A Day in Cardiff (2/5)
Title: A Day in Cardiff (2/5)
Author: iantojjackh
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Follow up to A Day in Glasgow. Jack returns to Cardiff two years after Ianto's death with his and Ianto's son and finds that people are not happy to see him. Will they believe him about the boy's linage?
Characters: Jack, Gwen, Rhys, Rhiannon
Pairings: Jack/Ianto (past), Gwen/Rhys
Word Count: 1061
Spoilers: CoE compliant, but MD never happened
Warning: Angst and grief
Beta: SoR who still betas stuff for me on occasion even if he's never watched an episode of TW
Notes: Written for the Grief prompt at hc_bingo. I know bluelilacs asked about this last month and its finally hear. Just took a while to get back from beta.
Chapter 2- Rhiannon and Gwen
Rhiannon turned the car off and sighed as she looked over at Gwen in the passenger seat. This had become their bi-monthly ritual; visiting Ianto's grave followed by lunch. Today's visit was extra bittersweet because it was the second anniversary of the Welshman's death. "Some days it still really hurts. I thought when Ianto moved back to Cardiff that we could become close again, but that bloody job always kept him busy. So many times he made plans to come visit only to cancel. You lot really weren't civil servants, were you?" Usually the women avoided talking about the work that led to her brother's death.
Gwen bit her lip and shook her head. "No."
"What did you do? Was that alien stuff normal for you?"
"Yes," Gwen nodded. Now was the time to let Rhiannon know more than she did. She deserved to know, but it was never bought up. Gwen knew the questions were always there and they just needed to be asked. "There is a rift of space and time that runs through the middle of Cardiff and all kinds of stuff slips through on occasion or at least it used to. It was up to us to make sure it did not end up in the wrong hands."
"Bollocks," Rhiannon slapped the steering wheel and immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it," she took several deep breaths and stared out the window. "The other day I was in town and I ran into this bloke with his son and boy looked exactly like Ianto when he was a baby and I thought I even heard him call the boy Ianto. Thought I was losing it. Wishful thinking, perhaps. He never got a chance to have a family. I'm not sure if that's something he wanted. Did that Jack person ever really care for Ianto? He never came to the funeral. Have you heard from him in the last two years?"
Gwen shook her head, "No." And she was upset by that too. A few months after Ianto died, she was offered to view the footage from Thames House, but she could not bring herself to watch. "Something broke inside of Jack that day. I think that's why he stays away. It's like he doesn't want to deal with it." Gwen hoped that was the reason and she knew he had the resources to vanish.
"That is selfish of him. Does he think he's the only one who misses Ianto?" The Jack talk was long overdue and it was going to happen now.
Gwen was nervous because she didn't know what to say. There was nothing she could possibly say that would make the situation any better. "To be honest I don't know how seriously Jack and Ianto took their relationship. They tried to be as professional as they could be at work, but there were still the awkward moments of walking in on them at the office. Truth be told, I think that neither of them wanted to admit how serious things were getting..."
"That's him!"
Rhiannon's exclamation made Gwen jump. "Who?"
"The man from the other day," she had not expected to see him again. Rhiannon thought it could be an omen of sorts. What else could it be? It was the second anniversary of her brother's death and when she was going to visit his grave she sees the man who has a son who looks like her brother.
Gwen looked up just in time to see the man duck into the car and she went pale as a ghost. "Jack." Excitement coursed through her body, thinking Jack was finally coming home. Gwen leapt from the vehicle, but it was too late and the car sped off. "Damn't," she yelled. "That was Jack." It made sense that one of the first stops he'd make was to visit Ianto.
"But he had a kid with him. A young kid ," Rhiannon felt her blood begin to boil. If that man she ran into the other day was really Jack then next time she saw him Rhiannon was going to unleash all of her fury on him. If Ianto had survived it would only have been to have his heart broken realizing his lover had knocked up some poor woman.
Gwen's head was spinning with confusion over what just happened. "Jack doesn't have any children. Are you sure that it was Jack you saw?" Young children, at least.
"Well I saw him with one the other day. American accent and wears a long military type coat? Handsome as all hell to boot," the furious woman got out of the car.
"That's Jack," Gwen admitted reluctantly. If she did not know any better, she swore that had been Ianto's car he drove off in.
"So where has been all this time? Why come back now? Why today of all days? I'm going to kill him when I get my hands on him. And seriously how sick is he in the head to name his kid after Ianto?" Rhiannon had all this pent up anger over Jack and it was getting worse the more she thought she knew of the man. Even with Ianto gone, Rhiannon still wanted to protect her brother.
"I don't know. The last time I saw him he wanted me to make sure David and Mica were kept safe. I haven't heard from him since. I cannot begin to understand or know what he has been doing for two years." Gwen thought that if Jack had Ianto's car that there was a chance he was staying at his flat as well. She kept that thought to herself and would confront Jack and get answers before she decided if Rhiannon's rage needed to be bought down on him.
"I'm going to bloody track him down and make him sorry for ever hurting my brother." A sister protecting her baby brother was high on the list of types of women never to mess with.
Gwen just nodded. There were a few things she had to say to Jack Harkness when she found him. "Let's go see how Ianto is doing." They temporarily needed to put Jack on the back burner and remember why they were really at the cemetery on this day; to visit the man whose death left a huge hole in everyone's heart.
To be continued- To Chapter 3
Previously on A Day in Cardiff
Chapter 1