Set between Adam and Reset in Season 2. Part 1/3. Currently Unfinished. Jack/Ianto (Alluded to). 2,085 words. Will contain spoilers for COE by the end, but part 1 has no major spoilers. Gen/story fic.


Gwen Cooper and Captain Jack Harkness stood one to either side of Toshiko Sato's shoulders, watching her broad array of monitors flashing in a series of blue and yellow lights as she worked. Tensions were mounting between the trio, Jack and Gwen for not quite having a tangible problem they were equipped to solve, and Tosh for having two very unhelpful shoulder angels breathing down her neck. Angels, Tosh had decided, and not devils. They meant well, after all.

"You're not helping," Owen Harper called out from where he sat at his own work station, feet on his desk and some old cult horror flick on his monitor. It was clear from the way he fidgeted with a toy rodent he'd found on his desk one day that he was just as irritated as his co-workers, but he hadn't yet reached the point of real boredom. When Owen really got bored, they would all know it. It would suddenly be honourary April Fool's Day, or surprise physical/ blood samples time.

"Standing there breathing down her neck isn't going to make the program run any faster."

Jack and Gwen stood back as though they hadn't realized just how close they'd gotten to completely overwhelming Tosh's personal space. The technologist offered Owen a small smile of gratitude before her eyes darted very quickly back to the screen so she could focus properly on her program.

"Maybe it was a false alarm," Gwen suggested, after she had checked her watch for the fourth time that half hour.

"Torchwood doesn't get false alarms," replied Jack, his deep baritone wrapped in a shell of drama, as it always was when he tried to sound serious. "We're not that lucky."

"Well, maybe Tosh misread the readings, and we've already missed the Rift Spike," Gwen tried again.

It was hard to say if she was trying to offer helpful suggestions to explain Tosh's inability to lock down the spike location, or if she was just trying to make excuses, but Owen favoured the latter notion. "You have somewhere better you need to be, Ms. Cooper?" he accused lightly, smirking at her in that ever so demeaning yet somehow also playful way.

Gwen knew better than to rise defensively to the bait by now, and choose instead to lift herself full up and grin at him, "As a matter of fact, I do, Dr. Harper. Rhys' father is in town, and I promised to meet them for dinner." She turned and smiled at Jack, drawing him into the conversation so that he wouldn't go back to pestering Tosh. It was a rare opportunity that Gwen got to spend time with Mr. Williams, without Mrs. Williams ruining a perfectly good evening.

Not for the first time, Gwen considered just how insulted Rhys would be if she decided to keep her maiden name.

"I'm sure Rhys will understand," Jack said pointedly. It had been Gwen's call not to Retcon Rhys in the first place, and one of the things that had made it so appetising to go along with the thought was that it would just make things simpler when Gwen had to work late. After all, who could get mad at their blushing bride to be for missing dinner, when she was out saving the world. Couldn't very well miss dinner if there wasn't a world to have dinner in, after all. Gwen would always have the high ground.

Gwen opened her mouth as though to argue the point, but was cut off by the sound of Ianto Jones deftly clearing his throat. The sound stopped the words on Gwen's tongue so well that she forgot what she was even going to say. Blinking, she turned to look at Ianto who was almost directly beside her.

He smiled in her direction, possibly a form of apology or greeting, or to rub it in that he had somehow managed to sneak up on her without her noticing him again. She doubted it was the last—Not quite Ianto's style, after all—but sometimes she wondered if he didn't take at least a small amount of glee in being able to sneak up on all of them.

"Coffee?" Ianto asked both her and the room at large, and the offer was like nectar from a God's lips.

"Yes," Gwen droned, while Owen advised he could murder a cup, and Toshiko said a soft pre-emptive thank you. Jack simply smiled at Ianto, crystal blue eyes dancing with something, some private joke or language that only the pair of them spoke.

Ianto returned the smile in his light, Ianto-way, and inclined his head to the room before heading off to make miracles happen to a bean.

The tidy little butler's kitchen was filled with pastries and beans and herbs from parts that Ianto didn't explain or share. When it was empty, he restocked it, and when it was used he cleaned it. It was the third place one needed look if they sought Ianto in the Hub (Following Jack's Office and the archives), a fact that had lovingly earned the area the title 'Ianto's Workstation'.

There wasn't really that much to making the perfect cup of coffee. A fresh bean, ground with care, and water that was neither over heated nor under boiled. One could tell, if they paid close enough attention, just how ready their coffee was by the deep and strong scent that swirled around the room in a cacophony of delight as it was being prepared.

Owen grunted softly as the smell wafted over him. They'd had a late night the night before, and needed to get the cover story in place for not one but two young students that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. On top of that, there had been three weevils to take care of. He, Gwen, and Tosh had been sent home for rest, but Ianto was up most of the night dealing with the cells and the cover stories.

Ordinarily, that wouldn't have bothered Owen so much, but it had resulted in Jack insisting their Tea Boy go home and get some sleep. Which had in turn resulted in Owen missing out on his morning fix. Then, when Ianto was called back in, there had been no time for coffee; Ianto was simply sent out to kit up the SUV.

Instant was okay in a pinch, but Owen was craving the good stuff.

It occurred to the doctor that he might have a problem, but he assuaged his fears by telling himself that he could quit any time he wanted to.

The worst part of missing out on that second cup of coffee was that they hadn't even gotten to go find something alien to take their aggressions out on. Half way to the SUV, Tosh had stopped them and called them back to the main base. Apparently, something was wrong with her predictor program—A fact that had both pissed Tosh off and embarrassed her, causing a cute little blush to kiss her cheeks—and she didn't know where exactly the spike was going to show up.

At first it looked like it might be out over the Bay. Then possibly up on the Plass. But after second-third-guessing herself, Tosh decided that the rift was going to appear right down in the Hub. Finally, after being on high alert for two hours, she decided that there was simply something wrong with the program, and that she didn't know where they needed to be.

So the team waited. And waited. And waited.

It was tense, and nerve wrecking, and really they held out as long as they could before deciding that the viper like level of preparedness was unnecessary. Ianto was the first to kick off, excusing himself to go feed the Weevils, since he wasn't actually needed to locate the rift spike. Owen used Ianto's breaking as an excuse to kick around online. Gwen called Rhys to let him know she would be late. And finally Jack disappeared in Ianto's direction, not to be seen for at least another hour.

In hind sight, Owen was surprised that Ianto's suit still appeared so crisply pressed.

With a growl of frustration, Owen pressed up out of his chair, and tossed the rat at Gwen, who caught it. A frown crossed her lips, realizing that they were about to witness Owen moving into 'really really bored' mode.

"Maybe we should order in?" she suggested, soothingly, her eyes wide as she lifted her brows in question at Owen. "We still have a credit at the Chinese place, yeah?"

"Wouldn't that be like admitting you're not making it to dinner with your fiancé?" Owen returned.

Despite herself, Gwen smiled. Even if Owen was just being a git, she loved hearing when people called her and Rhys that. "Well, what would you suggest, then, Dr. Harper? Starvation? Didn't you take an oath to prevent that sort of thing?"

Owen scoffed, and headed in Ianto's direction. Gwen was about to follow, but a low ding and a sound of excitement from Tosh drew her attention back to why they were actually still at the hub in the first place. She headed back to watch what Tosh was doing, Jack coming to the other side again, but both remembering not to lean too close.

"There wasn't anything wrong with my calculations, it's just that whatever's coming through tried to prevent itself from getting caught in the Rift. It tried so hard that it actually managed to move the spike closer to the source of the manipulator. The spike actually was moving."

"We're all very happy that you're every bit the genius I need you to be, Tosh, but what does that mean? Did it succeed in closing the rift?" Jack was looking at Tosh's screen again. He knew quite a deal more about technology than he ever really let on, but some of the things that Tosh did were still light years beyond his 51st century mind.

"No, it just moved itself. It..." Tosh trailed off, looking up with wide eyes. For a moment it appeared as though she were looking at another monitor, and both Gwen and Jack followed her gaze to what she was seeing. It wasn't another monitor that she was looking at, though, it was the back of the tiny kitchen where Ianto and Owen were hidden away and snarking lightly at each other.

"Can I give you a hand, mate?" Owen asked Ianto as he finished with the first cup.

"Being momentarily nice to me doesn't mean you get served first. I do have a longer memory than that of a gold fish," Ianto replied, lifting his brows and watching Owen.

"It works when Jack does it," argued Owen, trying to sneak a table spoon of sugar into the black liquid.

The statement earned Owen a smirk, as Ianto dodged the sugar. "Jack follows through." He looked pointedly at the mess of sugar that was now on the counter, as though telling Owen to prove his intentions by cleaning that mess up, and maybe he'd get the second cup.

"Jack bloody Harkness doesn'..." Owen trailed off, staring at Ianto. It registered to both of them that while they were standing there saying Jack's name, their boss was across the room yelling both of theirs. It registered to them at the same moment only because a golden orange glow had picked up between them, clouding their sight in something that was equally as beatific as it was dangerous.

Ianto dropped the highly sought cup on the hard tile floor, not even registering as it shattered at his feet. He stumbled back in one direction, while Owen was yanked away in the other. Then they stood there, looking at Ianto, the girls joining them a few seconds later.

As though something had snapped in Ianto, his gaze darted around the small area. Three tiled walls, covered in cabinets, and the only way out was blocked by a rift through space and time. Stuck between a Rift and a hard place... Bloody Torchwood.

Realizing just how trapped he was, Ianto finally completed his circle and looked wide-eyed at his Captain. All his wit and sarcasm, and the only thing he could think to say when the fear gripped hold was uttered as a soft request for help. "...Jack?"