"Ianto?" came Gwen's nervous voice. "What...what does the monitor say? Where are we?"

"Hang on…" Ianto replied absently, concentrating on typing a few more commands into the computer. He waited for the calculations to finish, nearly holding his breath in suspense. Then the results popped up, in big red letters in the center of the screen. He couldn't hold back a thrilled, relieved cry. "We're back! Oh, Gwen, we're back!"

She laughed loudly, her immense relief sounding in her breathless response. "We're back! Oh, thank God!"

"No, no! Thank Jack!" Ianto corrected. "He did it, he and the Doctor! But Gwen, we're back!"

"I know!" she replied, delighted, practically jumping up and down. "Come here!" She embraced him happily. "Oh, this is marvelous!" She released him, and they were both grinning like fools. "Oh, hang on! Rhys, I have to…" Gwen pulled out her mobile quickly, dialing just as swiftly. "Rhys! Oh, you're okay, oh, thank God...yeah, yes, I'm fine, I'm fine, yeah, Ianto's fine too, and Jack should be, he's not here right now, but he'll be back, I'm sure...I'm going to wait until Jack returns and then I'll come home...I love you, sweetheart...Love you. I'll see you in a bit. Yes, I love you too! Bye!" She hung up.

"Rhys is all right?" Ianto asked, rather pointlessly, but he was too elated to care about redundancy.

"Yes, he's fine!" Gwen told him. "Can we turn off the time...bubble, thing?"

Ianto turned back to the computer. "Should be simple enough," he said. "Tosh would have made it so once the danger is over, we could make the time seal go away...yep, got it." The protective time bubble around the central Hub disappeared, and several dozen bullets fell to the ground from where they were suspended in midair.

Just as the clatter of metal on tile ceased, the giant gear of a door rotated open. Ianto and Gwen spun around to see who it was, both of their hands going instinctively to their guns, and then they realized who it was. Jack had returned.

"Jack!" Gwen squealed. She raced over to him, throwing herself at him in a huge hug. He smiled and clasped her tightly. "You're all right!"

"'Course I am," Jack affirmed gently. "You know me. Was a bit worried about you two for a while, though." He pressed a kiss to the top of Gwen's head before releasing her. Ianto had walked up slowly behind Gwen. Jack's tired eyes sparkled at him as he held out his arms. Ianto practically fell into them, squeezing Jack so hard around his ribs that the immortal captain almost had to gasp for air. "Whoa, easy, Ianto, I already died twice today, you don't need to suffocate me and make it a third!" he laughed.

But Ianto showed no signs of letting Jack go. "You scared us, Jack," he murmured, his voice muffled as his face was pressed into Jack's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," Jack whispered to him. "I'm so sorry."

Gwen smiled, watching them. Suddenly, she felt an overwhelming urge to run home, to hold Rhys in the same way that Ianto was now holding Jack. "I'm going to leave, boys," she said softly, knowing that they probably wouldn't hear her. But Jack looked up at her and nodded understandingly. "I'll be back in early tomorrow to help clean up this bloody mess," she added. "'Bye, loves...And, Jack? Well done. Thank you." She slipped past the two men and made her way out of the door and into the clean, cool Cardiff morning air.

Jack and Ianto didn't move for another several minutes. Even then, it was only to make their way over to Jack's office-bedroom, with their arms firmly wrapped around the other's waist. Jack sat down first, on the very edge of the small bed. Ianto sank down next to him.

"Tell me about it," Ianto offered.

"Which?"

"All of it, any of it, none of it. Whatever you want." Ianto placed a hand on Jack's back. "Just talk to me. Please."

Jack sighed. "It was a completely mad day."

"And we're leading completely mad lives," Ianto countered. "Tell me about it."

Jack passed a hand over his face wearily. "Where do I even start?"

"Try exactly where you went when you fixed your wriststrap and teleported out of here?" suggested Ianto.

"A backstreet, where the Doctor and Donna had just landed the TARDIS, and...Rose. Oh, Rose. I arrived just a second too late...the Doctor had just gotten shot by a Dalek. It was the first time Rose had seen him since they were separated, oh, ages ago. That was during…" Jack shot Ianto a cautious look.

"When?" Ianto urged.

"The Battle of Canary Wharf," Jack finished reluctantly.

Ianto flinched at the name, then tried to cover it up. "Okay," he said, attempting to keep his voice level. "Then what?"

"The Doctor was dying. Do you know what regeneration means, Ianto?" Ianto shook his head. "It's a thing that a Time Lord, the Doctor's species, can do, a sort of...cheating, if you will." Jack went on to describe what he understood about the process of regeneration, and how the Doctor had transferred the excess energy into the hand that Jack had actually had in his possession for quite a while. He skimmed over the parts inside the Dalek spaceship and hurriedly continued on to the Meta Crisis, sending 26 of the planets back to where they belonged and the flying the TARDIS with the Earth in tow all the way back to the Solar System. "Then the Doctor dropped us all back where we belonged," Jack finished. "Or, well, me and Martha and Mickey. I...don't actually know where he took Rose and Jackie and the, um, other Doctor."

"Right...okay," Ianto said. "I have a feeling you skipped something."

"What?"

"Just a few minutes ago, you said you'd already died twice today, but you didn't include any of that in your, ahem, thrilling narrative."

"Are you insulting my storytelling abilities?" humphed Jack, mock-hurt.

Ianto rolled his eyes.

"The Daleks shot me, and then they tossed me into an incinerator, if you must know," Jack told him.

Ianto winced. "Ouch."

"Mmhmm," Jack acknowledged. "Death by extreme heat meant to reduce a body to a speck of ash...not so fun."

Ianto tilted his head. "Hang on, then why are your clothes still intact?"

Jack snorted. "I honestly have no idea." Then he sighed again. "How'd you and Gwen fare?"

"All the worse for not having you around," Ianto replied, only half-jokingly. "Actually, Tosh saved us."

"Really?" Jack said, interested. The mention of Tosh stung slightly, but…

"Remember the, um, time shield, bubble thing she was in the middle of?" Jack nodded his affirmance. "Well, she wasn't in the middle of it, she was done. And it activated right before we got shot by the Dalek. Our bullets weren't working, of course, and it was getting closer, but it wasn't shooting just yet...Jack, it felt like Canary Wharf all over again, just minus the silver," Ianto told him.

"I know...I know." Jack pulled him in for another hug, feeling how Ianto trembled slightly. Mentally, he thanked Tosh for continuing to be a vital part of the team even after death, and for saving them. If she hadn't...no, no, he didn't want to think about that. He rocked side to side slowly, rubbing Ianto's back soothingly. "We're safe now. The Daleks are all gone."

"I know," Ianto murmured. "I'm just glad you're back."

"Oh, me too." Jack rubbed his hand up and down Ianto's arm. "Me too, Ianto." He nudged Ianto's forehead with his own. Ianto tilted his face upwards and their lips met. Their kiss lasted a full minute. Both of their eyes were closed. Jack let out a long breath and fell backwards. Ianto followed, laying partially across Jack's chest. "I'm so tired."

"Me too," Ianto whispered.

"We got dropped back here at eleven in the morning, we shouldn't sleep yet."

"Who cares?"

"No one, I guess. Still. Do you want to go out somewhere?"

"Where? Everyone's going to be panicking," Ianto asked sensibly. "Even if we did go out, shouldn't we be trying to cover everything up, not enjoy ourselves?"

"We already saved the world enough for one day. Besides, we're back. They're going to be celebrating, not panicking anymore," countered Jack.

"Except for the people who have lost loved ones. They won't be celebrating."

There was a long moment of silence. "Right as always, Ianto Jones."

Ianto made no answer except to snuggle a little closer to Jack.

"So...I meant it. Want to leave the Hub, go find something to do somewhere? Anywhere?"

"Rooftop?" Ianto joked.

Jack laughed softly. "Not exactly what I had in mind."

"Good," Ianto told him. "I'm not really in the mood."

The captain breathed deeply. Ianto felt himself rising and sinking with Jack's breath. "We could go someplace to eat."

"Not really hungry, either."

"We could just go sit somewhere. Watch the people." Jack waited for a response.

"You know, that might sound a little creepy if I didn't know exactly what you meant," Ianto replied finally. "All right, then. Let's go find someplace to sit. Outside, preferably. I'd like to make sure the sun's still there."

The sun was, indeed, in the sky once more. Ianto blinked against the sudden brightness. Jack glanced over and squeezed his hand. "You okay?" he checked.

"Yeah, sorry, it just took me by surprise." They began walking. "I mean, I knew it was going to be daylight outside, but, I don't know, I was subconsciously expecting night."

Jack pondered this for a second. "It is funny how your mind can trick you into thinking things like that. Like, coming out of a dark theater where you usually see movies at night, but you went to see a matinee that day and something inside your mind just says, 'it's nighttime now, why is the sun out?'"

"Mmhmm."

Cardiff Square was filled with people: loud, confused, anxious, arguing people. Some people were crying, others shouting, still others praying. Others just stood in wonder and relief, staring upwards at the ordinary blue sky, with the ordinary, yellow, life-bringing sun hanging above them. Not one of them spared a glance at the two men weaving their way through the crowd.

One person in particular stood out in Ianto's mind. There was a young girl, only seven or eight years old, and she was standing completely alone and completely still. There were tears pouring down her face, but she did not make a sound. She looked up at the sun like the rest, but as Ianto watched, she dropped her gaze down to something she was holding in her hands. It was the charred remains of a child's doll. It crumbled in her hands, ashes falling down to the earth. Ianto wondered if her family was nearby, or if they had been killed by the Daleks.

Jack glanced over and saw him looking. "Come on," he murmured, and pulled him along. "Come on, we can't help."

"Yeah…" And Ianto tore his eyes away from the sights of sorrow, keeping them fixed on the ground. He realized that if he hadn't, he might have begun to cry as well. Jack saw this, too, of course.

He said nothing, just continued walking through the streets until they came across a small, deserted park. There was an old, wooden bench stationed at the edge of the children's playground. Jack led Ianto over to it and together they sat down, still silent.

Ianto closed his eyes, his breathing slow and even. Jack's hand was in his. "Jack?"

"Hmm?" Jack responded softly, and squeezed Ianto's hand.

"I think I'm sad."

Jack shifted closer to him. "Oh?"

"I'm not sure why." Ianto waited, as if expecting Jack to say something. When he didn't, Ianto struggled to find more words. He opened his eyes. "There's...it isn't as if…" He looked at Jack, desperately hoping that the captain would help him out. But Jack just looked at him solemnly. "I didn't know anyone who died today, well, other than you. But I still...I still miss them."

"Yeah," Jack told him. "I know the feeling."

"Tell me about it?" Ianto requested. This time, it was phrased as a question rather than the order it had been earlier.

Jack answered immediately. "You feel the pain of each person who lost someone individually, and all together at the same time. You wish you could help each and every one of them, and at the same time, you realize that you can only help a few. You can't make their sorrow go away. You can't make grief disappear, you can't even try to alleviate it for one or two or three people because you know that there are one or two or three thousand other people feeling the pain just as sharply that you can't help. You know that all of them have feelings just as real and complex as you do, and so you try not to feel, because then maybe they won't have to either. But that, in and of itself, is a form of feeling. And so you try to feel for all of them; try to take the burden off of all of them. But that drives you mad, and it doesn't help, it just increases the total amount of suffering in the world. So you go numb. You can't feel, and you can't not feel, and so you just feel hopeless.

"And that's when it seems like the world has gone dark, when it seems to be crushing you until all you can think about is shoving the weight away in any way you can, but it's just too heavy. And since it's too heavy for you, you think that it must be too heavy for anyone else. So you pretend it isn't there. Trembling under the weight, struggling to keep yourself upright. You start to despair even more, because if you can't even help yourself, how can you help anyone else? You begin to think that if everyone else is carrying around a weight of their own, we all have too much to carry without having to bother someone else by asking them to share your load.

"But what you don't realize is that everyone's weight is tailored specifically to them. Asking someone to share your burden doesn't increase theirs. In fact, it may even lessen theirs, and you can always try and carry some of theirs, too. Not all of it, mind. But I can share just enough so I don't feel as if I'm collapsing anymore."

Ianto noticed what Jack didn't seem to; he had switched persons. Instead of using "you" in that last statement, he had said "I". How telling that was.

Jack was looking at him with an expression that could almost be labeled as 'nervous'. "Ianto?" He sounded worried. "Ianto? You're crying."

Ianto tried to tug his hand away from Jack to wipe away the tears he hadn't realized were dripping down his cheeks, but Jack held on and didn't let him go. Instead, he lifted his own hand, the one not currently clasped in Ianto's, and stroked away the teardrops with his thumb. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I didn't mean to…"

"Shut up," Ianto told him. "Don't you dare apologize. Not after that."

Jack looked actually confused. "What?"

Ianto let out a laugh that was almost a sob. "Stop."

"Stop wh…" Jack's question was cut off by Ianto's lips. "Ohhhh...kay," he said, after Ianto had pulled back again. "Can I ask…"

"Nope," Ianto told him firmly, and put his arms around Jack, pulling him into another kiss, a longer one this time. Slowly, Jack's arms went around him, too. Jack felt the wetness of Ianto's tears on his own face. Or were they his own? He couldn't tell.

Thank you for reading. I would love it if you let me know your thoughts about this little story. DFTBA. I love you all

~Clare