AN: Id been feeling kinda angsty after The Angels Take Manhattan and Sherlock series 2 came on Netflix so I watched that, and so I decided to torture Ianto a little to make myself feel better even though I really should have been working on one of my other WIPs. Hope you like it!


Tosh was sitting at her desk running through some programs that needed to be updated. She was exhausted to the core after the past few weeks. She had never noticed before just how much Jack did for the team and around the hub. With him gone there was so much more to do and she found herself picking up a lot of the slack to help out Ianto.

The poor man looked so lost without their fearless leader. But she knew it was more than that. Ianto missed his lover, the one person on the team he truly trusted. Not that he didn't trust her—they were friends, after all—but it wasn't the same. So now she was doing all in her power to make things a little easier for him, even if it meant pulling triple shifts so he could go home. Not that he actually did most of the time. She wondered idly how many more times she would find him asleep on the couch in Jack's office, face tearstained and clutching that bloody greatcoat they couldn't believe Jack had abandoned.

With a start, Tosh was shaken from her thoughts. There was a large crash and the sound of a strangled sob. She watched in shock as Ianto fled from the autopsy bay and back into the kitchen. It was then she recognised the song coming from Owen's radio and she shot across the room.

"You great bloody arsehole, Owen!" she snapped as she fumbled to turn off the music. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What? It was just Billy Joel! Come on, everyone loves Piano Man. What gives?"

"Yes, but that wasn't "Piano Man." Think. What song was that?" Comprehension quickly dawned on Owen's face.

"Oh shit. "Captain Jack." I wasn't thinking. I didn't…fucking shit." Owen sighed, rubbing his face wearily. "Tosh, I'm sorry. I may find the kid annoying as hell, and that's on a good day, but I don't want to make all this any harder than it already is on him."

Tosh offered him a sad smile. She was glad he was just overworked and tired nad not being a jerk on purpose. "I know. And this is hard on all of us. I'm gonna go check on him, then after will you apologise?"

"Sure, Toshi," he sighed.

Ianto was leaning, palms down, on the counter. His head hung low between his shoulders which occasionally trembled. He lifted his head to look when Tosh entered the room. He quickly swiped his eyes free of any moisture before forcing a smile. "Hey."

"Are you okay?" she asked softly, slowly easing towards him. She knew he was very private and hated to feel cornered into talking, so she tread carefully.

"Of course I am. It was nothing, just stupid. I'm fine." He tried to give her a reassuring look but Tosh wasn't convinced.

"It's okay to be upset, Ianto. You and Jack were…close. And you are still so young to have gone through so much." Ianto snorted. "We all forget you are, and sometimes I think you do too. But you are young. And it is hard."

"I'm fine." He turned from her and started to fidget with the coffeemaker. Sighing, Tosh crossed the room and placed a hand on his back. He tensed under her touch. A long moment passed before he turned to her looking defeated. Tosh pulled him into a hug, forcing him to stoop down closer to her height.

"Oh Ianto," she whispered into his shoulder, "what are we going to do?" She received no answer except the tightening of his grip on her. He was still trembling from the barely contained sobs threatening to break through.

They stood that way for a while, Tosh comfortingly rubbing his back until the last of the trembling finished, and Ianto fighting for composure and never quite finding it. When they broke apart he offered her a sad smile which she returned. With a small nod at Owen she made her way back to her desk to finish the program updates.


AN: Thanks for reading! Reviews would be beautiful of you!

Oh, when Owen said Piano Man he was talking about the cd, where Tosh thought he meant the song. "Captain Jack" is the tenth and final track on the cd Piano Man.