Recap of what you need to know from 'Guilt'
Not a lot, really. The main thing is that after Jack hired him, Ianto decided he couldn't continue the deception and told Jack (and then the rest of the team) about Lisa. They did a scan which showed she was still thinking as a human, and agreed to help him find a way to cure her.
There are other little details that will make more sense if you read Guilt, but they're not the important ones - and if you want to 'get' them - go read Guilt!
Chapter One
Ianto closed the door softly behind him, trying to avoid waking the sleeping woman. It was still early, and she needed her sleep. Her recovery was going well, but she still tired easily; it was only two weeks since she'd started to be able to go all day without a nap.
He padded barefoot back to his bedroom, picking up the socks and tie he'd left on the bed as he finished dressing for work.
On his way to the door, he checked the kitchen. The coffee machine was filled and set, so Lisa could just flick a switch when she got up. There were ingredients for a choice of easy lunches in the fridge. He picked up the carton of milk in the door and shook it gently, confirming that they weren't out.
He picked up the rental DVDs Lisa had finished watching the previous day as he passed back through the living room. He could drop them into the quick returns box at the video shop on his way to the Hub, if he hurried. And maybe, if the Rift didn't spit out anything particularly nasty today, he'd even have time to pick up some new ones after work without getting back too late.
Satisfied that Lisa would be comfortable for the day, he slipped on his shoes and coat and quietly left the flat.
To make a change, the Rift actually complied with his half-formed plans, and was quiet. At the Hub, this meant he had time to continue with what felt like his never-ending task of bringing the archives into some semblance of order, his day punctuated with coffee rounds and pestering Jack to stick at his paperwork. The older man more or less kept on top of the surprisingly large stacks of red tape involved in running Torchwood, but only when Ianto kept on top of him.
A quiet day also meant that Jack, predictably, kicked them all out of the Hub early. Ianto walked back through the door of his and Lisa's flat before 6, in possession of a new batch of rental DVDs and a promise from Jack that, barring an emergency, he'd stop round for a visit that evening.
Knowing Jack as well as he had come to in the last eighteen months, Ianto suspected that Jack would show up just in time for dinner. He'd been dropping in to eat and spend the evening with them at least once a week ever since Ianto had brought Lisa home to recuperate.
"Quiet day?" Lisa asked from the kitchen as he dropped the DVDs on the living room table and went back to hang up his coat.
"Yep," he nodded as he joined her, taking over the putting away of washed and dried dishes and urging her to sit down and take it easy. "If it stays quiet, we can expect Jack this evening, probably within the hour."
"Great." Ianto could hear the smile in Lisa's voice as she settled back onto the sofa.
Jack had been a good friend to both of them during Lisa's long and often painful treatment. Jack's spending time with Lisa may have been borne out of a sort of necessity - when Ianto had been hospitalised for weeks - but a close friendship had grown out of it.
Ianto wasn't sure they would have made it through without him. As awful as he felt to remember thinking like that, at the time he'd been grateful that he had someone to share Lisa's care with. Whenever Ianto had begun to feel like it was all getting on top of him, Jack was there with a friendly ear for him and an outrageous story to keep both his and Lisa's spirits up.
Jack's friendship and frequent visits were still important to them even now, as Lisa's recovery progressed. When it was just the two of them, conversation could sometimes become rather stilted and awkward. Ianto hadn't mentioned anything about it, hoping that the problem would just resolve itself with time, but if anything, it only seemed to be getting worse.
With Jack around, however, it wasn't an issue. He could keep a conversation going single-handedly, if necessary, but when the three of them were together, it rarely was. The tension in the room dissipated whenever he visited, and chatter flowed easily all evening.
Ianto had almost convinced himself that was the only reason he liked Jack coming around.