His voice had never sounded so cold, he regretted what he said the minute it left his lips but there was nothing that could be done about it now. He saw Ianto take a deep breath and keep walking, he needed to go after him but Gwen stepped into his office and slammed the door.
"How dare you. After Tosh and Owen, what gives you the right." She didn't raise her voice in the slightest but that was even more terrifying. Gwen was furious and he had a right to be worried. "He has given this job everything he has. He lives for this damn place and you go and say that. You don't deserve him, or the total devotion he has for you." She says sharply, still fuming she storms out of the office.
She has to go and find Ianto, before he goes and does something stupid.
In his office Jack is sitting at his desk with his head in his hands. Of all the things he could have said in that situation, there was nothing he could have said to make the situation worse. "Oh god Ianto. What have I done" Jack says aloud to his empty office.
Down in the basements, Gwen finds Ianto in one of the archives, sitting amongst stacks of papers.
"If he's sent you down here to get me to forgive him, then forget it." He says looking up at her and she can see his emotions so clearly in those eyes of his.
"No. I wanted to come down and make sure you didn't do something stupid, like torch the place." She says with a small smile at her fellow countryman and his lips twitch for a second. He rubs his eyes and sighs heavily.
"I wouldn't rule it out yet." He says and Gwen places her hand on his arm and looks at him carefully. "He had no right to say what he did. He was out of line and he knows." Gwen says and Ianto sighs again shaking his head.
"I just don't understand why of all the things he could have said, why would he say; what's the point of having you people around; I don't get why those words came out." Ianto says and he drops his head into his hands as h rubs his face.
"He's a total git yes, but you know full well he's talking a load of crap." Gwen says and Ianto sighs and lifts his head to look at her. He shakes his head as he tries to think on his words.
"That's the problem though. He's not, Jack says a lot of crap, but even something like this, at some level he believes it. There's a part of his own never ending life that thinks we're no use to him, that at some point we're all going to wither and die and he's better off not getting attached and sometimes it makes me wonder why would he wants to in the first place." Ianto says and there's footsteps and Jack steps into the room. Both Ianto and Gwen turn to look at him. They just glare at him as he leans against one of the archive racks.
"I get attached because when people die they get forgotten and I don't want to forget some people. In a hundred years I want to be able to remember this team and it's damn well going to cause me pain, but I'd much prefer becoming attached to people and suffer as they die, than to live out all my life without caring about anyone." Jack says as he steps towards them and sits down on the other side of his young lover.
"What I said wasn't meant to come out as it did. I swear to you. I didn't say it because I don't care about any of you, I said it because I care too damn much and that hurts sometimes, knowing at some point I'm going to have to say goodbye to all of you and move on." Jack says this is the Jack they started to see more of since Tosh and Owen died. The Jack that knows time is running out for the people he cares about and there's nothing he can do to stop it.
