Title: Intime, part 2
Pairing(s)/ Characters: Ianto/Lisa; Jack and Ianto (the early days); the Torchwood teams with and without Suzie; assorted dinosaurs, aliens, and Weevils.
Word Count: 7,639
Warning(s): Some language, and a bit of sexin' in the storage room.
Possible Spoilers: Set over a time period that runs from before “Everything Changes” to “Countrycide” with a soupcon of “Fragments.”
Disclaimer: The sand and the sandbox belong to RTD the BBC. The sandcastles are mine.

(apologies for any wacky formatting... blame LJ for giving me fits!)

Ianto’s workstation, Torchwood Three Archives, Level Six…

He jumped when he felt Jack’s hands on his shoulders, and shivered as Jack leaned over him, his hair tickling Ianto’s ear.

“What are you writing there, Ianto?”

“Lists, Sir.”

“You make a lot of lists, don’t you?”

“I like lists.”

“I’ve got a few lists of my own, you know.”

“Anything I can help you with?”

Jack had laughed, then, but Ianto was all too aware of the thumb gently running up and down the back of his neck as Jack stood with his hands on Ianto’s shoulders.

“Go home, Ianto. Everyone else left hours ago.”

Ianto looked up at Jack, and said as he gathered a few files together, “I have a few things to do down here yet. But if you wanted to order us a pizza, I’ll be done here in about half an hour. We could discuss those lists of yours over dinner.”

“Make it twenty minutes, Ianto, and you have a deal.”

Jack started out the door, but turned back just as Ianto was crossing to the row of filing cabinets behind him.

“Topping?”

“Sir?” Ianto asked, eyebrow raised.

“On the pizza, Ianto. What you do want on it?”

“Oh. Right. Order whatever you like, Sir. I’m very accommodating.”

Ianto could hear Jack laughing as he walked away down the hall. Ianto smiled as he thought ahead to dinner with Jack… and the possible effects of teasing Jack about always ordering the “meat feast.”

Written in Ianto's Diary…

Talked to my first alien today. The poor thing fell through the Rift and landed in a car park in Roath. Why do aliens always end up in car parks? Jack, Gwen, and Tosh brought it back to the Hub in a cat basket. They had it up in the conference room most of the day trying to communicate with it. Jack sent me out for some fruit mid-morning, and when I took them lunch, I brought it a banana, some grapes, and a clementine. They must have gotten some of the basics across, as it looked at me when I put down the tray and said {squeaked ?} “Who?”

Jack provided the introductions.

“Ianto, this is Adjenii. Adjenii, Ianto. Ianto has lunch.”

I handed it a grape and it ate it, and then flew at me, wrapping its arms {front legs? paws?} around my neck, squeaking, “One-Two making Adjenii happily.”

It looked like a bald pink Yorkshire terrier with iridescent wings and a long tail. The only hair on it was some white fluff around the end of its tail, which kept changing color. The changes seemed to indicate some kind of mood change or emotional expression. It turned pink when it hugged me.

I patted it, rather awkwardly I suppose, and offered it another grape. It hopped back onto the table and ate the rest of the grapes, its tail turning pale purple. It liked the clementine, after Jack peeled it for her. {Jack said he could tell it was female. One wonders how he knows, but I don’t question this skill of his. Easier just not to.}

She didn’t like the banana. This surprised Jack for some reason. Said most aliens love bananas. {Again, it’s just easier to take him at his word.} I took the banana away, after apologizing to Adjenii, who had said, “No, no, not liking,” when she tried it.

She patted my hand and said “One-Two nicely.” I think this was a compliment. It was rather difficult to tell.

She curled up in her basket after lunch and took a nap, with her nose buried in her now blue tail. We met in Jack’s office to try and figure out what to do with it. Owen {the git} called it an alien fruit bat and suggested a one-way trip to wherever fruit bats live. Gwen wanted to keep it as a sort of pet. {Seriously. “How?” I wanted to ask her. It’s not like we could re-home it like a stray cat!} Tosh kept trying to refine the translation program so that we could communicate with her better, and Jack was searching star charts trying to think of some way to locate it’s home planet. {Although I don’t suppose that would help us much, in any case…} I searched the database in case there was any helpful information. The closest thing I found was a sort of green monkey with teeth like a cobra’s that had killed six children in the mid-nineteen thirties, but that didn’t seem to be much help in this situation.

Unfortunately, when Adjenii woke up from her nap and went for a fly around the Hub, Myfanwy saw her, swooped down, carried her off and ate her. The girls cried, Jack swore, and that wanker Owen just laughed.

Jack has ordered me to figure out some way to train Myfanwy to recognize what she is allowed to eat.

The Hub, time elapsed since Jack’s departure… 4 hours, 27 minutes, 41 seconds and counting…

Jack returned to the hub late one night and found Ianto slumped over, fast asleep on the sofa, one hand tucked under his head. In his other hand, drooping over the edge of the sofa, Ianto was clutching a ticking stopwatch. Jack moved a mug and a small green leather book out of the way, and sat on the corner of the coffee table for a moment, content for the moment to simply watch Ianto. The young man was so rarely at rest, that it was good to see him laying there, breathing quietly. Jack reached over and pressed the button to quiet the stopwatch’s ticking, and tried to slip it out of Ianto’s hand, intending to set it on the table where it would be safe. But even asleep Ianto was devoted. As he clutched his hand tighter, he curled it to his chest muttering, “must… keep… watch….” Jack smiled at the boy’s loyalty, and retreated to his office. He turned on his desk lamp, and sat, feet propped up, watching Ianto sleep.

Soon Jack would realize all that Ianto was guarding that night.

The day after Torchwood killed the Cyberwoman…

Text Message from Jack to Ianto:

YOU AND I ARE GOING TO A FUNERAL TOMORROW. WILL PICK YOU UP AT 1300. WILL NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER.

1300 Hours…

Jack knocked on Ianto’s door, but no one answered. He tried the knob, and found the door unlocked, so stepped inside and looked around.

“Ianto?” he called.

Hearing no response, he searched until he found Ianto sitting on his bed in his underwear, a dark purple shirt clutched in his hands.

“Ianto?” he tried again.

Getting no response, he knelt down in front of Ianto and put his hands on the young man’s knees.

Ianto finally broke the silence, saying quietly, “I don’t know what to wear.”

“What’s wrong with this purple shirt?” Jack asked gently.

“Whose funeral is it I’m dressing for, Jack? Hers? Annie’s? Tanizaki’s? Mine? I can’t…”

“Ianto, how could you think…”

Ianto slipped to the floor, kneeling in front of Jack, grasping at the greatcoat’s sleeves.

“You swore you’d kill us both. Please Jack. Without her, I’m nothing…”

Jack cupped Ianto’s face in his hands.

“I know you think that. But you are so wrong, Ianto Jones. You… you’re a survivor. I’ve been where you are. I’ve buried wives, lovers, partners, children, friends… bosses. You think there is no way to go on, but you must.”

“No!” Ianto shoved Jack back onto the floor. “I will not take advice from you. Not from a murderer.”

Before Ianto could stand, Jack had grabbed his arm, spun him around and pinned him up against the bed. He twisted Ianto’s arm firmly and pressed him into the mattress as he whispered in his ear.

“I’ve killed more beings than you could possibly imagine, but we’ve both got blood on our hands, now haven’t we? Now get up and get dressed. We’re late.”

Jack pulled Ianto up, scooped the purple shirt off the floor and tossed it at him.

“Put that on.”

Jack then pulled a suit out of Ianto’s wardrobe and held it out to him.

“This one.”

Ianto glared at Jack, but did as he was ordered. Jack handed him a tie, but Ianto tossed it on the bed with a snort, and walked past Jack to pick a different tie from the rack on the inside of the wardrobe door. As Ianto was pulling some socks from a drawer, and putting on his shoes, Jack stood in the doorway and watched him.

Jack watched as Ianto knotted his tie, and ran his fingers through his hair. Without a word spoken, the two men walked outside to Ianto’s car. Ianto slid into the passenger seat when Jack opened the door for him.

When they stopped at a red light, Jack said softly, “I once let loose something that nearly destroyed all life on Earth. Someone helped me fix that mistake. Took me traveling with him. But eventually he left me all alone and I had to fix my own mistakes. I’m hoping one day I’ll see him again.”

There was silence in the car as both men lost themselves in their thoughts.

After a few more minutes of driving, Jack parked behind a Sneed and Sons Mortuary van on a tree lined street that bordered a small cemetery, and the two men walked across the grass toward a fresh grave. Ianto stopped and looked at Jack, and then asked, “Did he forgive you?”

Jack smiled. “Rescued me, just as I was about to blow myself up.”

“Is there a happy ending to this fairy tale of yours, Jack?”

“My story hasn’t ended yet, Ianto. But we had happy days, grand adventures … and lots of dancing.”

Ianto found himself pulled suddenly into Jack’s embrace. He felt Jack brush a kiss to his temple, and then whisper in his ear, “It’s time for you to say goodbye to her. ”

Jack knelt, pulled a short pillar candle from the pocket of his coat, placed it on the grave, and lit it while reciting what might have been a prayer, in a language Ianto had never heard. Then he walked away and stood under a tree, watching as Ianto fell to his knees beside the grave.

In Ianto’s kitchen one rainy afternoon over coffee…

“What do I have left, Sir?”

“You don’t need me to answer that.”

“Maybe I want you to.”

“Want and need, Ianto are two very different things.”

“Just leads to pain, either way.”

“Did you wake up the cynical side of the bed today?”

“You want me to have hope? After everything? After …”

“You have to have hope, Ianto.”

“And what if I respectfully decline?”

“Drink your coffee Ianto.”

Ianto pushed the cup away from him and stood, picking up Jack’s coat. He held it up as Jack slipped his arms into it and turned to go.

He turned in the doorway and said, “The cup is half full, Ianto,” before walking out and closing the door gently behind him.

Ianto dumped his cold coffee down the sink, and heaved the cup at the door.

Jack stopped as he heard the cup shatter against the door behind him, and then he walked away, leaving Ianto sitting alone in his empty kitchen.

Ianto’s living room. The middle of the night…

Ianto sat on his couch, bathed in the flickering light of the movie he was watching with the sound off.

He flinched at the knocks on his door, but he wasn’t all that surprised to find Jack standing outside, the moonlight glinting off the buttons of his coat.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Jack said. “Come for a walk with me?”

It had been a long time since Captain Jack Harkness had had a door slammed in his face.

Outside of Ianto’s residence, the next afternoon…

Jack was rapidly losing patience as he left another message on Ianto’s voicemail.

“Ianto. Open the door. I still need…”

The door was jerked open and a decidedly sleepy looking Ianto ground out, “What?”

Jack took in the tousled hair, the ratty Guinness t-shirt, the flannel pajama bottoms, and Ianto’s bare feet and tried to repress a snort of amusement.

“Owen needs to know where the supply requisitions are.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

“Ianto…”

“Jack.”

Both men stared at each other, both sets of blue eyes sparking.

Finally Ianto broke the silence with a sigh as he leaned against the doorframe.

“Do you think you could dial back the bullshit, Sir. I’m really not up to it just now.”

“Just tell me where you put the damn requisitions forms and I’ll let you get back to wallowing in cheap booze and bitter recriminations.”

Snorting with frustration, Ianto rubbed his hand across the back of his neck and asked, “Jesus, Jack. Does Owen ever use his computer for anything except porn?”

Jack looked puzzled, as Ianto continued.

“I went over this weeks ago. I’ve labeled all of the medical supplies with encoded ID tracking tags, and programmed the computer to scan and upload them into Owen’s weekly equipment requisition file. Anything he uses will automatically be added to the following week’s requisition. All he has to do is check the file on the mainframe, make sure there’s nothing he wants to add to it, and then forward you a copy for your approval.”

“Oh,” Jack replied softly, jamming his hands in the pocket of his greatcoat.

“Now if you’re done pretending to give a damn… I have about six months worth of sleep to catch up on.”

“Ianto, I…”

“Save it Jack. Tosh has all the details about the supply and inventory upgrades. She can handle monitoring the police and newswire feeds. Send Gwen out for coffee and have Owen feed the Weevils. They like him. I don’t want to know why. If you don’t run out of toilet roll, you’ll never miss me.”

He started to turn away and shut the door, but Jack put his hand out to keep the door from closing.

Ianto watched, as Jack paused to considered what he should say. He looked back at Ianto for a moment, and then cleared his throat and said, “Rumpled is a good look on you. Get some rest. OK?”

Jack’s coattails swished behind him as he clattered down the steps and into the SUV parked at the curb as Ianto shut the door behind him.

Late one afternoon on the Plass…

“Oi, Jack!” Owen yelled across the Hub. “CCTV is picking up Teaboy wandering about up top.”

Jack appeared in the doorway of his office, pulling on his coat.

“I’ll handle this.”

Jack took the lift up, and stood camouflaged by the perception filter for a few minutes, watching Ianto pace along the base of the Water Tower.

As Ianto walked past Jack, Jack stepped off the paving stone, and fell into step beside him.

“You enjoy doing that, don’t you?”

“It has a certain dramatic flair. Are you stalking me again?”

“What would you say if I was?”

“I’d say it’s going to take more than coffee to win me over.”

“So dinner then.”

“Let’s say you buy me dinner, and I’ll let you tell me how much you missed me, and then we’ll take things from there.”

As they walked across the Plass, Jack bumped his shoulder into Ianto’s, and asked, “So what did you have up your sleeve if I had said no. You’re too thorough not to have thought up a Plan B.”

Ianto’s cheeks flushed as he dug in his jacket pocket before tossing something at Jack.

Jack caught the small plush toy, and laughed as he looked down at the Tyrannosaurus Rex sitting in the palm of his hand.

In the SUV on the way to Ianto’s flat upon their return from the Brecon Beacons…

“Still think taking the team camping was a good idea Jack?”

“In retrospect I wouldn’t say it was my best idea ever, no.”

Ianto sighed softly and leaned his head back against the headrest.

“I thought it would be fun. Get some fresh air, sit and talk around the campfire, tell ghost stories…”

“Hide snakes in Owen’s sleeping bag?”

“You have a devious mind, Mr. Jones.”

“Yep.”

After a long pause, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s fine … as long as I don’t have to head-butt any psychopathic cannibals in the near future.”