All You Need Is Love
Disclaimer: Oh how I wish I could own. Then it would be Janto-time forever!
Summary: The reunion between Jack and Ianto. Jack/Ianto, Doctor/Donna. Follows "Life Happens" and "Things Lost and Things Gained." Part of the "Immortal Janto" series.
To set the time line – it's been five Earth years since Ianto "died" and three years since Miracle Day – it's 2014. However, for Ianto, it's been fifteen years since he "died" and last seen Jack. Donna and the Doctor got married roughly seven years after Ianto discovered his immortality and their twins are six years old.
This is what you've been waiting for! The reunion between Jack and Ianto! What could possibly be better? An immortal Ianto and an immortal Jack wondering around the universe together? Anyways, before I go off into mental happy place and become too useless to do anything literary, let's begin.
Jack's ears perked up as he heard the tell-tale sounds of the TARDIS materializing. A grin crossed his face. It had been years since he had seen or heard from the Doctor. Granted, things had been very busy as of late. Between the destruction of Torchwood and then the disastrous events surrounding Miracle Day, he just hadn't found the time to track down the Doctor and his doings on Earth.
He looked across the table at Gwen, who had little Anwen sitting next to her, the four-year-old girl happily eating her cereal. Behind her, Rhys paused from his fusing with the breakfast dishes. They had heard the noises as well, even if they didn't know what it meant.
"I'll be back!" he exclaimed, bolting away from the table, grabbing his over-coat as he went.
He didn't even pause as he heard Gwen loudly call his name in surprise. The Doctor was here and that super ceded everything else, even other old friends.
Briefly, Jack knew he had to be grateful to both Gwen and Rhys. They had allowed him to crash with them after the problems of Miracle Day and no one dying had taken place. It been a tumultuous three years, devising a serum to reactive everyone's death clocks and then to inoculate the whole world. And, somewhere in the middle of it, Jack's own immortality had kicked back in, after one miserable return to Cardiff, when he visited the remains of the Hub and Ianto's grave.
There had been fresh flowers at the grave. His heart broke at the memory of it. Someone, besides himself and Ianto's family, loved Ianto enough to leave flowers. He had cried for hours when he had seen it.
Still, it had felt right when Gwen and Rhys had moved back to Wales. He had followed, eventually.
But Jack pushed that out of his mind as he hurried down the drive and saw the familiar blue police box standing on the side of the road, seeming innocent to the average passerby. But Jack was most definitely not the average passerby and that certainly was not the average police box.
He strode up to it and banged on the door, grinning broadly, vaguely aware of the fact that Gwen and Rhys were just coming down the hill behind him, Anwen in Gwen's arms.
A moment later, it opened to reveal a boy with unruly reddish-brown hair and big brown eyes who couldn't be more than six. The boy stared up at him, head tilted to the side in a manner that was very familiar.
"Are you my Uncle Jack?" the boy asked, innocently.
"I dunno," Jack replied. "It depends on who your parents are."
"Geoff! What are you doing?" a female voice called from inside the TARDIS. Jack felt his jaw drop. It couldn't be!
The boy, Geoff, turned back to look into the TARDIS. "Mum, is this Uncle Jack?"
Laughter filled the air as Donna Noble, long recovered from the dangers of a Time Lord-Human metacrisis, appeared in the doorway of the TARDIS. She took one look at Jack and smiled broadly, putting her hand on the boy's shoulder – her son, Jack now realized in great surprise.
"Yes, son. That's your Uncle Jack." She looked behind Jack briefly. "And Auntie Gwen and Uncle Rhys and cousin Anwen, as well, if I'm not mistaken."
Jack gaped. "Donna . . . you're . . . you remember?"
She nodded. "Of course, silly. It's easy to stabilize a metacrisis, if you know where to look." Her eyes were twinkling quite mischievously as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Jack saw the wedding ring on her hand. When did that happen?
"What's going on out here?"
The all-too familiar voice of the Doctor sailed out of the TARDIS. Moments later, the Doctor, unchanged as ever after all these years, appeared beside Donna, a little girl with ginger hair clinging shyly to his side. Jack saw the ring that matched Donna's on the Doctor's hand. So, he thought, they got married then.
Jack knelt down so that he was on the same level as the little girl. She was cute and, if she had her mother's genetics, she would be a knock-out beauty when she grew up.
"What's your name, beautiful?"
The girl giggled. "S.J."
He extended his hand to her, which she daintily took. "Do those letters stand for anything?"
S.J. looked up to her father. The Doctor nodded to her, smiling proudly, as only a father could. She looked back to him, smiling sweetly. "Sarah Jane."
It took everything in him to suppress the sorrow of the memory of Sarah Jane Smith's death shortly before Miracle Day. Cancer was a cruel bitch sometimes and had stolen a paragon of the companion. Jack had only met her on a few occasions, but she had always kept him on his toes with her vivaciousness and her will, even seeking him out after Ianto's death, to comfort him and lend a friendly ear.
"Now that's an honorable name," he said to her before looking at the boy, the Doctor's son. "Well, S.J., Geoff, I'm Jack." He paused and chuckled. "Your Uncle Jack, I suppose. I don't know what your parents have told you about me, but it's not all true. Unless it's about how dashingly handsome and heroic I am. Then it is true."
The two children giggled.
"Mum and Dad only tell us some stuff," Geoff told him. The boy had inherited the boldness of both of his parents. "But we've heard a lot about you."
Jack raised his eyebrow. "Really?"
"Uncle Yan is a great story-teller," S.J. affirmed. "He tells us lots of stories about your adventures."
The world lurched in front of Jack.
"Uncle . . . Yan?"
He looked up to the Doctor, questions in his eyes. The Doctor only smiled, a bit mysteriously. Donna nudged her husband, whispering something that only the Doctor could hear. She pulled the Time Lord from the door of the TARDIS, looking back inside of the machine briefly.
"Oi, you gonna stay in there all day? There's someone out here who's dying to see you," she called back, good-naturedly, before turning back to look at Gwen and Rhys, who came to a few feet behind Jack. "What is it with men and primping?"
Jack didn't hear Gwen's response because another voice, so familiar and so dear to Jack, floated out from the TARDIS. "Donna, I do not primp. Men don't primp."
And there he was.
Ianto Jones walked out of the TARDIS, looking as if nothing had happened to him, wearing one of his usual suits and pulling on a black trench coat that Jack knew was one of his. Jack's stomach clenched. Ianto looked good. Ianto looked better than good. Ianto looked great!
And Ianto looked alive!
Their eyes met.
Ianto smiled that sweet smile that Jack had engrained into his memory and his soul. "Hello, Jack. It's been a while."
Slowly, Jack stood up. He took a step towards Ianto, not quite wanting to touch him, in case this was just a dream. But damn, there was Ianto. The part of Jack that died when Ianto had died came flaring back to life.
"It has been," Jack replied, cautiously. "You died."
"But then I came back. It was only temporary." The casual tone in his voice was all Ianto.
"How?"
Both the Doctor and Ianto smiled at that one. Ianto stepped forward and took his hand, lacing their fingers together. His hand was warm and comforting.
"I'll explain everything to you later, sir." His smile got bigger and brighter. "We have all the time in the universe."
Jack's control broke and he smiled the biggest, brightest, most handsome smile the world had seen in five very long years. He reached out his free hand and snagged the front of Ianto's – his! – coat and pulled Ianto close to him. He could feel Ianto's heart beating and it was the most wonderful sound Jack had ever heard.
And then Jack kissed Ianto.
It was absolutely mind-blowing.
When Jack pulled back, Ianto was smiling, his eyes bright with unshed tears. Jack knew the feeling. He was struggling and failing to fight back tears of his own. Ianto laughed a bit and reached a hand to stroke Jack's cheek, wiping away Jack's tears.
"I've missed you," Jack whispered.
Ianto smiled at him. "I know. I've missed you as well."
He studied Ianto's face. It was the same face that Jack had etched into his memories. Ianto was still the same in his youthful innocence. But there was something else there, something new, something older and more world-wise, in his eyes. For a moment, Jack thought he saw the pain and sorrow that only came with traveling with the Doctor. And he also saw love, pure, unabashed love.
And hope.
There was hope in Ianto's eyes.
A hand on his cheek drew him out of his thoughts.
"Hey Jack," Ianto quietly said. His voice was shy, almost afraid. "I wanted to tell you something."
Jack leaned forward and touched his forehead against Ianto's. "Yeah, Yan, what is it?"
"I love you."
His heart swelled. "Hey Ianto." The Welshman raised his head, just marginally. "I love you too."
He was rewarded with a little kiss on the lips.
As they parted, Jack licked his lips, still tasting the goodness that was Ianto. It felt so good to have Ianto back in his arms. Silently, Jack resolved that, now that he had Ianto back, there was no way in any hell that he was letting him go.
Ianto looked over Jack's shoulder and laughed. Jack turned ever so slightly and grinned. Gwen and Rhys were both silent, eyes wide. In his focus on Ianto, Jack didn't even think about what they might be thinking. Given that he (like them) had thought that Ianto was dead, until just a few minutes ago, it made sense that they both were in shock.
Well . . . that and the presence of the Doctor, Donna, their twins, and the TARDIS made everything even more nutty.
"It's good to see you again, Gwen, Rhys," Ianto said, slowly disentangling himself from Jack, who deliberately made the process more difficult. He cast a look at the American immortal and shook his head. Jack just gave him a smoldering look.
"We all thought . . ." Gwen's voice hitched in her voice. A wide range of emotions played across her face, Jack noted – surprised, happiness, friendly affection, and . . . was that jealousy?
"Yeah, death has the effect on people. Fortunately, Ianto happens to be one of those lucky people who actually benefitted from a Vortex transfer," the Doctor piped up from behind them. Gwen and Rhys look at him, confusion on their faces. Donna nudged him and he recovered. "Oh yeah, I'm the Doctor, by the way. This is my lovely wife, Donna." He grinned like a madman. "Ianto's been hanging out with me for the last few years. Couldn't very well bring him back while Jack had to busy saving the world, again. Didn't want to distract him." Ianto scoffed at that and Jack found that he couldn't agree more. "Still, this point is a fixed point in time, can't change it!"
Somewhere in that jumbled up speech, Jack caught the gist of what the Doctor was saying. He looked at Ianto with wide eyes and many a-thoughts running through his mind. Ianto was immortal!
Oh the things that Jack Harkness was thinking.
Donna squeezed the Doctor's hand, silencing him.
"What the Doctor means to say," she summarized, "is that, Ianto's immortal, like Jack, due to their relationship before Ianto died the first time." The red-head laughed at a memory. "Though he's died a few times since then."
Ianto flushed and Jack raised an eyebrow. "A few times?" he had to ask.
"I'll tell you about it later."
Jack slipped an arm around Ianto's waist. "I'll hold you to it."
Ianto laughed. "I know you will."
Rhys recovered quicker than his wife. He stepped forward, extending his hand to Ianto. Ianto disentangled himself from Jack, which was a hard task because Jack was still deliberately refusing to let go. The two Welshmen shook hands.
"It's good to have you back, mate. Jack just wasn't the same without you."
"I know." Ianto looked back at Jack. "I checked in on all of you over the years, to see how you were doing, to see how Anwen was growing." He smiled at the girl in Gwen's arms.
Jack felt heart tug for love of Ianto. Wait . . a thought filtered through his mind . . . Alonso. He cringed.
"You were thinking about Alonso, weren't you Jack?" Ianto asked, knowingly.
"Yeah."
"Alonso?"
Gwen's voice was cautious and vaguely curious as she stepped next to her husband, putting Anwen down. Jack paused as he watched Geoff and S.J. approach the four-year-old. After a few seconds of sizing her up, the twins coaxed the girl to play with them up the hill a ways from the TARDIS, Donna and the Doctor calling instructions and reminders behind them. Rhys echoed those calls to his own child. Gwen was still in shock.
Jack had neglected to inform Gwen and Rhys about his brief relationship with Alonso. It hadn't last long, but it had reminded Jack about why he needed to be bound to Earth, at least for the time being.
"That had been the Doctor's idea," Ianto explained. Jack looked at him, then looked at the Doctor, wide-eyed. Ianto squeezed his hand, drawing Jack's attention solely on him as he continued softly. "It was shortly after I died that first time and the Doctor knew that you were grieving for me. He wanted you to recover, at least enough that you could get back to Earth when you needed to be, so you could fulfill your role in Miracle Day."
"You know about Alonso?" His voice was soft, weak.
Ianto nodded. "Of course." He cupped Jack's face with a hand. "I don't hate you for your relationship with him. I couldn't. Besides, according to the Doctor, we're going to be together for a very long time. Apparently, in eighty million years, we're going to be on another honeymoon, after we got married for the – well, I don't know what number wedding that is. The Doctor didn't say."
Jack didn't bother glaring at the Doctor for that one. He simply smiled and hugged Ianto tightly.
"Oh break it up, you two," the Doctor called from near the TARDIS.
Jack drew back a little bit and glared at the Doctor. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ianto shaking his head.
"Like you weren't any better when Donna came back!" Ianto retorted.
Both the Doctor and Donna blushed at that comment. "Yes, well, you knew what was going to happen there," the Doctor replied, back-pedaling. "You planned it, after all!"
There was a story there, Jack knew it.
"Naked Hide-and-Seek can solve anything!" Ianto exclaimed.
"That it can," Jack agreed.
As the realization that that had eternity together sunk in, Jack smiled. If they had eternity, then, by damn, he was going to enjoy every minute of it. He tugged at Ianto's hand, pulling him towards the TARDIS. Ianto smiled at him, letting him lead him inside.
Faintly, he heard Donna and the Doctor laughing, but he didn't care.
Ianto led him through the twisting hallways of the TARDIS. The time machine/space ship rumbled warmly. It was welcoming Jack home, he could feel it. Finally, they stopped outside a door. The two immortals shared a look before Ianto reached up and pushed open the door to his – their – room.
Jack stepped inside and felt his jaw drop. It was huge!
A very large (and very comfortable looking) king-sized bed sat in the middle of the room. His imagination went wild at the thoughts of what they could do on that bed. He turned, surveying the whole room. There were little signs of Ianto everywhere, from the empty tea mug on the nightstand, to the books and papers spread out on the otherwise very neat work desk, to the jacket on the chair, to the tie that must have been thrown onto the dresser. It was such a Ianto space. A slow smile crossed his lips as Jack caught sight of the bathroom through an open door. There was a rather large Jacuzzi in there, one that the both of them would be enjoying.
And then Jack saw the closet.
"You have a walk-in closet!" His voice rose an octave in surprise.
Ianto chuckled. "That wasn't there this morning. The TARDIS must have known that you were coming."
He had never had a walk-in closet when he had been traveling with the Doctor previously.
"Smart old girl, this TARDIS is."
"Yes she is."
Jack took Ianto's hands in his. "Ianto Jones, I'm never going to let you go again. For better or for worse, you're stuck with me."
It was crazy, but it sounded a little like wedding vows, not that Jack particularly minded.
"And you've got me, until the end of Time itself, Captain Jack Harkness," Ianto responded.
Ianto kissed him, slipping a hand to the small of Jack's back. Jack responded by pulling Ianto's free arm around his neck. Moments later, after happily exploring Ianto's mouth with his tongue, Jack bent down some and scooped Ianto up bridal style, earning a surprised noise from the Welshman. He made a mental note to ask Ianto about his coat later on, though Jack was quite pleased that it smelled distinctly like Ianto.
Carefully, Jack carried him over to the bed and set him down, climbing in after Ianto, coat and all.
As he stretched out next to Ianto, he kissed Ianto's neck, sucking a bit. Ianto's hands found his hair, massaging the one spot that only Ianto knew Jack liked.
"I'm glad you're alive," Jack said, honestly.
Ianto smiled at him. "Me too."
"I love you, Ianto Harkness."
"I love you too, Jack Jones."
The two men looked at each other and started laughing. Jack buried his face into Ianto's shoulder, breathing in the scent that he had sorely missed. If this was what eternity was going to be like, Jack knew that he had a lot to look forward to and he was good with that.
Did you like it? Was it a fitting reunion scene? Should I do more Janto love? Let me know what you think!