With the Love of a Family
Disclaimer: Absolutely no owning on my part. I am merely playing in this sandbox.
Summary: One Christmas, Ianto reflects on his family and the effects of his immortality – and has a moment with Rhiannon. Ianto/Jack. Forty-ninth in the "Immortal Janto" series.
I was thinking about how I really haven't addressed how Ianto's immortality would eventually affect his biological family. Yes, I know that it's great that the whole family has been reunited, but, years down the line, they might have problems with his immortality. This is what I think might happen.
This story takes place in 2036, when Annabelle is roughly twenty years old.
Anyways, as always, I think that you should go check out Jorkin's website. The link is on my profile page. The more, the merrier, I say!
Now, without further ado, I present, for your reading pleasure, the latest installment of the "Immortal Janto" series. Enjoy!
Christmas was a time for family and Ianto loved it, always had and always would. He loved being with his family – both his biological family and his adopted one. Having Jack and Annabelle in his life made Christmas even better.
But, as he reflected, as the years went by, and his biological family got older, it was getting harder to be around them.
Only recently, when they lost his Tad and Wilf, did Ianto realize just how fleeting the time that he had with his loved ones were. Yes, he knew, in theory, that, one day, they would pass on and he would be left with only the memories of them. He understood – really understood, now – the amount of pain that Jack bore, watching people grow old and die while still staying the same.
During the early years after his return, it had been relatively easy. No one questioned why he looked the same as he always did.
But time passed.
Now, when Annabelle was twenty, they had to be careful.
His Mam didn't begrudge his immortality. She was glad that he was alive, safe, and had found someone to share his life with – and that included his immortality. Mam loved Jack and Annabelle. Even now, in her late eighties, she did not seemed faze that, save for those old radiation-induced streaks in his hair, Ianto still looked the same as he did when he had first died all as a result of the 456s.
Of his siblings, only Rhiannon and her family maintained a stable and normal relationship with Ianto, Jack, and Annabelle.
Rebecca and Gavin still spoke with them. They loved him, of course. He was their brother, though he saw the ways that their eyes flashed with a flurry of emotions at his unchanging nature. Oh, they were happy that he was alive and all that, but there was reservation there, especially in regards to how their own families interacted with the three immortals. Ianto would regularly meet with them, though, to their children, he was a distant relative and friend, a supporter to them, not their parents' biological brother.
But, regardless, Ianto had made sure to set up a trust to ensure that each of their families, for generations to come, would not want for anything. It was the least he could do for Rebecca, Rhiannon, and Gavin.
He loved both Rebecca and Gavin. He had Rebecca, being the youngest two, had been close growing up. Gavin, likewise, was his brother and they had that bond of being the pair of brothers in the family. But those bonds only extended so far when Ianto was the only one of the four Jones siblings who would live for forever.
It saddened him that Rebecca and Gavin had not brought their respected spouses and children very far into the loop, regarding immortality, time travel, and all that jazz. Annabelle did interact with her cousins – and they considered themselves as cousins, though things were a little strained, as the young generation began to realize that Annabelle and her two fathers were unchanging. Ianto was happy to see his family grow and prosper, regardless. He was proud of his nieces and nephews, even if they didn't call Jack and him 'Uncle.'
However, of his whole, biological family (Mam withstanding), only Rhiannon, Johnny, Mica, and David were completely comfortable around Jack, Ianto, and Annabelle.
Ianto knew that it had to do with the fact that, of all his nieces and nephews, David and Mica were the only ones who had an established (if strained) relationship with him before his immortality kicked in. Both children remembered the 456s clearly and his death. They knew of the TARDIS and about his immortality – and the immortality of Jack and Annabelle. Only those two, even in their thirties now, still called him 'Uncle Ianto' every time they saw him. Their own young children knew him and Jack as their uncles – and Annabelle as a cousin.
Johnny and Rhi were of a similar mindset to their children. Of his three siblings (and their spouses), he saw his older sister and brother-in-law the most – and he brought Jack and Annabelle with him on a regular basis. Rhi absolutely adored her niece, doting and caring. Johnny did too, though he didn't always say it in so many words. Now in their fifties, both Rhi and Johnny maintained a policy of regular (almost weekly) communications and meetings with the three.
For that, Ianto was grateful.
When you had forever, the finite amount of time you had with your mortal family was more than precious.
And so, given the relationship that he had with his whole family, Ianto was glad that he, his husband, and their daughter could spend their Christmas Day with Rhiannon and her family.
Per Jones family tradition, there was a larger Christmas Eve get-together, though Ianto and Jack hadn't attended said party in a number of years. Once the fact that their immortality was causing a divide, they stepped back slowly, visiting each family privately at different times during the holiday season.
It hurt that he had a separation with his family, but Ianto knew that it was for the best.
Annabelle was in the kitchen, helping Mica and David's wife, Lisbeth, with the final dinner preparations. Mica and Lisbeth were laughing at some tale of Annabelle's.
Jack was with David, Johnny, and Mica's husband, Roland, watching over the young children in the living room, as the five young ones (ranging from the ages of a matter of months to six years old) played with their Christmas toys. It was hard to think that Rhiannon was a grandmother already.
Ianto turned and saw Rhiannon in the dining, finishing setting the table for dinner. She was humming carols to herself. He smiled.
She always did that when she was happy.
After all this time, she was happy.
Tears unexpectedly sprung to his eyes. Rhiannon was so vivacious and caring, even after all this time. In her fifties, she still had that same warmth that she had when she was younger. And that's what Ianto loved about his older sister.
She accepted him of everything that he was – immortality and Jack included.
He strode into the dining room, walking around the table behind his sister. Rhiannon squeaked a little bit as she turned and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace. Ianto buried his head into her shoulder, breathing in the scent that was distinctly his sister.
"Ianto!" she exclaimed, surprise in her voice as she wrapped her arms around him, retuning his hug. "What's this about?"
"I love you, Rhi," he whispered to her, trying to tell her everything that he possibly could in those four small words and the embrace.
She squeezed him before drawing back to look up at him.
"I love you too, Ianto."
Silence passed between the two siblings. Rhi understood what he was trying to tell her. He could see it in her eyes and the little, knowing smile that passed across her lips.
Ianto didn't know what was going to do without his beloved older sister.
Later, as they sat back in the living room, after dinner, digesting the meal, Ianto was cuddled next to Jack, his lover's arms holding him close to him. He saw the genuinely happily smiles on both Johnny's and Rhiannon's faces.
Jack snorted a bit. He saw the looks on their faces as well.
"What are you two looking at?" Jack asked.
"The way the pair of you still manage to act like you're newlyweds, even after more than twenty years," Johnny said, laughing a bit under his breath, giving his wife's brother and brother-in-law an affectionate look. "It's like you're the poster boys for stable marriage."
That made both Ianto and Jack laugh.
"Wouldn't be the first time I was a poster boy," Jack replied.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Rhiannon commented, rolling her eyes drolly. Ianto smiled at that. Rhi was so his sister. "The two of you are good together, though."
"We are, yeah?" Ianto said, looking up to Jack, grinning.
Jack pressed a kiss to his lips, a promise for a lovely evening between the two of them, when they were alone. Drawing back, Jack was smiling, his blue eyes twinkling in the light. "As if there was any doubt about that?"
The whole family chuckled.
"The pair of you better stay together for the rest of time," Rhiannon told them, her voice suddenly very serious. "Because, Jack, if you break my brother's heart at some point down the road, I will come and find you and make you pay, mark my words."
Maybe this threat was a little too late, given that they had already gotten married twice and they had a daughter together, but Ianto did appreciate his sister's overprotectiveness. She loved Jack, despite her initial misgivings of the man. Ianto knew that she merely letting Jack know that.
Jack didn't have the words to respond to her but Ianto saw the little nod that Jack gave to her, understanding.
Despite all the problems that immortality caused, Ianto still loved his family and loved Christmas. It was a magical time of the year and he wouldn't trade it for anything – even if the Doctor had something of a tendency to attract trouble around this time of year.
Well, that's that. A bit of a sentimental story, but I wanted to go back and do a story about Ianto's family. I hadn't really featured them recently. I especially wanted to show the relationship between Ianto and Rhiannon. While Gavin and Rebecca are original characters, I felt that Rhiannon and her family would be most understanding of Ianto's weird life, given that we saw how they reacted during the Children of Earth series.
You guys know what to do. Send me reviews! I love them like you wouldn't believe and, as I always tell you, the next story in the "Immortal Janto" series will be posted as soon as I possibly can!