Trip of a Lifetime
Title: Trip of a Lifetime
Author: Timelordshines
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams, The Doctor
Rating: PG-13
Words: 5417
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Characters belong to RTD and the BBC - I’m just borrowing them.
Written for hc_bingo February Challenge prompts Alien Abduction, Loss of Limb Function, Rejection, Wildcard - Time Travel Gone Wrong
Author's Note: As always, comments and critism are welcome and would help me to improve.
Author's Note 2: Sorry if this is a bit rushed. I wish I had had my idea three weeks ago instead of only three days ago!
Gwen watched as Jack and Ianto came into the hub, arguing good naturedly as they went up to Jack’s office. She smiled to herself as she talked on the phone to Rhys. It was good to see the boys so relaxed.
She watched absently as Jack went to his desk and Ianto moved to the coat hook to hang up Jack’s coat, before turning her attention back to her conversation.
Suddenly a high pitched wail pierced the air and Ianto turned, the coat held up in front of him a questioning look on his face.
Jack lifted the flap on his wrist strap to look at the readout. ‘Teleportation.. 3.. 2..’
“Ianto!” Jack shouted as he launched himself at his Welshman in a flying rugby tackle.
Gwen heard the commotion and was up out of her seat in an instant, “I’ve got to go Rhys” she said into the phone, already rushing towards Jack’s office as she hung up and shoved it into her pocket.
The office was empty.
The coat stand was rolling gently backwards and forwards where it lay on the floor. There was no sign of either man.
“Jack? Ianto?” Gwen drew her gun and moved through the office, cautiously checking behind the desk and peering down into Jack’s quarters.
Also empty.
She went back out into the main Hub and yelled “JACK!” listening to her echoes fade away along with Myfanwy’s answering shriek.
Puzzled, and more than a little worried, Gwen went to Tosh’s old work station and brought up the CCTV. “Ok…” Gwen said, taking out her phone and speed dialling her husband.
“Rhys, Jack and Ianto have gone!”
*******
Jack and Ianto crashed to the ground.
“Aargh! Shit!” Ianto cursed “Get off me Jack” he said trying to roll the captain away.
Jack got up and drew his gun, looking around them. They were in the middle of a deserted field on top of a hill. After checking there was no immediate danger he holstered the gun and returned his attention to his lover, who was still sitting on the floor, cursing.
“Ianto? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I’m just swearing for the fun of it.” The young man grimaced, gripping his shin. “My ankle, I sprained it, or twisted it, or broke it or something when we fell.”
“Let me see?”
“I’ll be fine. Where are we Jack?” Ianto asked worriedly.
Jack looked around, searching for clues or inspiration. “I don’t know” he admitted, biting his lip as he flipped open his wrist strap pressing a few buttons. “It’s not earth. The air composition is wrong. All the right gasses but in the wrong proportions. Luckily there is still plenty of oxygen.”
“Yeah that is lucky.” Ianto said dryly.
Jack crouched down beside the Welshman. “Let me see your ankle.”
Ianto nodded and pulled up his trouser leg. The joint was already swollen and turning a vivid colour.
“Ouch.” Jack breathed in sympathy.
“Yeah,” laughed Ianto, “you could say that.”
Jack leaned over and kissed him soundly before getting up. Raising his hand to shield his eyes he looked around them again at the deserted landscape. “I think that might be a building over there.” He said pointing at a small square shape on the horizon, the only unnatural shape visible from where they were. “It’s about two, three miles away. If you stay here, I could be there and back in an hour. Get you some help.”
“No, I‘ll be fine. You don’t know what’s there Jack.”
“You’re hurt. I’ll be ok. Just wait here.”
“Ok, yes I’m hurt. But that means I can’t defend myself if anything happens whilst you’re gone.”
Jack paled. “I’m sorry Ianto. I shouldn’t have brought you here. I just couldn’t lose you.”
Ianto held up his hand for Jack to pull him to his feet, wincing as he tried to keep the weight off his injured ankle “I would rather be here with you than wondering where you are.” He said as he hugged his Captain.
Jack chuckled, “You’re still wondering where we are.”
“Fair point. I bet Gwen’s beside herself with worry.”
“So we’d better figure out where we are and how to get back. If I help you, do you think you can make it to that building?”
“Yeah, but take it slow ok?”
Jack pressed a kiss to Ianto’s forehead, then bent to retrieve his coat from the floor and wrapped his arm around his lover’s waist as they began their journey.
*******
The cog door rolled open, sirens blaring to reveal Rhys standing there. Gwen got up from the workstation and practically threw herself into her husband’s arms.
“Hey,” he said, stroking her hair soothingly.
After a minute, Gwen pulled herself together and stepped back wiping her eyes roughly. “Sorry” she said sheepishly.
“That’s ok. Why don’t you show me what happened?” Rhys suggested holding out his hand for Gwen to lead him to Tosh’s old work station.
She pulled up the CCTV of the two men entering the hub and going into Jack’s office. Then she switched the feed to the one inside the office and they watched in confusion as a shrill sound split the air, Jack opened his wrist strap and then rugby tackled his partner and they both disappeared before they hit the floor.
“What the hell?” exclaimed Rhys, rewinding the footage to watch again.
“I’ve seen it a dozen times. It doesn’t help.” Gwen said as the footage played through again. “It looks like Jack recognised what was about to happen, but he didn’t have time to stop it or warn me. It can’t be too dangerous can it? Else he wouldn’t have grabbed Ianto. Would he?” Gwen looked up with her wide puppy dog eyes, begging for reassurance.
“We’ll get them back.” Rhys promised, “Somehow.”
******
Progress was slow.
”How is it?” Jack asked, trying to keep the worry from his voice. The building was further away than he had thought and the sun was inching its way down the sky, the temperature dropping with it.
“It’s ok,” said Ianto through gritted teeth. “It’s easing up now. Not as stiff as it was. As long as I keep my foot at right angles to my leg I can put some pressure on my heel. It’s when I try to put any weight on the toes or if the ground is uneven that’s when it’s a problem.”
“We’re about half way.” Jack said, trying to reassure him. The blue building was definitely getting larger on the horizon, though not as large as Jack had expected.
“Soon be there.” Jack said, overly cheerfully. He hadn’t really come up with a plan as to what to do when they got there. Hopefully whatever beings they might encounter would be friendly.
Ianto was leaning more into Jack’s side with every step. Jack didn’t mind, but Ianto’s stoic bravery was worrying him. He was looking very pale and Jack could tell he was in pain, but he refused to admit defeat.
“Do you want to take a rest?”
“No, if I stop I’ll never get moving again.” Ianto replied, pushing himself to walk as quickly as he could.
They carried on in companionable silence for another fifteen minutes or so, Jack looking nervously around, his hand hovering over his holster as the sky grew darker. He squinted up at the small blue building getting ever closer. “That’s not… no…”
“What?” Ianto asked, following Jack’s gaze.
“I thought… No it can’t be…”
“What?”
“If I didn’t know better I’d say that looks like a police box. Or a TARDIS.”
*******
The Doctor ran his hand once more through his wayward hair, looking at the blank display screens above the TARDIS’s console. “Come on girl, talk to me.” He said, gently caressing her control panel. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
The TARDIS remained quiet and unresponsive.
The doctor took a step back and walked around the console for what felt like the hundredth time, pulling levers and pressing buttons to no avail.
He turned on his heel in frustration, looking out of the viewing window in the door.
“That’s odd…” he said.
He had scanned the area when he first arrived and found it completely deserted. Not another living thing for at least a hundred miles radius. Which in itself was odd and a little worrying given that the atmosphere was more than suitable for life.
But now there were two figures making their way slowly towards him.
One of them appeared to be wearing a great coat and from this distance looked remarkably like Jack Harkness!
“No, it can’t be,” the Doctor muttered to himself, grabbing a pair of binoculars off the nearby table and lifting them to his eyes.
“It is!” he grinned, putting the binoculars down before flinging open the door and bounding out to meet his friend.
*******
“Jack!” the Doctor exclaimed breathlessly as he approached the men.
“Doctor!” Jack grinned, “Are we glad to see you!”
“And if it isn’t Ianto Jones.”
“Doctor.” Ianto replied as the doctor pumped his hand enthusiastically. “It’s good to see you.”
“What happened to you?” the Doctor asked looking the younger man up and down,
“I fell.”
“Can we hurry up and get to the TARDIS?” Jack asked, looking around them into the gathering gloom.
“Oh, yes, of course.” Said the doctor, moving to Ianto’s other side and taking some of his weight as the trio made their way to the police box.
When they reached their goal, the doctor opened the door and bounded into the room as Jack helped Ianto over the threshold and closed the door firmly behind them. The doctor turned his grinning countenance to his companions, anticipating Ianto’s wonder and the many questions that seeing the interior of the TARDIS for the first time usually provoked.
Instead he was greeted with the sight of the younger man visibly sagging against the Captain, all of the fight having gone out of him now that they had reached the safety of the TARDIS. Jack gathered his partner to him, holding him tight and whispering soft words of encouragement to him.
The cocky remarks that the doctor had been prepared to make died on the tip of the Timelord’s tongue. He cleared his throat, and walked around to the other side of the console, giving his guests some privacy.
“You ok?” Jack asked, peppering Ianto’s pale face with kisses.
“I’ll live.” Ianto said, kissing him back.
The doctor returned with a chair which Ianto gratefully sank into. “Thanks” he said closing his eyes and breathing very deliberately, trying to keep his mind from the throbbing in his ankle.
The doctor stood by his shoulder, bouncing on his toes, biting his lip nervously as if he wanted to say something but wasn’t quite sure what. “Um, Jack?”
“Just a minute, Doctor” Jack glanced at him, then crouched down beside his lover touching his knee gently. “Ianto, can I look at your ankle now?”
When Ianto didn’t reply, Jack gently took hold of his calf and lifted his leg. He pulled up the trouser leg and winced at what he saw. Ianto’s ankle was about three times its normal size and looked incongruous squeezed into his shoe which looked far too small.
Jack gently undid the laces and opened the shoe up as much as he could before easing it slowly off. Ianto couldn’t stop the whimper of pain escaping from his lips.
“I’m sorry babe.” Jack whispered as Ianto’s fingers dug into his shoulder. Jack gently rolled Ianto’s sock off his foot, biting his lip in sympathy as he revealed the bruised purple flesh. “That’s got to hurt,” Jack muttered.
“A little,” Ianto replied, moving his hand to run through Jack’s hair.
Jack stood up and bent down to place a tender kiss to his partner’s mouth. Ianto moaned into the kiss, a single tear escaping from the corner of his right eye.
The Captain straightened and turned to the Doctor. “I need to get him to the med-bay. I need to scan his foot; I can’t tell if it is broken or just badly sprained with a torn ligament.”
“Umm…” the Doctor ran his hand through his hair and his eyes darted from side to side, looking anywhere but at Jack.
“Doctor?”
“That’s what I needed to talk to you about. There’s something wrong with the TARDIS.”
“Wrong?”
“She won’t respond to me. None of her controls are working and she won’t give me any other rooms. There is no med-bay and we can’t leave this planet. I don’t know what’s wrong. It’s as if something’s just sucked the life out of her.”
The Doctor had been pacing backwards and forwards as he spoke. Suddenly he spun on his heel and looked at the Captain, “That’s it! There’s no life. Out there. Nothing. I did a scan when we got here and there was nothing. Until you two got here. How did you get here by the way?”
“I was hoping you would be able to tell us that.” Jack said, resting his hand on Ianto’s shoulder. “My wrist strap suddenly let out a shrill beep, gave us three seconds warning and then teleported us here.”
The Doctor looked as confused as Jack felt.
“You mean you didn’t have anything to do with it?” Jack asked.
“No. But since you’re here, maybe you could take a look at the TARDIS, see if you can help? She’s always liked you.”
*******
Having looked at the CCTV footage once more in the vain hope that they would see something they had missed, Gwen and Rhys retired to the sofa with mugs of instant coffee, neither of them daring to touch Ianto’s machine.
“So, it was Jack’s wrist strap that took them right?” Rhys said, thinking out loud as he tried to make sense of it.
“Yeah”
“Could we maybe zoom the CCTV in to the strap to see what the reading says? Maybe that will give us a clue?”
“Brilliant!” Gwen jumped up and rushed to the nearest work station. After a few minutes of manipulating the images and wishing Tosh was there to do it in a fraction of the time, she finally exclaimed “There! Got it! It’s a number… the fourth digit seems to be oscillating between a four and a nine, but the rest of them seem to be stable.”
“Well done!” beamed Rhys, “I knew you could do it.”
“Yeah, but I still don’t know what it means.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.” Rhys told her and kissed the top of her head.
“Maybe Martha knows,” Gwen suggested reaching for her phone and pressing the speed dial number and putting it on speaker so Rhys could hear, “I’m sure she’s used a teleporter before.”
“Hello? Martha, it’s Gwen.”
“Gwen! Wow, it’s been a while. How are you?”
“I’m fine thank you. I need your help though Martha.” Gwen looked at Rhys who nodded his support.
“Oh? What’s wrong?” asked the young doctor.
“Jack and Ianto are missing.”
“Oh my god, what happened?”
“From the CCTV it looks like Jack’s wrist strap activated by itself and teleported them somewhere.”
“By itself? How did that happen?”
“I don’t know. Jack looked as surprised by it as any of us.”
“Do you know where they’ve gone?”
“No, but I have the co-ordinates. I was hoping you would be able to help us make sense of them.”
“I don’t know much about it, but obviously I will try my best.” Martha reassured her.
“Thank you Martha, I’ll email them to you now, but if you could maybe come over here I would be really grateful. I really need to know where they have gone, and how to get them back!”
“Of course. I’ll get the first train in the morning.”
“Thanks Martha. You’re a star. I’ll send the coordinates over now so you can think about them.”
“Ok. Thanks Gwen. See you tomorrow.”
“Bye” Gwen hung up the phone and turned to Rhys “I hope she can help.”
“Yeah. She’ll be here early tomorrow. There’s not much else we can do here until then. I don’t know anything about teleports. Let’s just send her the coordinates and go home and get some rest.”
*******
Jack bent down and kissed Ianto on the forehead. “Will you be alright for a minute?”
“I’m fine, Jack” Ianto smiled at his partner’s fussing.
Jack squeezed his shoulder and followed the Doctor over to the centre console. Ianto closed his eyes and relaxed into his chair.
“Hey girl” Jack breathed, reaching out to the TARDIS, “the Doctor tells me you’re not well. What’s wrong girl?” he spoke quietly as if trying to calm a frightened wild animal. As Jack drew closer to her, she seemed to come to life, her screens and buttons lighting up softly. The doctor looked on proudly and, for once, quietly.
The tips of Jack’s fingers made contact and it was like a jolt of electricity passed through him. He gasped loudly, his head lolling back as he was enveloped in a golden light.
“Jack!” Ianto was up out of the chair instantly, cursing in rather creative welsh as he unthinkingly put his weight on his injured foot. He hobbled as quickly as he could to his lover, only for the Doctor to intercept him. “Let go!” Ianto shouted, struggling to get free.
“He’s ok. Just leave him.” The doctor tried to reassure the distraught man whilst stopping him from getting to Jack and breaking the link between him and the TARDIS.
Just then the light faded away and Jack slumped to the floor. The Timelord and the Welshman broke apart and rushed to Jack’s aide, the doctor crouching down beside him and checking his vitals. “He’s ok, just unconscious.” He announced, looking up at the younger man who was standing chewing on his lip worriedly.
Suddenly all of the lights and screens came on and the TARDIS whirred to life and Ianto had to hold on so as not to lose his footing.
The Doctor leapt up and ran around the console checking all the displays “Yes!” He exclaimed, “We’re going home! Well, your home. Cardiff. Twenty first century. She needs to refuel!”
When the noise and the shaking stopped, the Doctor grabbed the nearest screen pulling it towards him. “We’re here” he announced with a grin.
A movement at the corner of his eye caught his attention. A door that hadn’t been there before swung slowly open to reveal a small room simply furnished with just a soft and comfortable looking double bed.
“Good girl.” The Doctor praised. “Come on, let’s get Jack comfortable until he wakes up.” And with that the hyperactive man bounded over to his fallen friend and, struggling slightly, lifted him and carried him into the bedroom, Ianto limping along behind. The Doctor laid Jack gently down on the bed, then ran his hand through his hair, catching his breath. Looking up at Ianto he suggested “Why don’t you lay down with him, keep the weight off your foot?” before spinning on his heel and rushing out of the room to check on his TARDIS.
Ianto sat down on the bed and then gingerly swung his legs up and spooned around Jack, laying his arm possessively over his lover’s torso. It had been a long day, and before long Ianto found himself drifting off to sleep, holding his partner close.
*******
Jack stirred, sighing as he stretched. He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept so deeply. As he woke he became aware of his partner sleeping next to him and rolled over to hold the Welshman close. “Hey sexy” he whispered as Ianto’s eyes opened. He pressed a soft kiss to the young man’s lips before asking “Where are we?”
Ianto kissed him back, running his hand through Jack’s hair. “In the TARDIS. She made this room for us so that you could rest after she drained some of your life force to give herself enough power to leave that planet. We’re back in Cardiff, refuelling.” Ianto raised himself up on one elbow and looked down at his Captain “How are you feeling?”
“Fine. Tired. I haven’t slept that well in ages.” Jack answered, shifting himself up onto his elbow and pressing his lips to Ianto’s, using the contact to gently push the Welshman back into the bed. Ianto moaned into the kiss, his moan becoming a whimper of disappointment as Jack pulled away. “How are you? How’s the ankle?”
“It hurts, but I’m sure it will be ok. Thanks,” Ianto smiled softly, touched by the genuine concern he could hear in Jack’s voice.
“Why don’t you stay here and rest it whilst I go and talk to the Doctor?”
“No, I want to come with you. Have a proper look at the TARDIS’ control room.”
“Ok, but let me help you.” Jack hurried around the bed to offer his arm to Ianto to lean on as he stood up, Ianto wincing as he got to his feet. “You ok?” Jack asked.
“Yeah.” Ianto reassured him, kissing the older man’s cheek.
They made their way slowly into the main room where the Doctor was waiting for them with a walking stick for Ianto. “Thought you could use this. Do you fancy a cup of tea?” he asked, “Nothing like a good cup of hot sweet tea to revive you when you’ve had your life force sucked out of you. Not that I would know of course. But tea fixes everything. So, cuppa?”
“Yes, please.” Said Ianto politely, “and thank you for the stick.”
“You’re welcome,” said the doctor, as he headed to another door that had appeared on the other side of the room, that presumably led to the kitchen.
Jack just looked at Ianto and shrugged his shoulders, grinning widely.
Ianto smiled back and then, using his stick - a nice antique one made of ebony with a silver tip and elaborate silver handle - he made his way around the room, stopping to peer at display screens and readouts, none of which made any sense to him, before finally arriving at the outside door.
“Umm, Jack? Have you looked outside?” Ianto called, his voice coming out more high pitched than usual. Jack was by his side in an instant “What is it?”
“The girls out there are wearing dresses and sandals.”
“Mmm” said Jack, his eyes following a particularly pretty red-head in a very short dress, “What?”
“The doctor said he was bringing us home. It was raining when we left. And minus three degrees.” Ianto could feel the panic rising in his chest, making it difficult to breathe, “Jack, we’re in the wrong time! What if we can’t get back?”
“Hey,” said Jack, wrapping his arms around his young lover from behind, holding him in a tight hug as they both looked out of the window. “Look at the buildings Ianto.”
“Huh?”
“Just look at them. They’re all the same as we are used to. And the people, look at their clothes. It’s the wrong season but the fashions are fairly normal, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah they are. Well as normal as Cardiff gets.” Ianto huffed out a small laugh.
Jack kissed his temple, relieved that Ianto had relaxed enough to make a joke. “We are in the right place, and we can’t be more than a decade out of time, probably a lot less.” Jack turned Ianto to face him, cupping the young man’s face in his hands. “Only a couple of hours ago we were on an alien planet and I was beginning to wonder if we were going to be stuck there for the rest of our lives. So from where I’m standing, being in Cardiff anywhere in the early twenty first century is a huge win.” Ianto nodded and offered Jack a little smile. “I know. I just want to go home.” He said in a small voice, sounding so lost and vulnerable it broke Jack’s heart.
“Oh, Ianto,” he breathed, pulling the young man in for a deep kiss, his tongue running over Ianto’s lips begging entrance which was readily granted. The men melted together, Ianto drawing strength from his lover. When the need for oxygen forced them apart they stayed wrapped around each other, leaning their foreheads together.
“As soon as the TARDIS is back up to strength, the first thing I will do is get her to fix your ankle. Then I’ll ask the doctor to see if he can get us back to the day we left. The TARDIS isn’t always exactly precise, but she’s normally pretty good. She just got it a bit wrong this time because she was so tired.”
“Thank you, Jack” Ianto said, kissing his partner deeply again, his tongue plundering Jack’s mouth making him moan into the kiss.
“Ahem” the Doctor cleared his throat, startling his two guests who pulled apart guiltily.
“Sorry, Doctor.” Jack grinned sheepishly, accepting the tea the doctor held out to him.
“Thanks Doctor.” Ianto added, taking his mug in one hand and leaning heavily on the stick with the other. “I’m tired, and I need to put my foot up, so I’m going to go back to bed for a bit. I’m fine.” He answered Jack’s question before the other man could even ask it. “You stay out here and spend some time with your friend.”
Jack watched his lover shuffle slowly to the bedroom and close the door before turning to the Doctor.
“So.”
“So.” The Doctor replied.
“How did you wind up on that planet then?”
“I don’t really know. It was like the TARDIS got sucked into its gravitational pull. And then she didn’t have the energy to leave. Luckily she realised we were stuck whilst she still had enough energy to somehow call you for help.”
“Yeah.” Said Jack, folding his arms across his chest, “It’s good to see you again Doctor.”
“You too Jack.”
An uncomfortable silence fell between the two men. The Doctor shoved his hands deep into his pockets and shuffled his feet. “Come with me Jack?”
Jack took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh, “I can’t.” he said, glancing over at the bedroom door.
“Bring Ianto along too.”
Jack shook his head, “No, he belongs here on Earth with his friends and family. I can’t take him away from all that.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” The doctor said dejectedly.
“I’m sorry too.” Jack reached out and touched the Doctor’s shoulder, the tentative gesture turning into a manly squeeze as he found a topic to change the subject. “So, are you going to show me all the changes you’ve made to the old girl since I was last aboard?”
The doctor grinned “Oh yeah.”
********
Jack was engrossed in his work down in the bowels of the TARDIS rewiring a section of control panel. “Doctor? Can you pass me that screwdriver please?” he called. When he got no answer he pulled himself up and dusted off his trousers looking around for his host. There was a fresh cup of steaming hot tea on the little table by the kitchen door and he could just make out the murmured sounds of distant conversation coming from the bedroom door.
Jack picked up his tea and made his way over to join his companions but he stopped short when he realised the subject of their conversation.
“Did you ask Jack to join you” Ianto asked the doctor.
“Yes” he admitted. “He rejected my offer.”
Jack crept closer to the door so that he could see into the room.
Ianto was sitting on the bed, his back against the headboard, his foot raised up on a pillow. He was staring into his cup of tea and picking nervously at the edge of the duvet with his slender fingers.
The doctor sat on the edge of the bed, his feet on the floor and his torso turned towards Ianto so Jack was unable to see his face, but he could still see the disconsolate slump of his shoulders.
“He didn’t want to leave you.” The doctor continued, looking up at the remarkable young man in front of him who had managed to win Jack Harkness’ heart.
Ianto looked up sharply “He said that?”
“Yes” the doctor replied and Jack could hear the sad smile in his voice.
Ianto reached out and covered the Doctor’s hand with his own, dropping his eyes to stare at their joined hands and avoid the Timelord’s gaze. “He does love you,” he stated softly, “he always will. But I love him. And I think, I hope, that he loves and needs me too.”
Jack wanted to rush in and gather the young man in his arms and smother him in kisses and tell him that yes, of course he loves him.
But he didn’t want to admit to eaves dropping.
And he really wanted to hear the rest of what Ianto had to say.
“My time is finite. If I’m lucky I will only be able to give Jack at most another sixty or seventy years. Working for Torchwood I know I will be lucky to get even a tenth of that.” Ianto looked up at the Doctor, meeting his eyes once more. “Let Jack have a normal life for at least that long. Let me make him happy. When I am gone, when the time is right, I know Jack will always find you again.”
Jack swallowed past the lump in his throat as he watched the Timelord lean forward and hug his Welshman.
*******
The next morning when the couple emerged from their bedroom, Ianto leaning heavily on Jack, the Doctor greeted them with some good news. “The TARDIS is fully refuelled. I’ve run all the diagnostic checks and she seems to be back to her old self.”
“Oh brilliant!” Jack enthused, “that’s great news! Welcome back girl.”
“I’ve also been able to find out what date it is today,” the Doctor said, looking pleased with himself.
“Oh?” asked Ianto.
“September 6th 2012.” The Doctor beamed. “Not too far from your time, right?”
“No,” Ianto admitted with a smile, “only a couple of months out. We left on November 17th of that year.”
“Well now the TARDIS is better, we can use her med-bay to fix your ankle up then take a short hop in time and arrive back in time for dinner on the 17th November.” Jack grinned.
“We could….” Ianto agreed.
Jack new that tone. Ianto had thought of something that he hadn’t. “But…?”
“Don’t you see? We’ve been given a fantastic opportunity. We could take a holiday! We’re not leaving the rift unprotected. We are here looking after the city, but we can also be on holiday somewhere for two months!”
Jack grinned along with his partner “I like the way you think!”
“Where do you want to go?” the Doctor asked, “The universe is your oyster.”
Ianto looked at Jack, then at the Doctor, and back to Jack. “Actually I was thinking of something a bit more conventional. I think I have had quite enough space/time travel for now.” He looked back to the Doctor, “sorry.”
“That’s ok,” said the Timelord, “I understand.”
“So where were you thinking?” Jack asked.
“Well, I’ve always wanted to go to Athens, and Rome, and to see the pyramids.” Ianto said excitedly, “Oh, and New York. And we have to spend some time just relaxing on a tropical beach somewhere.”
“Sounds perfect.” Jack smiled, gazing into his lover’s eyes.
Ianto blinked and Jack remembered they weren’t alone. He turned to their companion, “Doctor?”
“I’ve seen all those places. You two go ahead. The TARDIS and I have got places to be.”
Jack gave him a grateful look. He was going to enjoy spending some uninterrupted alone time with his gorgeous Welshman.
Ianto was still excitedly making plans in his head, “We’ll get a taxi to the airport this afternoon and see what flights are leaving this evening. Gwen is going to be so mad at us when we turn up a few hours after we left. She will be going mad with worry and we will have just got back from the holiday of a lifetime!”
The three men laughed, imagining what the feisty Welshwoman would have to say about that.
“I’ll have to give her a long weekend off. And pay for her to go somewhere romantic with Rhys.” Jack smiled.
Author: Timelordshines
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams, The Doctor
Rating: PG-13
Words: 5417
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Characters belong to RTD and the BBC - I’m just borrowing them.
Written for hc_bingo February Challenge prompts Alien Abduction, Loss of Limb Function, Rejection, Wildcard - Time Travel Gone Wrong
Author's Note: As always, comments and critism are welcome and would help me to improve.
Author's Note 2: Sorry if this is a bit rushed. I wish I had had my idea three weeks ago instead of only three days ago!
Gwen watched as Jack and Ianto came into the hub, arguing good naturedly as they went up to Jack’s office. She smiled to herself as she talked on the phone to Rhys. It was good to see the boys so relaxed.
She watched absently as Jack went to his desk and Ianto moved to the coat hook to hang up Jack’s coat, before turning her attention back to her conversation.
Suddenly a high pitched wail pierced the air and Ianto turned, the coat held up in front of him a questioning look on his face.
Jack lifted the flap on his wrist strap to look at the readout. ‘Teleportation.. 3.. 2..’
“Ianto!” Jack shouted as he launched himself at his Welshman in a flying rugby tackle.
Gwen heard the commotion and was up out of her seat in an instant, “I’ve got to go Rhys” she said into the phone, already rushing towards Jack’s office as she hung up and shoved it into her pocket.
The office was empty.
The coat stand was rolling gently backwards and forwards where it lay on the floor. There was no sign of either man.
“Jack? Ianto?” Gwen drew her gun and moved through the office, cautiously checking behind the desk and peering down into Jack’s quarters.
Also empty.
She went back out into the main Hub and yelled “JACK!” listening to her echoes fade away along with Myfanwy’s answering shriek.
Puzzled, and more than a little worried, Gwen went to Tosh’s old work station and brought up the CCTV. “Ok…” Gwen said, taking out her phone and speed dialling her husband.
“Rhys, Jack and Ianto have gone!”
*******
Jack and Ianto crashed to the ground.
“Aargh! Shit!” Ianto cursed “Get off me Jack” he said trying to roll the captain away.
Jack got up and drew his gun, looking around them. They were in the middle of a deserted field on top of a hill. After checking there was no immediate danger he holstered the gun and returned his attention to his lover, who was still sitting on the floor, cursing.
“Ianto? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I’m just swearing for the fun of it.” The young man grimaced, gripping his shin. “My ankle, I sprained it, or twisted it, or broke it or something when we fell.”
“Let me see?”
“I’ll be fine. Where are we Jack?” Ianto asked worriedly.
Jack looked around, searching for clues or inspiration. “I don’t know” he admitted, biting his lip as he flipped open his wrist strap pressing a few buttons. “It’s not earth. The air composition is wrong. All the right gasses but in the wrong proportions. Luckily there is still plenty of oxygen.”
“Yeah that is lucky.” Ianto said dryly.
Jack crouched down beside the Welshman. “Let me see your ankle.”
Ianto nodded and pulled up his trouser leg. The joint was already swollen and turning a vivid colour.
“Ouch.” Jack breathed in sympathy.
“Yeah,” laughed Ianto, “you could say that.”
Jack leaned over and kissed him soundly before getting up. Raising his hand to shield his eyes he looked around them again at the deserted landscape. “I think that might be a building over there.” He said pointing at a small square shape on the horizon, the only unnatural shape visible from where they were. “It’s about two, three miles away. If you stay here, I could be there and back in an hour. Get you some help.”
“No, I‘ll be fine. You don’t know what’s there Jack.”
“You’re hurt. I’ll be ok. Just wait here.”
“Ok, yes I’m hurt. But that means I can’t defend myself if anything happens whilst you’re gone.”
Jack paled. “I’m sorry Ianto. I shouldn’t have brought you here. I just couldn’t lose you.”
Ianto held up his hand for Jack to pull him to his feet, wincing as he tried to keep the weight off his injured ankle “I would rather be here with you than wondering where you are.” He said as he hugged his Captain.
Jack chuckled, “You’re still wondering where we are.”
“Fair point. I bet Gwen’s beside herself with worry.”
“So we’d better figure out where we are and how to get back. If I help you, do you think you can make it to that building?”
“Yeah, but take it slow ok?”
Jack pressed a kiss to Ianto’s forehead, then bent to retrieve his coat from the floor and wrapped his arm around his lover’s waist as they began their journey.
*******
The cog door rolled open, sirens blaring to reveal Rhys standing there. Gwen got up from the workstation and practically threw herself into her husband’s arms.
“Hey,” he said, stroking her hair soothingly.
After a minute, Gwen pulled herself together and stepped back wiping her eyes roughly. “Sorry” she said sheepishly.
“That’s ok. Why don’t you show me what happened?” Rhys suggested holding out his hand for Gwen to lead him to Tosh’s old work station.
She pulled up the CCTV of the two men entering the hub and going into Jack’s office. Then she switched the feed to the one inside the office and they watched in confusion as a shrill sound split the air, Jack opened his wrist strap and then rugby tackled his partner and they both disappeared before they hit the floor.
“What the hell?” exclaimed Rhys, rewinding the footage to watch again.
“I’ve seen it a dozen times. It doesn’t help.” Gwen said as the footage played through again. “It looks like Jack recognised what was about to happen, but he didn’t have time to stop it or warn me. It can’t be too dangerous can it? Else he wouldn’t have grabbed Ianto. Would he?” Gwen looked up with her wide puppy dog eyes, begging for reassurance.
“We’ll get them back.” Rhys promised, “Somehow.”
******
Progress was slow.
”How is it?” Jack asked, trying to keep the worry from his voice. The building was further away than he had thought and the sun was inching its way down the sky, the temperature dropping with it.
“It’s ok,” said Ianto through gritted teeth. “It’s easing up now. Not as stiff as it was. As long as I keep my foot at right angles to my leg I can put some pressure on my heel. It’s when I try to put any weight on the toes or if the ground is uneven that’s when it’s a problem.”
“We’re about half way.” Jack said, trying to reassure him. The blue building was definitely getting larger on the horizon, though not as large as Jack had expected.
“Soon be there.” Jack said, overly cheerfully. He hadn’t really come up with a plan as to what to do when they got there. Hopefully whatever beings they might encounter would be friendly.
Ianto was leaning more into Jack’s side with every step. Jack didn’t mind, but Ianto’s stoic bravery was worrying him. He was looking very pale and Jack could tell he was in pain, but he refused to admit defeat.
“Do you want to take a rest?”
“No, if I stop I’ll never get moving again.” Ianto replied, pushing himself to walk as quickly as he could.
They carried on in companionable silence for another fifteen minutes or so, Jack looking nervously around, his hand hovering over his holster as the sky grew darker. He squinted up at the small blue building getting ever closer. “That’s not… no…”
“What?” Ianto asked, following Jack’s gaze.
“I thought… No it can’t be…”
“What?”
“If I didn’t know better I’d say that looks like a police box. Or a TARDIS.”
*******
The Doctor ran his hand once more through his wayward hair, looking at the blank display screens above the TARDIS’s console. “Come on girl, talk to me.” He said, gently caressing her control panel. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
The TARDIS remained quiet and unresponsive.
The doctor took a step back and walked around the console for what felt like the hundredth time, pulling levers and pressing buttons to no avail.
He turned on his heel in frustration, looking out of the viewing window in the door.
“That’s odd…” he said.
He had scanned the area when he first arrived and found it completely deserted. Not another living thing for at least a hundred miles radius. Which in itself was odd and a little worrying given that the atmosphere was more than suitable for life.
But now there were two figures making their way slowly towards him.
One of them appeared to be wearing a great coat and from this distance looked remarkably like Jack Harkness!
“No, it can’t be,” the Doctor muttered to himself, grabbing a pair of binoculars off the nearby table and lifting them to his eyes.
“It is!” he grinned, putting the binoculars down before flinging open the door and bounding out to meet his friend.
*******
“Jack!” the Doctor exclaimed breathlessly as he approached the men.
“Doctor!” Jack grinned, “Are we glad to see you!”
“And if it isn’t Ianto Jones.”
“Doctor.” Ianto replied as the doctor pumped his hand enthusiastically. “It’s good to see you.”
“What happened to you?” the Doctor asked looking the younger man up and down,
“I fell.”
“Can we hurry up and get to the TARDIS?” Jack asked, looking around them into the gathering gloom.
“Oh, yes, of course.” Said the doctor, moving to Ianto’s other side and taking some of his weight as the trio made their way to the police box.
When they reached their goal, the doctor opened the door and bounded into the room as Jack helped Ianto over the threshold and closed the door firmly behind them. The doctor turned his grinning countenance to his companions, anticipating Ianto’s wonder and the many questions that seeing the interior of the TARDIS for the first time usually provoked.
Instead he was greeted with the sight of the younger man visibly sagging against the Captain, all of the fight having gone out of him now that they had reached the safety of the TARDIS. Jack gathered his partner to him, holding him tight and whispering soft words of encouragement to him.
The cocky remarks that the doctor had been prepared to make died on the tip of the Timelord’s tongue. He cleared his throat, and walked around to the other side of the console, giving his guests some privacy.
“You ok?” Jack asked, peppering Ianto’s pale face with kisses.
“I’ll live.” Ianto said, kissing him back.
The doctor returned with a chair which Ianto gratefully sank into. “Thanks” he said closing his eyes and breathing very deliberately, trying to keep his mind from the throbbing in his ankle.
The doctor stood by his shoulder, bouncing on his toes, biting his lip nervously as if he wanted to say something but wasn’t quite sure what. “Um, Jack?”
“Just a minute, Doctor” Jack glanced at him, then crouched down beside his lover touching his knee gently. “Ianto, can I look at your ankle now?”
When Ianto didn’t reply, Jack gently took hold of his calf and lifted his leg. He pulled up the trouser leg and winced at what he saw. Ianto’s ankle was about three times its normal size and looked incongruous squeezed into his shoe which looked far too small.
Jack gently undid the laces and opened the shoe up as much as he could before easing it slowly off. Ianto couldn’t stop the whimper of pain escaping from his lips.
“I’m sorry babe.” Jack whispered as Ianto’s fingers dug into his shoulder. Jack gently rolled Ianto’s sock off his foot, biting his lip in sympathy as he revealed the bruised purple flesh. “That’s got to hurt,” Jack muttered.
“A little,” Ianto replied, moving his hand to run through Jack’s hair.
Jack stood up and bent down to place a tender kiss to his partner’s mouth. Ianto moaned into the kiss, a single tear escaping from the corner of his right eye.
The Captain straightened and turned to the Doctor. “I need to get him to the med-bay. I need to scan his foot; I can’t tell if it is broken or just badly sprained with a torn ligament.”
“Umm…” the Doctor ran his hand through his hair and his eyes darted from side to side, looking anywhere but at Jack.
“Doctor?”
“That’s what I needed to talk to you about. There’s something wrong with the TARDIS.”
“Wrong?”
“She won’t respond to me. None of her controls are working and she won’t give me any other rooms. There is no med-bay and we can’t leave this planet. I don’t know what’s wrong. It’s as if something’s just sucked the life out of her.”
The Doctor had been pacing backwards and forwards as he spoke. Suddenly he spun on his heel and looked at the Captain, “That’s it! There’s no life. Out there. Nothing. I did a scan when we got here and there was nothing. Until you two got here. How did you get here by the way?”
“I was hoping you would be able to tell us that.” Jack said, resting his hand on Ianto’s shoulder. “My wrist strap suddenly let out a shrill beep, gave us three seconds warning and then teleported us here.”
The Doctor looked as confused as Jack felt.
“You mean you didn’t have anything to do with it?” Jack asked.
“No. But since you’re here, maybe you could take a look at the TARDIS, see if you can help? She’s always liked you.”
*******
Having looked at the CCTV footage once more in the vain hope that they would see something they had missed, Gwen and Rhys retired to the sofa with mugs of instant coffee, neither of them daring to touch Ianto’s machine.
“So, it was Jack’s wrist strap that took them right?” Rhys said, thinking out loud as he tried to make sense of it.
“Yeah”
“Could we maybe zoom the CCTV in to the strap to see what the reading says? Maybe that will give us a clue?”
“Brilliant!” Gwen jumped up and rushed to the nearest work station. After a few minutes of manipulating the images and wishing Tosh was there to do it in a fraction of the time, she finally exclaimed “There! Got it! It’s a number… the fourth digit seems to be oscillating between a four and a nine, but the rest of them seem to be stable.”
“Well done!” beamed Rhys, “I knew you could do it.”
“Yeah, but I still don’t know what it means.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.” Rhys told her and kissed the top of her head.
“Maybe Martha knows,” Gwen suggested reaching for her phone and pressing the speed dial number and putting it on speaker so Rhys could hear, “I’m sure she’s used a teleporter before.”
“Hello? Martha, it’s Gwen.”
“Gwen! Wow, it’s been a while. How are you?”
“I’m fine thank you. I need your help though Martha.” Gwen looked at Rhys who nodded his support.
“Oh? What’s wrong?” asked the young doctor.
“Jack and Ianto are missing.”
“Oh my god, what happened?”
“From the CCTV it looks like Jack’s wrist strap activated by itself and teleported them somewhere.”
“By itself? How did that happen?”
“I don’t know. Jack looked as surprised by it as any of us.”
“Do you know where they’ve gone?”
“No, but I have the co-ordinates. I was hoping you would be able to help us make sense of them.”
“I don’t know much about it, but obviously I will try my best.” Martha reassured her.
“Thank you Martha, I’ll email them to you now, but if you could maybe come over here I would be really grateful. I really need to know where they have gone, and how to get them back!”
“Of course. I’ll get the first train in the morning.”
“Thanks Martha. You’re a star. I’ll send the coordinates over now so you can think about them.”
“Ok. Thanks Gwen. See you tomorrow.”
“Bye” Gwen hung up the phone and turned to Rhys “I hope she can help.”
“Yeah. She’ll be here early tomorrow. There’s not much else we can do here until then. I don’t know anything about teleports. Let’s just send her the coordinates and go home and get some rest.”
*******
Jack bent down and kissed Ianto on the forehead. “Will you be alright for a minute?”
“I’m fine, Jack” Ianto smiled at his partner’s fussing.
Jack squeezed his shoulder and followed the Doctor over to the centre console. Ianto closed his eyes and relaxed into his chair.
“Hey girl” Jack breathed, reaching out to the TARDIS, “the Doctor tells me you’re not well. What’s wrong girl?” he spoke quietly as if trying to calm a frightened wild animal. As Jack drew closer to her, she seemed to come to life, her screens and buttons lighting up softly. The doctor looked on proudly and, for once, quietly.
The tips of Jack’s fingers made contact and it was like a jolt of electricity passed through him. He gasped loudly, his head lolling back as he was enveloped in a golden light.
“Jack!” Ianto was up out of the chair instantly, cursing in rather creative welsh as he unthinkingly put his weight on his injured foot. He hobbled as quickly as he could to his lover, only for the Doctor to intercept him. “Let go!” Ianto shouted, struggling to get free.
“He’s ok. Just leave him.” The doctor tried to reassure the distraught man whilst stopping him from getting to Jack and breaking the link between him and the TARDIS.
Just then the light faded away and Jack slumped to the floor. The Timelord and the Welshman broke apart and rushed to Jack’s aide, the doctor crouching down beside him and checking his vitals. “He’s ok, just unconscious.” He announced, looking up at the younger man who was standing chewing on his lip worriedly.
Suddenly all of the lights and screens came on and the TARDIS whirred to life and Ianto had to hold on so as not to lose his footing.
The Doctor leapt up and ran around the console checking all the displays “Yes!” He exclaimed, “We’re going home! Well, your home. Cardiff. Twenty first century. She needs to refuel!”
When the noise and the shaking stopped, the Doctor grabbed the nearest screen pulling it towards him. “We’re here” he announced with a grin.
A movement at the corner of his eye caught his attention. A door that hadn’t been there before swung slowly open to reveal a small room simply furnished with just a soft and comfortable looking double bed.
“Good girl.” The Doctor praised. “Come on, let’s get Jack comfortable until he wakes up.” And with that the hyperactive man bounded over to his fallen friend and, struggling slightly, lifted him and carried him into the bedroom, Ianto limping along behind. The Doctor laid Jack gently down on the bed, then ran his hand through his hair, catching his breath. Looking up at Ianto he suggested “Why don’t you lay down with him, keep the weight off your foot?” before spinning on his heel and rushing out of the room to check on his TARDIS.
Ianto sat down on the bed and then gingerly swung his legs up and spooned around Jack, laying his arm possessively over his lover’s torso. It had been a long day, and before long Ianto found himself drifting off to sleep, holding his partner close.
*******
Jack stirred, sighing as he stretched. He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept so deeply. As he woke he became aware of his partner sleeping next to him and rolled over to hold the Welshman close. “Hey sexy” he whispered as Ianto’s eyes opened. He pressed a soft kiss to the young man’s lips before asking “Where are we?”
Ianto kissed him back, running his hand through Jack’s hair. “In the TARDIS. She made this room for us so that you could rest after she drained some of your life force to give herself enough power to leave that planet. We’re back in Cardiff, refuelling.” Ianto raised himself up on one elbow and looked down at his Captain “How are you feeling?”
“Fine. Tired. I haven’t slept that well in ages.” Jack answered, shifting himself up onto his elbow and pressing his lips to Ianto’s, using the contact to gently push the Welshman back into the bed. Ianto moaned into the kiss, his moan becoming a whimper of disappointment as Jack pulled away. “How are you? How’s the ankle?”
“It hurts, but I’m sure it will be ok. Thanks,” Ianto smiled softly, touched by the genuine concern he could hear in Jack’s voice.
“Why don’t you stay here and rest it whilst I go and talk to the Doctor?”
“No, I want to come with you. Have a proper look at the TARDIS’ control room.”
“Ok, but let me help you.” Jack hurried around the bed to offer his arm to Ianto to lean on as he stood up, Ianto wincing as he got to his feet. “You ok?” Jack asked.
“Yeah.” Ianto reassured him, kissing the older man’s cheek.
They made their way slowly into the main room where the Doctor was waiting for them with a walking stick for Ianto. “Thought you could use this. Do you fancy a cup of tea?” he asked, “Nothing like a good cup of hot sweet tea to revive you when you’ve had your life force sucked out of you. Not that I would know of course. But tea fixes everything. So, cuppa?”
“Yes, please.” Said Ianto politely, “and thank you for the stick.”
“You’re welcome,” said the doctor, as he headed to another door that had appeared on the other side of the room, that presumably led to the kitchen.
Jack just looked at Ianto and shrugged his shoulders, grinning widely.
Ianto smiled back and then, using his stick - a nice antique one made of ebony with a silver tip and elaborate silver handle - he made his way around the room, stopping to peer at display screens and readouts, none of which made any sense to him, before finally arriving at the outside door.
“Umm, Jack? Have you looked outside?” Ianto called, his voice coming out more high pitched than usual. Jack was by his side in an instant “What is it?”
“The girls out there are wearing dresses and sandals.”
“Mmm” said Jack, his eyes following a particularly pretty red-head in a very short dress, “What?”
“The doctor said he was bringing us home. It was raining when we left. And minus three degrees.” Ianto could feel the panic rising in his chest, making it difficult to breathe, “Jack, we’re in the wrong time! What if we can’t get back?”
“Hey,” said Jack, wrapping his arms around his young lover from behind, holding him in a tight hug as they both looked out of the window. “Look at the buildings Ianto.”
“Huh?”
“Just look at them. They’re all the same as we are used to. And the people, look at their clothes. It’s the wrong season but the fashions are fairly normal, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah they are. Well as normal as Cardiff gets.” Ianto huffed out a small laugh.
Jack kissed his temple, relieved that Ianto had relaxed enough to make a joke. “We are in the right place, and we can’t be more than a decade out of time, probably a lot less.” Jack turned Ianto to face him, cupping the young man’s face in his hands. “Only a couple of hours ago we were on an alien planet and I was beginning to wonder if we were going to be stuck there for the rest of our lives. So from where I’m standing, being in Cardiff anywhere in the early twenty first century is a huge win.” Ianto nodded and offered Jack a little smile. “I know. I just want to go home.” He said in a small voice, sounding so lost and vulnerable it broke Jack’s heart.
“Oh, Ianto,” he breathed, pulling the young man in for a deep kiss, his tongue running over Ianto’s lips begging entrance which was readily granted. The men melted together, Ianto drawing strength from his lover. When the need for oxygen forced them apart they stayed wrapped around each other, leaning their foreheads together.
“As soon as the TARDIS is back up to strength, the first thing I will do is get her to fix your ankle. Then I’ll ask the doctor to see if he can get us back to the day we left. The TARDIS isn’t always exactly precise, but she’s normally pretty good. She just got it a bit wrong this time because she was so tired.”
“Thank you, Jack” Ianto said, kissing his partner deeply again, his tongue plundering Jack’s mouth making him moan into the kiss.
“Ahem” the Doctor cleared his throat, startling his two guests who pulled apart guiltily.
“Sorry, Doctor.” Jack grinned sheepishly, accepting the tea the doctor held out to him.
“Thanks Doctor.” Ianto added, taking his mug in one hand and leaning heavily on the stick with the other. “I’m tired, and I need to put my foot up, so I’m going to go back to bed for a bit. I’m fine.” He answered Jack’s question before the other man could even ask it. “You stay out here and spend some time with your friend.”
Jack watched his lover shuffle slowly to the bedroom and close the door before turning to the Doctor.
“So.”
“So.” The Doctor replied.
“How did you wind up on that planet then?”
“I don’t really know. It was like the TARDIS got sucked into its gravitational pull. And then she didn’t have the energy to leave. Luckily she realised we were stuck whilst she still had enough energy to somehow call you for help.”
“Yeah.” Said Jack, folding his arms across his chest, “It’s good to see you again Doctor.”
“You too Jack.”
An uncomfortable silence fell between the two men. The Doctor shoved his hands deep into his pockets and shuffled his feet. “Come with me Jack?”
Jack took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh, “I can’t.” he said, glancing over at the bedroom door.
“Bring Ianto along too.”
Jack shook his head, “No, he belongs here on Earth with his friends and family. I can’t take him away from all that.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” The doctor said dejectedly.
“I’m sorry too.” Jack reached out and touched the Doctor’s shoulder, the tentative gesture turning into a manly squeeze as he found a topic to change the subject. “So, are you going to show me all the changes you’ve made to the old girl since I was last aboard?”
The doctor grinned “Oh yeah.”
********
Jack was engrossed in his work down in the bowels of the TARDIS rewiring a section of control panel. “Doctor? Can you pass me that screwdriver please?” he called. When he got no answer he pulled himself up and dusted off his trousers looking around for his host. There was a fresh cup of steaming hot tea on the little table by the kitchen door and he could just make out the murmured sounds of distant conversation coming from the bedroom door.
Jack picked up his tea and made his way over to join his companions but he stopped short when he realised the subject of their conversation.
“Did you ask Jack to join you” Ianto asked the doctor.
“Yes” he admitted. “He rejected my offer.”
Jack crept closer to the door so that he could see into the room.
Ianto was sitting on the bed, his back against the headboard, his foot raised up on a pillow. He was staring into his cup of tea and picking nervously at the edge of the duvet with his slender fingers.
The doctor sat on the edge of the bed, his feet on the floor and his torso turned towards Ianto so Jack was unable to see his face, but he could still see the disconsolate slump of his shoulders.
“He didn’t want to leave you.” The doctor continued, looking up at the remarkable young man in front of him who had managed to win Jack Harkness’ heart.
Ianto looked up sharply “He said that?”
“Yes” the doctor replied and Jack could hear the sad smile in his voice.
Ianto reached out and covered the Doctor’s hand with his own, dropping his eyes to stare at their joined hands and avoid the Timelord’s gaze. “He does love you,” he stated softly, “he always will. But I love him. And I think, I hope, that he loves and needs me too.”
Jack wanted to rush in and gather the young man in his arms and smother him in kisses and tell him that yes, of course he loves him.
But he didn’t want to admit to eaves dropping.
And he really wanted to hear the rest of what Ianto had to say.
“My time is finite. If I’m lucky I will only be able to give Jack at most another sixty or seventy years. Working for Torchwood I know I will be lucky to get even a tenth of that.” Ianto looked up at the Doctor, meeting his eyes once more. “Let Jack have a normal life for at least that long. Let me make him happy. When I am gone, when the time is right, I know Jack will always find you again.”
Jack swallowed past the lump in his throat as he watched the Timelord lean forward and hug his Welshman.
*******
The next morning when the couple emerged from their bedroom, Ianto leaning heavily on Jack, the Doctor greeted them with some good news. “The TARDIS is fully refuelled. I’ve run all the diagnostic checks and she seems to be back to her old self.”
“Oh brilliant!” Jack enthused, “that’s great news! Welcome back girl.”
“I’ve also been able to find out what date it is today,” the Doctor said, looking pleased with himself.
“Oh?” asked Ianto.
“September 6th 2012.” The Doctor beamed. “Not too far from your time, right?”
“No,” Ianto admitted with a smile, “only a couple of months out. We left on November 17th of that year.”
“Well now the TARDIS is better, we can use her med-bay to fix your ankle up then take a short hop in time and arrive back in time for dinner on the 17th November.” Jack grinned.
“We could….” Ianto agreed.
Jack new that tone. Ianto had thought of something that he hadn’t. “But…?”
“Don’t you see? We’ve been given a fantastic opportunity. We could take a holiday! We’re not leaving the rift unprotected. We are here looking after the city, but we can also be on holiday somewhere for two months!”
Jack grinned along with his partner “I like the way you think!”
“Where do you want to go?” the Doctor asked, “The universe is your oyster.”
Ianto looked at Jack, then at the Doctor, and back to Jack. “Actually I was thinking of something a bit more conventional. I think I have had quite enough space/time travel for now.” He looked back to the Doctor, “sorry.”
“That’s ok,” said the Timelord, “I understand.”
“So where were you thinking?” Jack asked.
“Well, I’ve always wanted to go to Athens, and Rome, and to see the pyramids.” Ianto said excitedly, “Oh, and New York. And we have to spend some time just relaxing on a tropical beach somewhere.”
“Sounds perfect.” Jack smiled, gazing into his lover’s eyes.
Ianto blinked and Jack remembered they weren’t alone. He turned to their companion, “Doctor?”
“I’ve seen all those places. You two go ahead. The TARDIS and I have got places to be.”
Jack gave him a grateful look. He was going to enjoy spending some uninterrupted alone time with his gorgeous Welshman.
Ianto was still excitedly making plans in his head, “We’ll get a taxi to the airport this afternoon and see what flights are leaving this evening. Gwen is going to be so mad at us when we turn up a few hours after we left. She will be going mad with worry and we will have just got back from the holiday of a lifetime!”
The three men laughed, imagining what the feisty Welshwoman would have to say about that.
“I’ll have to give her a long weekend off. And pay for her to go somewhere romantic with Rhys.” Jack smiled.