bluecastle | A Gentleman's Gentleman

Title: Chapter Eight – Green Eyed Monsters
Series: A Gentleman's Gentleman
Summary: Ianto may not be jealous... but he does get even...
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
A/N: a/n: way back when, I had suggestions to include grumpy UNIT officers. Here you go. Mostly I just wanted to take a look at Jack and Ianto from another's perspective.
Words: 1716

find the start of the series here

Captain Cedric Clifton thought a lot of himself. He considered himself a fair-minded, well-educated career army man with a job that required him to help save the world on a fairly regular basis. Also, he was good looking, and good in bed. He told himself these things, and at least some of it was true. It all depended upon how you looked at it. What he saw as fair-minded, others might have seen as patronizing. His education could be seen to be the result of money and family connections, rather than any great scholarly leaning. Likewise, his job was more about who he knew that what he knew. As a UNIT Procurement Division Chief, he had rather less to do with saving the world, than he did with making sure everyone got fed and clothed, and had the right ammunition for the battle. And perhaps his looks and his sexual prowess might have caused some people to occasionally refer to him as “Ceddy, that vain slut.”

But he was tall, and broad shouldered from years of tennis and rowing, with curly auburn hair and green eyes, and he was pleased with himself when he looked in the mirror. He had perfected an easy grin, and a languid demeanor that usually got him what he wanted. And what he wanted right now was Captain Jack Harkness. Ced and Jack had a lot of chemistry together, and while their relationship was extremely casual, it could be a bit tempestuous. Their typical pattern was to fight very publicly, and then spend a lot of time making-up in private.

But Jack had been at the UNIT conference now for two days, and they had not spoken more than a passing word to each other. Ced was used to being the center of attention, so it disturbed him to find himself sitting at a small table in the corner of the drawing room, stirring sugar into his coffee and watching Jack share his breakfast with another man.

The two men were sitting next to each other at a table in the middle of the room. Neither of them was saying much. Jack was rather untidily slapping butter and jam on his toast, while the other one was reading the paper and sipping his orange juice. To all outward appearances it was just two work colleagues having breakfast together. But Ced had known Jack for too many years not to be able to read the subtle clues about the real nature of the men’s relationship. The subtle caress of fingers as the jam pot was handed from one to the other. The way Jack would try and steal strawberries from him and the other man would slap his hand away without ever looking up from his paper. Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, sleeves occasionally brushing, they were the picture of intimacy. Ced found his mind going dangerous places as he fixed on the young man’s full red lips as Jack tried to feed him a piece of a muffin. The young man blushed so prettily as he smacked Jack’s hand away with the back of his fork.

Ced’s thoughts were interrupted when someone slid into the chair next to him, intoning sarcastically, “You seem to be losing your touch, Clifton, old man. How does it feel to be second best for a change?”

“Oh, bugger off your highness,” Clifton replied. “I don’t intend to sit here and watch ruddy Jack Harkness swanning about, flaunting his well-tailored puppy.”

”Prat,” Simon Thackery, the ninth Earl of Waltham thought to himself as he smiled and watched Captain Clifton stride across the room to the buffet table.

Thackery took a moment to appreciate his strong cup of Earl Grey tea, as he turned his attention back to Jack’s companion. The young dark haired man in the immaculate suit was, just at that moment, scrubbing at the Captain’s shirt cuff, trying to remove some sort of stain, while simultaneously trying to eat and talk on the phone. Jack kept trying to bat the other man’s hands away, but the young man appeared to Thackery to be of the persistent sort, finally distracting the Captain by handing him the phone and asking him to talk to the person on the other end of the line. While Jack was laughing at something said during his phone conversation, his aide got the stain sorted and then purposefully moved the raspberry jam out of the way.

Ianto took his phone back when Jack finished the call, and then moved off to have a word with one of the housemaids hovering behind the buffet table. Thackery watched Ced wander over to Jack, who was reading the paper that had been left on the table. Ostensibly heading across the room for another cup of tea, he wandered closer to the two Captains in case things got out of hand. He overheard Clifton speaking to Jack.

“So, Jack… where’s you shadow? I wouldn’t have thought you’d tire of your new toy so soon. Jack always did like pretty young things, eh Thackery?” he said, turning in the direction of his colleague.

“With some notable exceptions,” Simon replied dryly.

Jack smiled at both men, but with very different smiles.

“Jealous, Ceddy?” Jack asked.

“Hardly. Really old man, your secretary? I mean, I’d heard rumors…”

“You spend too much time around the water cooler, Ced. In any case, I don’t have a secretary.”

“What else would you call someone who follows you around taking notes, and handing you coffees?”

“I’d call them helpful,” Jack huffed. He was about to go on when Ianto glided up to him, handed him a coffee, placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and turned to his companions.

“Good morning, all.” Turning to Jack he added, “You really have the most atrocious manners, Sir. You never remember to do the introductions. Captain Clifton, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Ianto stepped forward to shake the man’s hand, introducing himself, “Ianto Jones.”

“Jones,” Captain Clifton nodded, after a perfunctory handshake.

Ianto turned to the man standing next to Captain Clifton, and gave a small bow, adding, “My Lord…”

“Simon Thackery,” he corrected, stepping forward to shake Ianto’s hand. “When you come up to Whitehall next, you can give out with that “Right Honorable the Earl of Waltham” claptrap, but around here we’re far less formal. It’s nice to put a face to a name Ianto Jones. I have a feeling you’re the one the PM has to thank for the regular reports we’ve been getting from Torchwood.”

“I’m glad to be of service,” Ianto murmured.

Ced just stood there gaping at the utter civility of it all as Jack took a sip of his coffee.

“Ianto is Torchwood’s Administrator as well as our Archivist,” Jack added, looking at Ced with contempt clearly evident in his eyes.

Ianto smiled as he quipped, “That’s just Jack’s fancy way of saying I know where the bodies are buried.”

Simon watched a strange look pass between Jack and Ianto at the mention of bodies, but was soon distracted by Ianto’s next words. The words were surface friendly, and seemingly addressed to Jack and to Simon, but it soon became clear that he was really intending his words for Captain Clifton.

“It’s all in knowing where to look, really. All that time in the archives gives me plenty of time to read. And with access to most of the national databases, there’s a surprising amount of information you can find … personnel records, memos from internal affairs, governmental briefings, phone records, NHS files. My time at Torchwood London taught me thoroughness, and I worked up a full dossier including complete background checks for all the conference attendees during a couple of sleepless nights. You can learn a lot about a person when you do a full credit check, and cross reference off-shore bank records with international patent applications. Especially when you know what alien tech to be on the lookout for…”

“You certainly do know where the bodies are buried, young man … good for you. Now come along Clifton, and we’ll get you some ice for that swollen ego of yours…” and with a nod, the Earl of Waltham swept Captain Clifton out of the room.

“Ianto, you didn’t?”

“I did, actually.”

“Is there something I should know about Captain Clifton?”

“Captain Clifton has a tendency to interpret his position in Procurement as something other than supporting the troops. Also, there seems to be a direct correlation between his current affair with the head of UNITs Research and Development department and several patent applications for very innovative products that cropped up quite recently. And lastly, I believe that by the time he gets done with his departmental performance review, and the tax audit I have him scheduled for, he might just be grateful that I hacked his off-shore accounts and transferred most of his money elsewhere.”

“Did you give yourself a raise with the money?” Jack asked in amazement.

“I think you’ll find it’s been put to good use, Sir. The bulk of it I transferred into the secure Flat Holm fund. Things could do with a bit of sprucing up out there. Oh, and I’m sure the team will be thanking you for their really excellent Christmas bonuses this year.”

Jack started laughing, and kept laughing until he was gasping for breath and had to sit back down in his chair.

“Ianto Jones I believe you’re jealous."

"Surely not sir. What would I have to be jealous of?” he asked pointedly.

“Ceddy and I, we…"

"Captain Clifton was abusing his powers and deserves what he gets, Jack. That wasn’t jealousy, that was doing my job. If I were jealous, I would have gotten far more creative than a tax audit.”

Ianto allowed himself a satisfying moment as he thought of all the ways he could make Clifton’s life very unpleasant. But in the end he just gathered his things and waited for Jack to join him on their way to the first presentation of the day.

He did however make the following note in his PDA for the next day.

Hack British Air. Re-route Clifton’s luggage to Afghanistan.

Ianto wasn’t the jealous type. But he very much resented being referred to as a secretary.