Hidden Identity - Chapter 10
Title: Hidden Identity- Chapter 10/13 + Epilogue
Author: Iantojjackh
Rating: PG
Summary: Jack and Ianto have returned to Earth and brought the 456 with them. It's just another day in the adventures of Jack and Ianto and what happens when someone finds out Ianto is alive?
Characters: Jack Harkness, Alonso Frame, Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams, Rhiannon Davies, Ianto Jones, Tenth Doctor, Twelfth Doctor,
Spoilers: CoE compliant fix-it and The End of Time (DW)
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me. I just borrowed them for a short spell. I wish I owned them so there wouldn't be the need to write fix-its like this.
Word Count: ~26k
Beta: timelordshines
Notes: Merry Christmas to all. I hope you are still enjoying this story. There are only 3 chapters left and then the epilogue. I wanted to thank all my readers for their support, without you none of this would be possible.
Chapter 10
"Damn car alarm," Rhys sighed as the blaring sound went into its fifth minute. "That's going to wake Anwen pretty soon." He went to the window to see what car was causing all the noise and if he recognised it to know which neighbour to tell off. He recognised the car, but it did not belong to any neighbour. "Gwennie, isn't that..."
Gwen panicked when she saw Rhiannon's idling car was the source of the incessant honking in front of her house and she grabbed Rhys to go and check on her.
Rhiannon was clearly slumped over the wheel and Gwen’s heart stopped, assuming the worst had happened. Gwen threw the car door opened and immediately checked for a pulse and was very relieved to find one.
"Rhi, can you hear me?" Gwen tried to rouse the unconscious woman.
"Bloody bastard," Rhiannon slurred the words so they were almost unrecognisable. She was still mostly unconscious and tried to fight her way out of the fog.
Rhys looked worried and turned to look at his wife who looked murderous rather than worried. "What is it?"
"I so hope I'm not wrong with this," Gwen sighed as she shook her head and closed her eyes. She had a sick feeling that she knew exactly what was going on here and she hoped to everything that she was wrong.
"What is it? What's going on?"
"Help me get her inside." Gwen snapped, not angry with Rhys but beyond angry if she was right about Rhiannon being Retconed.
It was difficult to manoeuvre, but Gwen and Rhys finally got Rhiannon inside, settling her on the couch.
"Shouldn't we call 999?" Rhys asked the obvious question. Something was wrong with their friend and a trained professional would be able to handle everything.
"You...like dad." Rhiannon slurred, opening her eyes slightly.
"She's been retconned. " Gwen said without any doubt. It was clear to her what was going on and there was only one other person with access to the amnesia pill. "I'm going to kill Jack. What the hell is he thinking?"
"No. Jack good. He's not bad. He loves Ianto. No mad at him." The semi-conscious woman tried to string together something that made sense and hoped Gwen and Rhys would understand. "No hurt him. He happy. He nice. Be nice to him. He was broken. Now he better."
"Can Retcon do that?" Rhys asked, noticing the changed attitude to toward Jack. Earlier she was ready to claw his eyes out and now Rhiannon was defending Jack. It was as if she was brainwashed.
"Given in the right dosage it can be used to also plant suggestions, like Jack did at our wedding." Gwen's face flared with anger and she never thought Jack could stoop this low. "He's gone too far."
"Leave him alone!"
Every time Gwen tried to say something negative about Jack, Rhiannon would defend him and get belligerent. After a half hour, Gwen finally gave up knowing she was not going to get anywhere and it was best to let her sleep off the rest of the Retcon effects before attempting to talk about what happened.
Rhys helped Rhiannon to a spare bedroom while Gwen called Johnny to let him know his wife was spending the night and not to worry.
That left Gwen to seethe for the rest of the night. She knew Jack would not pick up any calls to his room, expecting it to be her to read him the riot act and going to the hotel was not an option. So all she could do was let her anger stew and bubble and hope it did not boil over before she could confront the Captain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gwen could not sleep as she was still beyond furious with Jack for retconing Rhiannon and now the smug bastard had pulled a disappearing act. It was the sign of a guilty conscious that he would not face them.
"I'm disappointed in you, Gwen."
The voice made the pregnant woman jump. "Excuse me?" Gwen was sure she was dreaming and she pinched herself to wake up.
"Why are you being so hard on Jack?" Ianto made sure he stayed in the shadows, revealing enough to be just a shadowy figure.
"This is not happening." Gwen rubbed her eyes. "You're not here. I'm dreaming. "
"Perhaps you are and I'm a manifestation of your guilt or maybe some residual rift energy let me come back to let me tell you to not be mad at Jack." This was Cardiff after all and the impossible was always impossible.
"You aren't mad at him? He off and married the first space whore that he found. You should be the one he's married to."
"He and I would never have worked with the way things were going before I died. We were destined to fail. Jack is happy and that's all that matters. He found a second chance at true happiness. Don't ruin that for Jack or you will lose him for good. He's not staying here forever. All I ever wanted is for Jack to be happy and he finally has that."
"But I don't think it's right what he's doing."
"This isn't about you. After all the pain Jack has been through, he deserves to be happy. Let him be happy...as a favour to me."
"Why are you visiting me and not him? Do you know he retconned your sister tonight? She's pregnant. Having a boy in four months. What if it harmed the baby."
Ianto winced, feeling guilty Jack got the blame for what was his idea. "Jack has his reasons. He would never do anything that might harm the baby. Jack deserves to be happy. Let him be happy. His marriage is a good thing for him. He was on a dangerous path until he met his husband." Ianto was satisfied that he had gotten through to Gwen the best he could and activated his holographic chip and began the next phase of his plan.
"I refuse to believe it." Gwen snapped.
"Who were you talking to?" Ianto in Alonso persona stepped out of the shadows. This was the only way he could make a clean exit.
Gwen was flummoxed and frightened at the sudden appearance of Alonso. "What are you doing here? How did you get in here?" She did not want to seem crazy and ask if he had seen and heard a ghost or whatever it was.
"I was looking for Jack. Have you seen him?"
"No why would I? I haven't seen or heard from him since he ran out to find you." Gwen inched over to find the nearest knickknack she could make into a weapon.
"He never came back to the hotel. What did you say to him, other than I shouldn't be the one he is married to. You aren't going to give up on that one are you?" Alonso sighed as if annoyed she was getting in the way of his happiness with Jack. "I just heard you say it."
"I...I didn't say anything like that."
"Don't lie. You were carrying on a conversation with no one. You called me a space whore. I’m guessing you were imagining you were talking to the lover Jack lost, since you said that he should be the one Jack was married to." Ianto said evenly and without emotion.
Gwen's mouth floundered as she tried to come up with an excuse but realised that she could not hide what she had been doing, "You didn't see or hear anything?"
"No," Ianto shook his head. "Maybe your subconscious is feeling guilty for the way you've treated Jack. I might not be from this planet, but I think the same rules of friendship apply where I'm from and that is a friend should be happy for another friend when they find happiness. I know you are never going to like me, but perhaps for Jack's sake can you maybe at least tolerate me. Jack and I are only staying until the 456 are dealt with. After that he will be gone forever. You don't want to end things on bad terms do you?" Ianto only prayed that this would work. He'd hate to leave things on bad terms, but Gwen was as stubborn as the Welsh came.
Gwen clenched her jaw, hating that the man that she despised was right. "How can you defend him knowing he doesn't love you?"
Ianto smiled and shrugged. "It takes a special kind of person to love Jack. To truly love him for everything he is and not love him for the idolised hero most see him as. I know how broken Jack was when I first met him on that cruiser. Jack is just starting to see that it was all right to be happy again and you had to lay this guilt trip on him. What kind of friend does that?" Ianto knew he was putting it on thick, but that was the only way to get through to Gwen sometimes.
"Who do you think you are? You don't know me. I've known Jack a lot longer than you have, Alonso. I know what's best for Jack and it's not you." Gwen clenched her fists, unable to see any truth other than her own.
"I think the only one who knows what's best for Jack is Jack. Perhaps you should trust his judgment. Did you stop to ask Jack what he wanted? There's a lot about me you don't know and if you knew the truth you would not be treating Jack like you are. Did your dead friend have any sage advice for you in your imaginary conversation just now?" Ianto asked, hating that he had to do this, but he did not want to leave Earth with Jack and Gwen mad at each other.
"That is none of your business." Gwen replied snidely. She was not going to give Alonso the benefit of knowing he was right and that the apparition of Ianto had been right too. She had to let Jack be happy even if that meant he had to move on from Ianto. "I think you should leave now. You break Jack's heart and I'll break you."
"Duly noted." Ianto quirked a small smile. "I should see if Jack returned to the hotel." Ianto made his exit and headed toward where Jack was waiting in the car.
"How did it go?" Jack asked as his husband entered the car. The worry was written all over Jack’s face. He reached up and deactivated the holograph, this being a conversation he needed to have with Ianto.
"I'm not sure if it was Ianto or Alonso or maybe a combination of them both that got through to her. But I'm sure it worked. I really had to get her to see that she did not want you to leave with her mad at you. She will never like Alonso and I'll just have to live with that." That hurt Ianto, but at least Gwen would not hate both of them. "It makes it easier to deal with her hating him because she thinks Alonso is replacing me. It's kind of touching when you think about it. At least Gwen won't stay mad at you." Ianto allowed a small smile.
"Now we go back to celebrate." Jack put the car in gear and drove back to the hotel with haste. He was hornier than he had been in a long time and that was saying something since the past year they were in a perpetual state of arousal . Proper time and place did not register with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The lift ride to their twentieth floor room felt like an eternity for Jack and Ianto and neither man could keep their hands to themselves.
"You were absolutely brilliant," Jack was proud of his husband for the flawless execution of his plan.
"We have to wait and see if it worked." Ianto felt guilty for deceiving Gwen and drugging his sister, but it had to be done.
"We need to celebrate." Jack whispered before he attacked the back of Ianto's neck as the other man now fumbled with the key card to get into the room. Jack deactivated the chip with a well placed flick of his tongue.
It took a dozen attempts before Ianto's successfully put the card into a slot. "You never have that problem slipping your card into my slot," Jack taunted as he plucked the card from Ianto's hand and put it into the slot so the lights could turn on. "See that's how it's done." Jack paled when he saw someone sitting on the edge of their bed, dressed in dark jeans and a plum coloured jumper.
To be continued... Chapter 11
A/n: interesting place to leave today, no?
Previous Chapters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Author: Iantojjackh
Rating: PG
Summary: Jack and Ianto have returned to Earth and brought the 456 with them. It's just another day in the adventures of Jack and Ianto and what happens when someone finds out Ianto is alive?
Characters: Jack Harkness, Alonso Frame, Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams, Rhiannon Davies, Ianto Jones, Tenth Doctor, Twelfth Doctor,
Spoilers: CoE compliant fix-it and The End of Time (DW)
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me. I just borrowed them for a short spell. I wish I owned them so there wouldn't be the need to write fix-its like this.
Word Count: ~26k
Beta: timelordshines
Notes: Merry Christmas to all. I hope you are still enjoying this story. There are only 3 chapters left and then the epilogue. I wanted to thank all my readers for their support, without you none of this would be possible.
Chapter 10
"Damn car alarm," Rhys sighed as the blaring sound went into its fifth minute. "That's going to wake Anwen pretty soon." He went to the window to see what car was causing all the noise and if he recognised it to know which neighbour to tell off. He recognised the car, but it did not belong to any neighbour. "Gwennie, isn't that..."
Gwen panicked when she saw Rhiannon's idling car was the source of the incessant honking in front of her house and she grabbed Rhys to go and check on her.
Rhiannon was clearly slumped over the wheel and Gwen’s heart stopped, assuming the worst had happened. Gwen threw the car door opened and immediately checked for a pulse and was very relieved to find one.
"Rhi, can you hear me?" Gwen tried to rouse the unconscious woman.
"Bloody bastard," Rhiannon slurred the words so they were almost unrecognisable. She was still mostly unconscious and tried to fight her way out of the fog.
Rhys looked worried and turned to look at his wife who looked murderous rather than worried. "What is it?"
"I so hope I'm not wrong with this," Gwen sighed as she shook her head and closed her eyes. She had a sick feeling that she knew exactly what was going on here and she hoped to everything that she was wrong.
"What is it? What's going on?"
"Help me get her inside." Gwen snapped, not angry with Rhys but beyond angry if she was right about Rhiannon being Retconed.
It was difficult to manoeuvre, but Gwen and Rhys finally got Rhiannon inside, settling her on the couch.
"Shouldn't we call 999?" Rhys asked the obvious question. Something was wrong with their friend and a trained professional would be able to handle everything.
"You...like dad." Rhiannon slurred, opening her eyes slightly.
"She's been retconned. " Gwen said without any doubt. It was clear to her what was going on and there was only one other person with access to the amnesia pill. "I'm going to kill Jack. What the hell is he thinking?"
"No. Jack good. He's not bad. He loves Ianto. No mad at him." The semi-conscious woman tried to string together something that made sense and hoped Gwen and Rhys would understand. "No hurt him. He happy. He nice. Be nice to him. He was broken. Now he better."
"Can Retcon do that?" Rhys asked, noticing the changed attitude to toward Jack. Earlier she was ready to claw his eyes out and now Rhiannon was defending Jack. It was as if she was brainwashed.
"Given in the right dosage it can be used to also plant suggestions, like Jack did at our wedding." Gwen's face flared with anger and she never thought Jack could stoop this low. "He's gone too far."
"Leave him alone!"
Every time Gwen tried to say something negative about Jack, Rhiannon would defend him and get belligerent. After a half hour, Gwen finally gave up knowing she was not going to get anywhere and it was best to let her sleep off the rest of the Retcon effects before attempting to talk about what happened.
Rhys helped Rhiannon to a spare bedroom while Gwen called Johnny to let him know his wife was spending the night and not to worry.
That left Gwen to seethe for the rest of the night. She knew Jack would not pick up any calls to his room, expecting it to be her to read him the riot act and going to the hotel was not an option. So all she could do was let her anger stew and bubble and hope it did not boil over before she could confront the Captain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gwen could not sleep as she was still beyond furious with Jack for retconing Rhiannon and now the smug bastard had pulled a disappearing act. It was the sign of a guilty conscious that he would not face them.
"I'm disappointed in you, Gwen."
The voice made the pregnant woman jump. "Excuse me?" Gwen was sure she was dreaming and she pinched herself to wake up.
"Why are you being so hard on Jack?" Ianto made sure he stayed in the shadows, revealing enough to be just a shadowy figure.
"This is not happening." Gwen rubbed her eyes. "You're not here. I'm dreaming. "
"Perhaps you are and I'm a manifestation of your guilt or maybe some residual rift energy let me come back to let me tell you to not be mad at Jack." This was Cardiff after all and the impossible was always impossible.
"You aren't mad at him? He off and married the first space whore that he found. You should be the one he's married to."
"He and I would never have worked with the way things were going before I died. We were destined to fail. Jack is happy and that's all that matters. He found a second chance at true happiness. Don't ruin that for Jack or you will lose him for good. He's not staying here forever. All I ever wanted is for Jack to be happy and he finally has that."
"But I don't think it's right what he's doing."
"This isn't about you. After all the pain Jack has been through, he deserves to be happy. Let him be happy...as a favour to me."
"Why are you visiting me and not him? Do you know he retconned your sister tonight? She's pregnant. Having a boy in four months. What if it harmed the baby."
Ianto winced, feeling guilty Jack got the blame for what was his idea. "Jack has his reasons. He would never do anything that might harm the baby. Jack deserves to be happy. Let him be happy. His marriage is a good thing for him. He was on a dangerous path until he met his husband." Ianto was satisfied that he had gotten through to Gwen the best he could and activated his holographic chip and began the next phase of his plan.
"I refuse to believe it." Gwen snapped.
"Who were you talking to?" Ianto in Alonso persona stepped out of the shadows. This was the only way he could make a clean exit.
Gwen was flummoxed and frightened at the sudden appearance of Alonso. "What are you doing here? How did you get in here?" She did not want to seem crazy and ask if he had seen and heard a ghost or whatever it was.
"I was looking for Jack. Have you seen him?"
"No why would I? I haven't seen or heard from him since he ran out to find you." Gwen inched over to find the nearest knickknack she could make into a weapon.
"He never came back to the hotel. What did you say to him, other than I shouldn't be the one he is married to. You aren't going to give up on that one are you?" Alonso sighed as if annoyed she was getting in the way of his happiness with Jack. "I just heard you say it."
"I...I didn't say anything like that."
"Don't lie. You were carrying on a conversation with no one. You called me a space whore. I’m guessing you were imagining you were talking to the lover Jack lost, since you said that he should be the one Jack was married to." Ianto said evenly and without emotion.
Gwen's mouth floundered as she tried to come up with an excuse but realised that she could not hide what she had been doing, "You didn't see or hear anything?"
"No," Ianto shook his head. "Maybe your subconscious is feeling guilty for the way you've treated Jack. I might not be from this planet, but I think the same rules of friendship apply where I'm from and that is a friend should be happy for another friend when they find happiness. I know you are never going to like me, but perhaps for Jack's sake can you maybe at least tolerate me. Jack and I are only staying until the 456 are dealt with. After that he will be gone forever. You don't want to end things on bad terms do you?" Ianto only prayed that this would work. He'd hate to leave things on bad terms, but Gwen was as stubborn as the Welsh came.
Gwen clenched her jaw, hating that the man that she despised was right. "How can you defend him knowing he doesn't love you?"
Ianto smiled and shrugged. "It takes a special kind of person to love Jack. To truly love him for everything he is and not love him for the idolised hero most see him as. I know how broken Jack was when I first met him on that cruiser. Jack is just starting to see that it was all right to be happy again and you had to lay this guilt trip on him. What kind of friend does that?" Ianto knew he was putting it on thick, but that was the only way to get through to Gwen sometimes.
"Who do you think you are? You don't know me. I've known Jack a lot longer than you have, Alonso. I know what's best for Jack and it's not you." Gwen clenched her fists, unable to see any truth other than her own.
"I think the only one who knows what's best for Jack is Jack. Perhaps you should trust his judgment. Did you stop to ask Jack what he wanted? There's a lot about me you don't know and if you knew the truth you would not be treating Jack like you are. Did your dead friend have any sage advice for you in your imaginary conversation just now?" Ianto asked, hating that he had to do this, but he did not want to leave Earth with Jack and Gwen mad at each other.
"That is none of your business." Gwen replied snidely. She was not going to give Alonso the benefit of knowing he was right and that the apparition of Ianto had been right too. She had to let Jack be happy even if that meant he had to move on from Ianto. "I think you should leave now. You break Jack's heart and I'll break you."
"Duly noted." Ianto quirked a small smile. "I should see if Jack returned to the hotel." Ianto made his exit and headed toward where Jack was waiting in the car.
"How did it go?" Jack asked as his husband entered the car. The worry was written all over Jack’s face. He reached up and deactivated the holograph, this being a conversation he needed to have with Ianto.
"I'm not sure if it was Ianto or Alonso or maybe a combination of them both that got through to her. But I'm sure it worked. I really had to get her to see that she did not want you to leave with her mad at you. She will never like Alonso and I'll just have to live with that." That hurt Ianto, but at least Gwen would not hate both of them. "It makes it easier to deal with her hating him because she thinks Alonso is replacing me. It's kind of touching when you think about it. At least Gwen won't stay mad at you." Ianto allowed a small smile.
"Now we go back to celebrate." Jack put the car in gear and drove back to the hotel with haste. He was hornier than he had been in a long time and that was saying something since the past year they were in a perpetual state of arousal . Proper time and place did not register with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The lift ride to their twentieth floor room felt like an eternity for Jack and Ianto and neither man could keep their hands to themselves.
"You were absolutely brilliant," Jack was proud of his husband for the flawless execution of his plan.
"We have to wait and see if it worked." Ianto felt guilty for deceiving Gwen and drugging his sister, but it had to be done.
"We need to celebrate." Jack whispered before he attacked the back of Ianto's neck as the other man now fumbled with the key card to get into the room. Jack deactivated the chip with a well placed flick of his tongue.
It took a dozen attempts before Ianto's successfully put the card into a slot. "You never have that problem slipping your card into my slot," Jack taunted as he plucked the card from Ianto's hand and put it into the slot so the lights could turn on. "See that's how it's done." Jack paled when he saw someone sitting on the edge of their bed, dressed in dark jeans and a plum coloured jumper.
To be continued... Chapter 11
A/n: interesting place to leave today, no?
Previous Chapters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9