Welcome To Our Real World
Disclaimer: Yep, you should know that I don't own a thing now.
Summary: Ianto and Jack have to console Andy after his first real adventure with the TARDIS crew. Ianto/Jack. Fifty-sixth in the "Immortal Janto" series.
Yes, first story in which Andy gets to experience the life that Ianto and Jack have built for themselves, post-Torchwood. And, points to his favor, he hasn't gone, running and screaming yet. Just so you all know, it took me this long to decide on an appropriate guy for Annabelle. Literally! I was very indecisive on who to write for her – an original character or an already existing character within Torchwood or Doctor Who.
That's how I stumbled upon the idea of matching her with Andy! I like Andy. He's a good character and he's just so darn loveable.
But, enough of my explanations, let's get on with the story.
The blond Welshman was sitting on the couch, looking off into space with a very dazed expression.
Ianto felt a whole lot of sympathy for Andy. The now-former Police Constable had just participated in his first crazy, Doctor-caused, world-saving adventure as a member of the TARDIS crew. He had handled it very well, all things considered. Between working for the Cardiff police department, handling Torchwood, the 456, and Miracle Day, he didn't freak out like any other normal person would.
And he had suffered a trial by fire, of sorts.
They had taken Andy to his first alien planet, a seeming nice planet of walking, talking plant people. All seemed right and nice and Andy was handling it very well. However, no sooner had they settled down to a relaxing, early dinner then a band of Fire Furies appeared, threatening death and destruction upon the peaceful plant people.
Annabelle had been particularly miffed. She remembered her fateful tenth birthday, all those years ago.
And, as it should have gone, once the Fire Furies had appeared, all hell literally broke forth.
Somehow, in the crossfire, Andy had been separated from the rest of the crew, isolated with the young of the plant people. The Fire Furies had been particularly interested in getting the young of the planet, since, in their rationale, young planets burned better and brighter. Andy, having heard that claimed, had shown the same courage and strength that he had shown during the crisis with the 456. Ianto might have been technically dead when Andy had stood up to the military and police, but he had heard all about Andy's brave actions in the end.
By the time Annabelle had organized a rescue for Andy and the plant young, Andy had effectively mounted his own fighting force, using (much to everyone's great surprise and amusement) similar tactics that the twins had used at Annabelle's tenth birthday party – the planet's version of water balloons. To say that Ianto was quite proud of his daughter's choice of a boyfriend was an understatement.
Well, that and the fact that the young of the planet had decided to make Andy one of their own and give the appropriate face paint to go with it had made the man seem both terrifying and amusing.
But, once that was all said and done, they had to go back to the TARDIS. It had been relatively easy to get the Fire Furies off of the planet. The lethal combination of the Doctor (and his reputation – and his beloved plastic squirt gun, which Donna and the TARDIS had so helpfully provided), Ianto and Jack (and the threat of their daughter), and Andy's very interesting fighting had effectively gotten the Fire Furies to agree to never come back to the planet. Ianto was pretty sure that the Fire Furies would be avoiding that solar system for a few thousand years to come. Though, to the chagrin of most of the TARDIS crew (Andy was excluded, since he had been "adopted" by the race), the plant people were more than happy to see them leaving.
Which was what led Ianto to find Andy sitting where he was.
"Coffee?" Ianto asked, holding out a mug of the hot, steaming, freshly-made beverage.
He had had to threaten Jack with no sex for a month, just to make sure that Andy got coffee. Andy needed it more than Jack did at the moment.
Andy looked up from the couch at him and gratefully took the proffered mug. "Thanks, Ianto."
After a few moments (and Ianto was sure that Andy wasn't going to spike perfectly good coffee with anything harder), Ianto slid down next to his fellow Welshman. He gave Andy a sympathetic look.
"You did well out there today," Ianto comment, his lame attempt to start a conversation not going unnoticed by both. It had been a very long time since he had had to have one of these conversations with someone.
"Is it always like this?" Andy asked, honesty in his voice.
That made Ianto pause.
In retrospect, it was probably good that Andy was asking him this question, and not Annabelle. Ianto had better perspective on the whole situation, better than Annabelle. Ianto distinctly remembered what it was like to be mortal and his early interactions with the aliens and the rest of the galaxy. That, and Ianto was a fellow Welshman from the same time period as Andy, so they could relate to one another better than anyone else on the TARDIS could (save for Donna, though the red-head had made herself conspicuously scarce since they had returned to the TARDIS – Ianto suspected that she had engineered this discussion).
Still, after a few moments of consideration of Andy's question, Ianto found himself giving Andy an honest answer.
"Not always," he admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "It all depends on the length of time since the last major disaster. Well, and how long it's been since you've been traveling with the Doctor or if he's decided to settle down and keep it quiet for a while." Andy raised an eyebrow in question. "He and Donna had settled down in Chiswick when the twins started school. Jack and I followed suit shortly after. Annabelle was just a young girl at the time. The Doctor, Donna, Jack, and I all wanted the kids to have as normal a childhood as possible, given the Doctor's and Jack's tendency to bring trouble."
That seemed to make Andy think.
"It's hard wrapping my head around the fact that Annabelle is your daughter." Ianto laughed at that understanding. "I mean, up until Annabelle introduced us, I had only thought that you had just come out of Witness Protection."
"Time travel does screw up your sense of timelines." Ianto gave Andy a steady look as Andy drew a long sip from his mug. "Rex and Esther still mess up from time to time."
Andy snorted into his mug. "Oh yeah, Torchwood America, that's what Annabelle called them. It's weird to think that the spooky-dos have gone global."
"Not global, just instated due to necessity. I can't blame Jack and Gwen for recruiting during the Miracle Day crisis. I wasn't around then." Ianto shrugged. "I'm surprised you weren't tapped as a member of Torchwood then." The two men shared a knowing look and both laughed at that thought. "Regardless, I don't always like Rex, but Esther does a good job of keeping him in line."
"From what I know of the man, he reminds me of a more obnoxious Jack."
"Why am I obnoxious now?" Jack's voice echoed from behind them, causing both to turn and look up at him as he entered the room.
"Not you, Rex," Ianto clarified.
"I take offense to that. I have a better sense of dress than Rex does and are you going to finish that coffee, Andy?" Jack looked poignantly (if a bit like a puppy dog) at the mug in Andy's hand.
Andy rolled his eyes. "Go make your own, Jack."
Jack pouted. "I'm not allowed to touch the coffee machine, Ianto's orders."
"Not after last time!" Ianto exclaimed. He looked at Andy and gave the simplest explanation he possibly could, "Jack has a bad habit of tying to imitate my coffee-making skills. Suffice to say, those attempts are severely lacking."
"But not for lack of effort."
Andy looked between the two of them and chuckled, making the both of them raise eyebrows in question. "Annabelle really does take after the two of you," he said. "I can see so much of the both of you in her."
"That's a good thing, I hope," Jack said.
"Yeah, it is."
Ianto and Jack shared a look.
"So, you're staying then?"
Andy nodded. "Yeah, I'm sticking around."
"Good." Jack had one of his trademark devil-may-care smiles on and Andy didn't flinch from that look. "Since you're staying, why don't we see if we can get the TARDIS to give you a proper room. I think you've proved that you deserve a room over kitting on the floor in a sleeping bag."
The blond rubbed his shoulder in memory of the past nights of sleeping on the floor. Ianto felt sympathetic to him. The TARDIS did have the way of testing him out, to see if he could handle being a part of the family. Ianto wasn't going to tell Andy that the TARDIS was testing him. He wanted to wait and see if the man could win over the heart of the time-traveling, space-traversing, sentient TARDIS himself and, given that it was Andy and he was genuinely a good guy, he was winning over the TARDIS slowly.
And that, in and of itself, was a grand feat.
The TARDIS had a way of testing the people who lived within her walls. Ianto remembered that it took until he had successfully gotten the Doctor to sleep (a task that had occupied him for his first two days on the TARDIS) before she had decided that she was going to accept him as a passenger and compatriot - and give him a very lovely room, to boot.
"I'd be glad if the TARDIS just gave me a proper bed," Andy said. "I wouldn't mind if it wasn't comfortable. A bed is a bed and is better than the floor."
Ianto clapped Andy on the shoulder as the TARDIS surged with warm, finally acknowledging that he was worthy to be both a member of their family and to be Annabelle's boyfriend.
"I think that the TARDIS will do better than that," he replied, smiling.
"Well, as long as she doesn't make me sleep on any more floors, unless I really deserve it, then I think I'll be good with that."
Jack laughed heartily. "Andy Davidson, you are the right sort of person for TARDIS travel."
As Andy and Ianto got up from the couch, Andy's coffee mug still safely clasped in his hands (and far from the prying grasp of Jack), Andy answered, "Is there a wrong sort of person for travel on the TARDIS?"
"Oh, you have no idea!"
And that, as they was, was that.
Well, what did you think? Like? Dislike? Somewhere in the middle? Anyway, review please. I do enjoy your feedback.
And I will attempt to have the next story up in a timely fashion.
Until next time, toodles and much Janto-y love!