeared in his belly as the reality set in.
Jack reached out as if to grab him before catching himself and clenching his fists at his sides. “Okay,” he said tensely. “But...” Ianto could see Jack’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard. “Just be careful, all right? I… Don’t get hurt.” If anything, he looked more nervous about Ianto leaving the Hub with them than Ianto himself felt.
They pulled up outside a rather disreputable pub quarter of an hour later, the Sunday morning traffic proving heavier than expected. They found Owen sitting at a table on the far side of the bar with a scruffy looking youth, two glasses on the table in front of them. They appeared to be mid-conversation.
“Well, this looks nice and cosy,” Jack announced as they approached. “I hope you’re holding out for flowers,” he told the young man, who just looked confused as the four of them pulled chairs around the table.
“Okay, what’s going on?” he asked, clearly nervous at having the attention of all five of them focussed on him. “If this is about them dodgy fags I swear I dunno what happened to them. I just…”
The torrent of words came to an abrupt halt when Gwen handed Jack the device and he, in turn, set it on the table in front of them. Ianto thought he looked even more scared than he had a few seconds previously.
“I… uhh…”
“You might like to know that we’re probably the only ones you can actually tell about this,” Jack said, more gently than Ianto would have expected. Clearly he had noticed the barely concealed terror on Bernie’s face too.
“Where did you get it?” Ianto prompted when Bernie looked blank and stayed silent.
“Me and a mate was using this lockup down on Moira Street to… well, we was using it, anyway. Used to belong to this old guy, bit soft in the head. He had all sorts of rubbish in there. We chucked most of it, but there’s some left.” He gestured jerkily towards the device. “Found that in this biscuit tin with old coins and weird rocks and stuff. I took it cos I thought it might be worth something, you know? Like on one of them TV shows they have on in the mornings, Cash in the Attic and that.”
Ianto exchanged a slightly incredulous look with Tosh as Owen poorly stifled a laugh. Just the idea…
“Hey, you never know,” Bernie protested. “So I took it home with me, and then that thing turns on and starts lighting up and stuff.” He leant forward across the table. “It makes you see stuff. People. Real people. Real things, too. I was down the bay one night and it lit up and I seen this woman with a bundle all wrapped up. It was dark and she was creeping around, putting it in the water all secret, like.”
Ianto had a horrible feeling he knew where this story was going.
Bernie shook his head and sat up a bit. “I was weird, cos it was like I was her. I knew that she was scared, that she knew what she was doing was wrong. I didn’t even have to see to know it was her baby what was all wrapped up. Dead. No one even knew about it. She just put it in the water and ran away.”
Ianto suppressed a shudder at the thought of someone doing that, and from the corner of his eye he could see Gwen doing the same.
“Then I realised, I knew her,” Bernie continued. “She’s old now, but she lives up by the church. So I goes up to see her and I told her what I seen, and she gave me money not to tell anyone.”
“You blackmailed her?” Owen asked.
Bernie shook his head vigorously. “No, no I didn’t. She offered. Seriously, I’ve seen things you wouldn’t even believe. There’s that old bridge on Penfro Street. I saw a man, following this girl home from a dance…”
Owen interrupted him. “Yeah, I know. I saw it.” He shook his head. “Jack, I don’t think he knows anything else.”
Jack nodded and scooped up the device from the table, slipping it into his pocket. “Yeah, I agree. Let’s go.”
They all started to get up.
“Been nice meeting you, Bernie,” Jack said mildly. Ianto turned to leave, Gwen just in front of him.
“Hey! Oi!” Bernie called from behind them. “You can’t just take that, that’s mine!” Ianto and Gwen both ignored it, carrying on walking. Ianto could feel Tosh just behind him, doing the same.
“So you don’t want the other half, then?” Bernie cried out. That stopped them. Ianto turned around to look back at him.
“The other half?” Jack asked demandingly.
Bernie nodded. “Yeah, it’s back at my place.”
Ianto could see Jack’s shoulders heave. “All right, guys,” he declared. “Looks like we’re escorting young Bernie here home.”
Bernie’s house, when they reached it, was ramshackle and dirty but liveable…just about. Ianto wasn’t actually a clean freak, despite what the others occasionally said, but he had to fight the urge to start tidying the place up.
Even in the disarray, Bernie found them the tin almost the moment they came through the front door.
Jack pried the lid off and pulled out another section of the device that looked almost identical to the first. “The other half,” he said decidedly. He pulled the first half from his pocket and handed both parts to Tosh.
Gwen took the rest of the tin and rifled through it. “Weird rocks,” she said, holding one up. “Foreign coins…”
Jack glanced over. “Alien rocks. Alien coins. That stuff washes through the Rift all the time. I bet a lot of people have some and don’t even know it’s alien.”
Ianto watched as Tosh fiddled with the two halves of the device, trying to fit them together.
“Bernie, was this in two pieces when you found it?” Jack asked the youth.
Bernie looked like he was about to answer, but was interrupted when Tosh cried out in triumph. “I’ve got it! Just like clicking Lego together.”
Ianto took a step closer to Tosh, curious, but he noticed from the corner of his eye that Bernie had started to look even more nervous than before.
Jack and the others joined Ianto next to Tosh a few moments later, Jack taking the assembled item and looking closely at it for a second or two. Gwen tugged it from his fingers after a minute to have a look herself.
Owen was the first to take a step back, tugging the zip on his jacket a little higher and making for the door. “Come on, you lot,” he said, nodding towards the exit.
Jack nodded. Tosh picked up the tin that Gwen had abandoned on the table. “We’ll just take this with us, too,” she smiled at Bernie before following Owen out of the door.
“So you’re not going to arrest me or anything?” Bernie asked Jack, picking at his fingers.
“We’re not the police,” Jack said simply.
“But I robbed them!” Bernie protested. Ianto wondered for a moment if he actually wanted to be arrested.
“Yes,” Jack agreed. “I know.”
“And now you’re robbing me.”
Jack shrugged. “So call the cops.” With that, he swept out of the door. Ianto hurried to follow him, Gwen behind him.
They were a ways down the street before they realised Gwen wasn’t right behind them, when she yelled out to them. “Jack! Jack!”
They all twisted back to see what the problem was. Gwen had the device in her hands and she appeared to have become transfixed by it.
It took Ianto a few seconds for it to click quite what was going on, by which point Jack was already running towards her, crying out to stop her. Along with Tosh and Owen, he took chase.
By the time they reached her, Gwen was clearly becoming aware of her surroundings again, but she looked terrified.
Jack pulled the machine away from her, shaking his head. “What were you thinking, Gwen?”
Gwen didn’t seem to have heard Jack’s words, as she stared right past him. “Oh God,” she whispered. “He’s going to die.”
Chapter Fourteen
As always, comments and concrit are loved!