Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood, no copyright infringement intended. If you still want to sue bring Ianto back to Jack first. Titles for the fiction and for its chapters are copyright by Abba, namely from the song "My love, my life". This story was not inspired by it: I simply had the song stuck in my head for weeks, so I decided to find a use for the lyrics. And I'll plainly ignore that it could easily be Ianto's character song.
Warnings: Small references to the series plus a little cameo from DW-The day of the Doctor, but no need to see the movie. Not beta-read and English's not my native language. Constructive criticism is appreciated.
Worn-out old phrases
"No, please, remind me again why you searched for me everywhere in this world and in a few others…"
Jack sighed and skidded tiredly a hand on his face, hoping that the young girl in front of him could just disappear together with her stupid requests and explanations. When he peeked through his fingers though, she was still there, staring awkwardly at him through big black framed eyeglasses.
He noticed her stop smiling embarrassedly at him, use her inhalator, and then resume her sympathetic attitude, made of big afflicted eyes and awkward smiles. She tightened the long and colourful scarf around her neck for what it could have easily been the fifth time in two minutes, and Jack could only hope that it was a nervous tick or some symbolic shield to protect herself, otherwise he would allow himself to suspect that she was hiding something under all that wool.
He simply wasn't in the mood to fight a cute girl so early in the afternoon.
Eventually she coughed politely, trying to clear her voice a little. "We- I mean, my boss, actually, just wanted to know whether you can trace your old Vortex Manipulator or not. We- I am extremely sorry."
"Yeah, ok, but the main point here is: you had my bloody VM! I searched for it everywhere and then it was almost suicidal trying to get another one! I do understand that Torchwood was technically undercover/disappeared/dead/a group of terrorists, but you found me now. All the way through the galaxy! Why didn't you do it something like six years ago to give me back my own things!? It was mine! Mine! Does not UNIT know this word?"
Now Jack was 100% pouting, but the only effect it had on the young scientist was making her increase her own Dramatic Intense Stare to even with his level of displeasure.
"I'm so sorry, so really sorry, so very very veeery sorry" She insisted. "It's not like I can decide things by myself, and six years ago I wasn't even working here! Anyway, I can see you have a new one now… Isn't it good!? Besides, the one that was here is… well, as I was telling you before is… kind of MIA."
"How can a Vortex Manipulator become MIA?"
"Well, it's MIA the person that took it, this would make the VM itself Missing In Action too. Not his action, but her action… Isn't it still an action it is missing in?"
"You're confusing me now." Jack stated, closing his eyes despairingly and taking a deep breath. The only other person in the whole galaxy that had managed to confuse him like that had been the Doctor himself, and he deeply hoped that the scientist wasn't related to him. For his own well-being.
"I'm sorry" She repeated, looking sincerely regretful even when she had to use her inhalator again. "Anyway, now you're here and… We did everything for nothing. So… Well, since some of the things stored here were yours as well as the Vortex Manipulator, why don't you take a souvenir? We inconvenienced you, it's the least we can do."
"Inconvenienced." Jack snapped, feeling enraged enough to appear half the angry man he was. "UNIT stalked me, killed me, kidnapped me, killed me again and left me in a dark cargo ship until we got back to a planet I wasn't planning to see again any time soon! I would call it a little more than inconvenienced!"
Jack didn't add the fact that the dark cargo ship had been the worst part of the kidnapping. After spending two thousand years buried underground, his ability to stand dark confined spaces had diminished dramatically, but he wasn't going to reveal his weak points to UNIT.
"I-" She tried again, but Jack simply glared at the girl, daring her to say again for the one hundredth time how sorry she was. "-regret what they did to you. That's why I think you should take something… We have scavenged a lot from your ruins."
"I. Know." Jack pointed out irritated.
"There must be something you wanted to keep!"
"Yes, my VM. Thank you very much for nothing."
"Other than that! Pleeease, I'm not used being part of these things" She insisted, contorting her cute features in an even cuter pained and subdued expression. Unfortunately, Jack simply wasn't in the mood for that.
"I already got the only thing I wanted beside my VM" He explained a little less angrily, taking out from his pocket a small leather covered book that seemed suspiciously like a diary. "And not thanks to you. If this is everything, I'll be going."
Jack had no time to actually go towards what he hoped to be the exit from the UNIT hideout, or wherever they had brought him this time, that she grasped tightly his arm in a vain attempt to stop him and bring him back towards the Torchwood relics.
"I. Beg. To. Insiiist" She said strained, using all her strength to move Jack, but not managing to budge the grown man a single bit.
Eventually he took pity of her and moved towards the glass showcases on his own accord, intending to just pretend having a quick look at them, say he liked nothing and finally make his glorious exit from there. When he actually reached the area where most of the Torchwood tech was though, he felt a wave of nostalgia overcoming him and, before he could realize it, small tears began forming at the corner of his eyes.
The alien languages translator Suzie had scavenged at some point had been, for no reasons at all, put together with the decorated wooden box they had found in his office after the two whole days none of them remembered. Some showcases further on, there was Owen's alien scanner and the singularity scalpel. Jack found himself smirking at that: it looked like not even UNIT had managed to find a way to use it properly without killing anything and anyone.
Then it was the turn of the blade coming from Beth's cyber-arm: he had kept it more than everything for sentimental reasons, since all of them had eventually grown attached to the woman, so seeing it there inside cold and sterile glass for show like a common museum relic hurt quite a bit.
However a small smile returned on his lips as he saw the next few items. The piece of rock, still neatly archived in its proper plastic bag plus label, was from Gwen's first mission and, not too far from it, there was the Life Knife, now without any glove to be associated to.
No wait, it wasn't without its glove, it was without the Risen Mitten… Ianto had called it that way.
His sweet and funny Ianto, with a knack for cataloguing things and giving catchy names to devices and pets.
Jack walked forward, painfully staring all around himself at the bits of Torchwood life, his and his friends' life and their glorious history, all put there for show: guns, convertors, devices, but also pieces of the rift manipulator and, strangely enough, a big paper box full of their personal belongings. What use had UNIT for their things?
If they had a reason, it was clearly beyond his imagination.
Half burned photos of the team, remains of Gwen's ridiculous pens, a ruined CD, the single ring of their basketball instalment, a partially melted controller for computer games, one of the markers Ianto used in the archives, pieces of keyboards… There was also the old metal box where he was used to keep the photos of his former lovers, but the blast of the explosion had probably busted it open and now all its contents were burned ashes.
Jack had to take a deep breath before tearing his eyes away: that had been his love life for the last century. Their love lives and their friendships, born and killed on the edge of a rift that now didn't exist anymore as if to mock him, since he had took his most treasured boyfriend from him even when it hadn't actually done it.
It had been humans like him to condemn Ianto and to make Jack lose everything he had in one single day. The 456 had propelled things, but they didn't call the shots that destroyed his life, and the rift demanding a sacrifice had come way after death had already separated them.
No matter how much courage he had gathered to get together again with Gwen and Rhys after that, things had never been the same in that sort of pseudo-Torchwood they had patched up overseas and that didn't survive the last ordeal they had been involved in: as far as he knew, the American project had eventually failed. The structure had been closed down forever and the team was either scattered or definitively dead.
Once again only Torchwood Two remained: old and proud and ageless. If Jack liked sheep he would go there just for the sake of saying hello and do something with his eternity, but as things where at the moment, he didn't like sheep and thinking about Torchwood simply tore him apart.
He had to stop this forced full immersion in his lost memories before he lost his mind to it… It was time to try the resourceful escape strategy, and Jack was already turning towards the young researcher to charm his way out of the base, when something among all the Torchwood Three relics caught his eye.
There, as to lure him towards the definitive end of his sanity, there was the ghost machine: the device made to see something happened in the past. Jack stared at it transfixed as an idea began forming in his mind despite his better judgement.
He and his friends had left it alone quite soon and, because of the danger that using the machine could entail, he had also ordered Ianto to put it in the depth of the restricted section of the archives. It really was something too hi-tech for them, and maybe not even his own 51st century could have done much to understand how to work it safely without destroying someone's psyche or connections with other people and the reality itself.
Nevertheless, for him the chance was too good to let it go now. After all, if he was lucky enough, maybe he could… There was only a slight chance, but if he could make it work the way he wanted, he was willing to face the consequences.
Jack had never been one to learn from his own mistakes easily and when he did it, he usually tried to never repeat the same error twice. Still he was immortal and had absolutely nothing left to lose.
"You want that?" The young scientist asked him eventually, bumping into Jack's confused thoughts and feelings with a small and sincere smile.
He stared back at her, thoughtful for just a few moments before nodding. "Yes, please"
The girl's smile widened despite the slight embarrassment showing on her cheeks, and then she proceeded to open the showcase, taking out the ghost machine carefully.
"Here you go." She said, handing him the device, and then pointed towards a small door at the far end of the room. "Exit is that way. You walk until the corridor ends and then turn left. This way you will end up far enough to not come across any of the UNIT staff"
Jack smirked back at her, challengingly raising an eyebrow. "You mean I won't be able to locate where I came out from."
The young girl's smile fell and then she seemed unable to even offer him a tentative one. "I- regret doing this."
"It's fine, it's the same protocol we used at Torchwood: never give the actual entry coordinates to anyone you're suspicious of."
"We do not suspect you!" She protested heatedly, even more embarrassed.
"Yes you do." Jack countered plainly, winking at her. "Thanks for this anyway, and pleased to meet you…?"
"Osgood" She said, shyly offering him her hand to shake while she reassessed her eyeglasses up the bridge of her nose with the other. Jack took it and kissed its back, glancing up at her flirty and making her blush an even deeper shade of red.
"Pleased to meet you Osgood, hope we'll see each other again in a less formal occurrence."
After a last wink in her direction, he finally turned on his heels and disappeared down the corridor she had showed him. Osgood was still staring at the empty air the immortal man had just vacated, when a hand was placed on her shoulder, making her jump slightly.
"Oh, my God!" She cried out, and then turned to look behind herself, only to find a young blond woman staring back at her with a completely unreadable expression on her face.
Osgood relaxed visibly as she realized that the woman was only Kate Steward.
"You shouldn't let yourself be charmed by that man, he's dangerous." Kate reprimanded her.
"I was just impressed!" Osgood protested, tightening her long scarf around her neck once again. "He can make an exit."
"That's what makes him dangerous." She quipped disapprovingly. "So, did he know something?"
"No, but I still can't understand why we're after the lost Vortex Manipulator. It's safe, it's with the Doctor!"
"That's why we're searching it." Kate said, this time a little more condescendingly. "The Doctor would be helpful with our current… accidents. So: find the VM, find the Doctor."
"Still, I don't see any reason to make him take one of the relics at all costs." Osgood insisted, pouting miserably. "I would really hate it if you just made me part of a weird plan to hurt someone. Again."
"It's not to hurt him. You won't have to worry about morals this time. I would just sleep better if he was busy with something basically harmless while we're working. The device will let him mope at his lost squad long enough to not get his nose where it doesn't belong. Something he always does, no matter what his intentions are... We brought him back here, we need to take responsibility."
"That's extremely cynical!" Osgood argued, shocked by her friend's coldness on the matter. "He loved his team… He stared at that box like someone had just killed his puppy! It was horrible to see…"
"I know" Kate's face finally showed deep regret and even some warmth as she tried a small smile for her researcher. "That's why I don't want him trying to play the hero for something we can deal with by ourselves. He's still bleeding."
Osgood relaxed a bit more hearing her words, so Kate eventually lowered her hand to rest it on the middle of her back reassuringly before whispering to her "C'mon, lots of things to do"
X
Jack exited the long tunnel and found himself in the middle of a park, Bute Park in London if he wasn't mistaken. He wondered what the hell he was supposed to do now to get away from the bloody city: of all the places on Earth, London was most certainly the one he hated the most.
The main problem was: where to? Last time he was on Earth, he had eventually found out a way to get back the contents of his bank account and, even though the monthly fee for Alice had been still checked out and there was no more income from his Torchwood work –needless to say that he was still officially dead despite his greatest efforts-, the money left was still enough to allow him to travel wherever he wanted for the following 10 years or so without working a single day.
His first thought was going back to Cardiff, because even after all those years that's what he was used to do: live in Cardiff and do his job saving the world. Except he hadn't actually a place to stay in Cardiff nowadays and he wasn't exactly authorised to be the dashing hero of the city.
Hell he didn't even have a job to fill his days anymore.
Going back to his family was out of question, and his former teammates, as his present VM told him, were currently in South Africa. He only hoped that they weren't trying to create another Torchwood there.
There was still Martha, but a sweet smelling card had reached him through the universe by some unknown means, telling him that she was growing her family. As much as the card demanded for him to visit her as soon as possible, he still didn't feel ok with the idea of butting in her life without even a small notice. Especially not for something as petty as not having a place to stay and feeling lonely.
Without even realizing it, he found himself in front of the railway station and, taking it as a sign, he bought himself a ticket to Cardiff, jumping on the first train directed to Wales. Obviously, as Gwen would say, only after he had properly checked whether he had the right currency or not.
The trip wasn't a long one, but, as he walked away from the station to nowhere in particular, he really found himself missing the freedom his SUV was used to give him. Maybe he could stop somewhere and get himself a new car, especially since he would need one if he was truly serious about looking for a flat in Cardiff.
A pained sigh left his lips. If he had been half the decent boyfriend his Ianto needed, maybe he could have asked his sister to keep his flat for him. Unfortunately, not only he had never met Rhiannon personally, but there was a high chance that she wouldn't even know who he was.
Who her brother was.
It was painful to think about such details that had never really crossed his mind before, because even though they had never been much close, Ianto had loved his sister and her family dearly. He was always watching out for them every time the Rift extended a little too near their house and he was always the first one to try and stop the danger whenever it happened.
Jack had to admit that he had really been a major ass ignoring all that on purpose and for reasons that seemed logical back then, but now had showed how they lacked a real purpose.
He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice how his feet had brought him in front of a Luxury car agency. A beautiful black SUV caught his eye, and he was happy to notice that its price would hardly make Jack Harkness Jr's bank account cry. He quickly filled the needed papers with his new fake identity, quite original if he had to say so himself, and then he was off to the one place he wanted to reach with his new toy car: Rhonald Dale's Plass at Cardiff Bay.
Jack parked the SUV not much far from the Millennium Centre and then slowly walked across the square, desperately hoping to get a blip from the device in his pocket. He remembered soon, though, that as it was the ghost machine was meant to show the future, so he took it out from his pocket and divided the piece of machinery in two. While he was putting aside the half he didn't need, he noticed a small hook under the one that he was holding.
Examining the other bit better, he found out the hole in which it was supposed to fit, so he attentively latched them together. It seemed that whoever had created such an ingenious piece of tech had preventively thought about what to do with the other half when you didn't need it whole.
Maybe the race that had created the device didn't have any pockets at all. The thought made him smile: if he hadn't been so scared by it, he would have noticed that particular before and diligently put everything in his report, adding to it how the ghost machine was most likely not a prototype, but a highly commercialised gadget for everyday commerce.
Somehow he believed that UNIT wouldn't have received that information as well as him, besides, even it they didn't rush to kill the alien race that produced the device as soon as they heard about it, they would have never given it back to him so easily as a farewell gift.
As he proceeded through the Plass, he realised how actually stupid his plan had been. It was true that he felt strongly about most of the events happened in Cardiff with Ianto, but what if he was feeling like that just now? He wanted desperately to see the past just because he didn't have Ianto anymore, but what if their emotions back then weren't strong enough to be captured by the hi-tech machinery?
Despite his worries, as soon as Jack reached the protections at the far end of the Plass, the ghost machine illuminated. He stared at it, feeling the compulsion to activate it and yet uncertain whether to follow through or not. His dread somehow held him back at least for a while, and he simply stood there petrified, trying to convince himself that it didn't really matter if the memory wasn't about him and Ianto.
Eventually Jack gave in, pushing the button, and much to his surprise the illusion began.
In front of him there was a younger version of himself, tightening his coat close around his waist. Jack didn't really feel chilly, so he assumed that it must have been a nervous habit or a defensive gesture of some sort… Still he had never actually noticed himself doing that.
Next to his past self there was, luckily enough, his beautiful Ianto, awkwardly dressed in casual clothing. A gloomy aura surrounded him, despite the poker face he was showing to his boss, obviously in order to hide his inner turmoil of emotions. What those emotions were, though, Jack couldn't phantom, and maybe that day he didn't even notice that Ianto was faking it.
His lover dressing casual had rarely happened, still he wasn't able to place the scene playing in front of him. Had the device activated thanks to Ianto's feelings at the time? But then why couldn't he feel his emotions? When the heck was this?
"I'm sorry"
Ianto's voice was soft and barely audible, making Jack wonder if at the time he had heard him at all. He could count the times his lover had admitted his own faults on the fingers of one hand, so why couldn't he remember all this? Was it during the suspension after Lisa?
"I have no idea what you're talking about"
Jack was all but happy to hear himself voicing his own doubts.
"I just wanted to hurt them... To hurt you."
Jack let out a small nervous laugh and shook his head amazed.
"I'll have you know that people don't usually ask forgiveness using these words"
"Would you rather me lying to you?"
"No, of course not." Jack said, staring gravely at Ianto all of sudden. "Be honest 'till the end then: why did you want to hurt us?"
"I do recognize that Gwen's idea of a team building chatter was proper" He admitted, still appearing completely emotionless despite the faint red showing on his cheeks. "But I was grieving. I still am. I thought that being mean to you guys might have made it slightly more bearable… But eventually I only added guilty to mournful."
Oh, Jack realized. This was the aftermath of the cannibals… How could he have forgotten the day?
"Well, I can say on good authority that you can truthfully be mean. Still, nothing states that you have to enjoy it. Everyone has instincts, even though acting on them doesn't always get you through the predicament you are in the way you want."
"Instincts should still have actual reasons behind them" Ianto argued with a deep sigh, letting his mask fall a bit. "What was that for, Jack? Gwen's idea wasn't bad, and I like your Torchwood team. I don't know why it got to me so much."
"I think you've answered your own question: because you feel like you don't belong. It's not my Torchwood team, Ianto, it's our team."
Ianto simply sighed and hunched his back even more guiltily.
"Maybe I should say that I'm sorry to the others too, especially to Gwen."
"Well, you two really started on the wrong foot. You plainly ignored one another after the first few hours. I really wonder why, I thought you two more than everyone else would connect, maybe over some Welsh feeling of association."
Ianto glanced quickly at him, his expression unreadable as smirked at him bitterly.
"Yeah, I wonder why" He muttered, yet again barely audible.
"What have you said?"Jack asked, his eyes blinking innocently.
"I said that I have been in London for a few years, so maybe that makes me a traitor of the Welsh-ness in her eyes."
Wait. A. Bloody. Minute. What was he seeing? Jack knew that longing gaze, the small hint of betrayal shown in the way Ianto pursed his lips, the tiny little bit of jealousy sparkling in those pale blue eyes… But it was too soon.
Was the ghost machine defective or… Had he completely missed the signs all along?
"Ianto, if it makes you happier, no matter the reasons and all the good intentions behind it, I still believe she was wrong. That's why I didn't answer. It was not the right moment in general and, aside that, a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell. Still, if you wanted to share, I wouldn't have denied it."
Ianto was genuinely shocked.
"Surprise surprise" He deadpanned.
"Don't humour me, Ianto. I appreciate her intentions. I really do, that's why I hired her. And I know that she has been here for too little time to know about Tosh's thing for Owen, but, as you put it yourself, you had just lost your girlfriend and she should have known better than to pick that topic. I don't fault her much though… She must have been a very sociable person where she worked before, so it's good that she tries to recreate the same connections with us."
"I was a very sociable person too." Ianto retorted almost out of the blue.
"Are you joking?"
"A bit." He admitted, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Still, I had nice in-work relationships. I liked being useful, and my co-workers appreciated that, so they always tried to include me whenever they did something. Most of the time I didn't accept, but I liked them thinking about me, and they never stopped appreciating my work."
"Strangely I can't picture the workplace you're describing as Torchwood One."
"We were a low level team, nothing too glamour. Chances to get promoted happened, but even then we were too below Hartman's right hand men."
"You're talking" Jack noted, smiling dazed at his companion. "You should do it more often."
That comment elicited a frown from Jack, who was on the contrary used to Ianto talking about whatever crossed his mind at the moment. He had no shame admitting that, sometimes, when his lover lost himself in particular difficult and convoluted speeches, he easily drifted away with his mind, too focused on his lips or voice or body to actually pay any attention to it. Still Ianto was happy to at least have a chance to let everything out, and had always accepted his lack of focus with a smile and a smart retort.
"It's the shock of the cannibals" Ianto quipped embarrassed.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I thought it was a chance to make you part of the team once again with a bit of camping, it's not like I accepted because I actually believed there would be aliens or Rift activity there."
"It didn't scare me, though. Not as much as I thought at least."
"Ianto, c'mon, you were crying in panic. Don't deny it. It's ok to be scared."
"Well, aside that particular moment." Ianto admitted, shrugging awkwardly. "What really left me shocked at the end of all this was that… I just felt guilty."
"About?"
"Everything. I realised that I wanted Tosh to live, I wanted Owen and Gwen to live, I wanted you to live… I wanted to live. I thought I hated you, the team and myself, but eventually I discovered that all my hate was not enough to want any of us dead… Wasn't she enough?"
Jack remembered quite well the look that Ianto was currently giving to his younger self, a look that stayed there impressed on his retinas for quite some time after that encounter. His lover had been completely insecure, baring his soul to his girlfriend's killer for the first time. The first before many other times to come.
And Jack also remembered well his reaction to it, that strange and awkward sensation of being naked and exposed as much as Ianto was, almost as a way to even with Ianto's honesty. It was so vivid in his mind that now, thanks to the ghost machine, he felt it reverberating deep inside his bones like it had happened that very same day.
"You didn't love her less just because you're too nice to actually wish the death of your friends. Thank you for telling me about this though, this makes me feel way better about giving you a second chance."
"Yeah… I never really said thank you for it, but I've never thought it was something to be glad for until today. But it is… And I'm happy that you saw farther than me."
"Well, you're welcome"
There was a long silence and Jack wondered how much longer the vision would be. He feared its end, because he had no idea how he would survive after illusion worn out. Here he could smell Ianto's aftershave even if it mingled with the stench of blood, sweat and dust all around them. If he only could manage to touch him, he would have been the happiest man in the world.
Jack noticed Ianto tentatively touch his younger self's hand and automatically could feel the light pressure of it on his own. It had really been his own feelings to trigger the illusion then. Had he been too focused to his own longing to feel his past self one's or… Was he already feeling this scorching need inside of him at the time?
It was true that now they were separated death, but back then insecurities, lies, secrets, their own work… everything was making things difficult for them, and Jack really needed human contact.
They had barely survived the cannibals after all: Ianto could have been killed and Jack could have lost his whole team. It was obvious that they wished for a way to connect with each other.
"What about you?"
"No philosophy to give to this massacre truth to be told." Jack said, tiredly passing a hand through his hair. "I'm just glad I managed it in time to not lose any of you."
"You want…?"Ianto offered, his eyes not completely meeting Jack's.
"No, Ianto. Thanks for the offer." He answered quickly.
Jack stared intently at Ianto's face, wondering why the hell he had simply focused his gaze stoically in front of himself that day, without taking enough time to stare at his companion properly. Ianto's voce had been even, so he must have simply guessed that he was alright back then, but the broken expression on his face spoke volumes.
"Oh, well. Yeah, I do understand. Never sleep with the traitor."
"I laid some of my worst enemies, I wouldn't make that a rule. You know, another day I might take up your offer, just not right now. Fooling around a bit with you, like we were used to before the incident with Lisa, would really be what I need now… But it would be wrong."
Jack glanced avidly at Ianto, making the younger man blush embarrassed, hiding the sad expression he had been wearing until that moment.
"I- I'm not following."
"I still like you and I still want to have you… Or you to have me, that's not exactly my point. Anyway, not like this."
"I thought… that we were just licking each other's wounds."
"Oh, yeah, we are. But there's still a small line to cross between comfort sex and taking advantage of someone suffering. You get out of this, take your time and do everything you need on your own terms. While you're at it, work over that guilt you're feeling. When you're ready, I'll be there."
"Wait, you want me to make the first move with you?" Ianto asked astonished.
"Yeah, when you're ready. And I want to hear a decent pick-up line, not an over-abused one. Seduce me properly, please."
They ended up laughing together at Jack's joke, both of them showing a bit of embarrassment at stating words that Ianto had never wanted to admit even to himself.
"Thanks."
"Ianto, one more thing before I bring you home." Jack said as soon as Ianto tried to straighten up to go towards the parking lots.
"Know that if we end up lovers again, I won't make it a secret anymore. Not to the team at least. I would out you as soon as I can, and way more deliberately than a few flirts in the open like we were used to."
"And how would that happen?"
"You will know…"
His last words disappeared into nothingness, as much as Ianto and the whole scenery surrounding them in the past as Jack were forcefully brought back to his reality. Still he could swear that it wasn't dread in Ianto's eyes in the moment he had told him about the outing to the team.
Inexplicably, it was hope.
T.B.C.