They were in the boardroom for a briefing. Jack had a request from UNIT, he was putting it to the team as it meant at least two of them going out of Wales for a couple of days.
"There's been a sighting of a pterodactyl flying over Symond's Yat" he said.
"Symond's who?" asked Owen
"Yat" replied Ianto, "it's a rock formation in the Forest of Dean, a major tourist attraction, very beautiful"
"Ooh, I think we went there once when I was little. It's really high up'" said Gwen.
""Found it!" Tosh tapped on her keyboard and a picture of Symond's Yat appeared on the plasma screen behind Jack. Taken from the valley floor it showed a towering grey cliff, partially clothed in green scrub. Clouds dotted the blue sky above, and if you looked closely at the top of the cliff a few faces were peering down. The picture changed to a view looking down the Valley, the River Wye snaked peacefully away, boats looked like toys. Across from the Yat a smaller, gently sloped hill curved upward, clothed in grass and forest. A deer grazed at the edge of the forest.
"Yeah, yeah very rural and all. But why do we have to look for the pterodactyl? Isn't one shitting everywhere enough?" said Owen.
"UNIT know that we have expertise in this area. They haven't confirmed exactly what it is, but say all they would do is shoot it down, and the local tourist board want this done quietly." Said Jack.
"OK, but who should go? It'll only take two probably," said Gwen
"Jack's good with heights, he should go." Said Tosh.
"OK, Owen do you want to come?" said Jack
"Nah, I hate the bloody countryside" Owen shivered.
"OK you're in charge whilst I'm gone, Gwen? Tosh?"
"Prefer not Jack, need any time away from here to sort out the wedding, sorry!" Said Gwen
"Tosh?"
"I'd love to Jack, but I'm not sure I'm the best when it comes to capturing wild animals. I don't even feed Myfanwy."
"That leaves you, Ianto, fancy a couple of nights in the country?"
"Trying to catch a Pteradactyl flying above a five hundred foot cliff, whilst being filmed by god knows how many tourists with links to You Tube? Can't think of a better way to spend my time."
Jack grinned. "Great. We'll leave in – an hour? Make sure you book a hotel, and get all the gear you think we need." Jack left the room
"Wow a whole hour! You won't know how to fill it, should be enough time to make us all a coffee anyway." Owen smirked. Ianto took a deep breath, not rising to the bait.
"Tosh could you do me a favour?"
"Of course, she smiled brightly, pleased he and Jack were getting some time together.
"Find us a B&B nearby? Gwen could you get me a six pack of dark chocolate from woollies please?"
"They went bust Ianto."
"Sod, of course, well from anywhere then."
"Well I am a bit busy ….."
"Gwen!"
"Yeah of course pet, back in ten."
In the event it was an hour and a half before they left. Jack had taken longer to brief Owen than expected, and Tosh and Gwen had gone to investigate a rift alert.
They took the SUV as it would be better on the country roads than Ianto's car. Ianto was always fairly quiet when they were travelling. He said he needed all his concentration to survive Jack's driving. Jack glanced over, Ianto was looking out of the window, impassive.
"You OK Ianto?"
"Yes, why?"
"Being quiet, even for you."
"I'm fine"
"Get this over with, we can get that date tonight, quiet country Inn……"
"Is that why I was asked last?"
"Ah."
"Ah?"
"I have to be seen to be fair Ianto."
"I know. Doesn't mean I have to feel good about it, but I'll get over it." Ianto gave a half smile.
"We OK?"
Ianto nodded and returned to looking out of the window.
Two hours later they pulled down the track leading to the car park for Symond's Yat. Ianto having vetoed Jacks idea for commandeering the closer disabled bays on the grounds that they had legs that worked. It was about 4pm and the air was beginning to turn chilly and the sun that had followed them from Cardiff had disappeared. Ianto wrapped his coat round him and Jack did his coat up as he strode along the path leading to the viewing points. He attracted no little attention from the tourists and dog walkers returning to their cars to escape the incoming rain. Ianto was aware that Jack enjoyed this attention, and to be honest he enjoyed the view too.
"Nice striding sir"
"Is that harassment?"
"No, only if you did it to me."
"How about if I kissed you here?"
"That would do it"
Jack reached for Ianto, but before he could do more than reach, a mountain biker rolled between them causing them to jump backwards and apart. Ianto laughed at Jack's thwarted expression.
"'Race you to the top!" Ianto took off with Jack in pursuit.
They reached the viewing point laughing and breathless, having annoyed several more sedate people on the way as they traversed them, overtaking push chairs and a very determined wheelchair user. At one point Jack had actually leapt up onto the wooden rails lining the side of the path, and run along until his balance went and he jumped back down, into the path of a cyclist carrying his bike towards the car park. "Twat! called the cyclist, Jack held his hands out placating, hearing Ianto's shout of laughter as he over took him again. At the viewing point they ran up over the peak of rock in the middle and down the other side to come to a stop at the boundary wall.
"Wow, that is beautiful." Jack stared out over the valley, to his left the view stretched for miles over a typical English landscape of patchwork fields, in front was the smaller gentle hill he had seen on the screen at the hub, to his right there was the continuing rise of the cliff, outcrops of rock and scrub with birds wheeling around, a squirrel running across to snatch crumbs, smaller birds hopping through the plants growing wild in front of the wall and over all lowered the threatening clouds, sunlight fitfully breaking through and lending a turneresque colouration to the scene. Voices drifted up on the wind. Looking down Ianto could see canoes wending their way up river, and on the further bank a family walked through the fields. From here the river looked calm and gentle, but when a canoeist shipped his oars, Ianto saw the canoe drifted quite fast. They stood shoulder to shoulder, drinking in the unaccustomed peace. As they stood the wind whipped around the people standing looking, and the rain started. Gradually the tourists left until Jack and Ianto were alone. Jack climbed up onto the boundary wall, and stood looking out, coat flapping in the breeze, hands in his pockets. Ianto joined him, he looked at Jack's face, contentment expressed there. "This, Ianto, this is why we do what we do."
A loud screech overhead caused them to duck involuntarily, a shadow passed over them, and they leapt back down from the wall as the shadow came back in for another pass, screeee! Claws missed Ianto by a few feet as he ducked down behind the wall, Jack had already ducked, but was looking upwards, trying to get a good look at the creature. A stray shaft of light hit its wings, showing them to be a good six to ten feet across, V shaped, sweeping away from a long narrow body, and a mean hooked beak. Thunder shook the clouds, and lightening threw itself down to the river below and in that instant the creature disappeared. Jack stood up, pulling Ianto up with him. It was raining in earnest now, and water ran down their faces as they hunted through the twilight for signs of the creature. Ianto was breathing hard, his heart beating faster, than after their run up the hill.
"Not a pteradactyl then" he huffed.
" Nope, but spectacular all the same."
"It seems to have gone."
"Not gone, disappeared. It just disappeared." Jack tapped his ear comm., "Tosh, can you tell me if there has been any rift activity in our vicinity in the last five minutes."
They waited a further twenty minutes to see if the creature returned, the storm exploding all around them. Hair and shoes sodden, even the waterproofing Ianto used on their wool coats beginning to fail, he could feel dampness around the shoulder seams. Tosh had found a small spike of rift activity, and Ianto had sent a description of the creature, but no correlation had been found yet in the data base.
By mutual consent they plodded back to the SUV, jogging every now and then when the slippery path allowed traction. Ianto hung the coats in the back of the SUV, hunted out sports towels and coffee thermos. They sat staring out of the windscreen, heater blasting, local radio chattering in the background. As he stopped shivering Ianto smiled.
"What?" asked Jack
"My Dad loved to go for a Sunday drive, and this is how we so often ended up, at a rain soaked beauty spot, Mum and Dad drinking tea, us kids in the back, bored and bickering, drinking Fanta, getting hyper on food colouring and chocolate."
"Sounds good." Ianto nodded, quiet fell again.
"I was bought up next to the beach, sunshine all year round, barbecues and surfing, hiding in the dunes."
"Sounds idyllic,"
Jack nodded, "If you don't count the constant threat of invasion."
"So not California then?"
Jack laughed, "A little further away, what I wouldn't give for a little California sunshine right now though." Jack started the engine, and they hunted out the exit, travelling carefully up the track and back onto the main road, heading for the Inn Tosh had booked.
The young man watched as the SUV pulled into the car park of the Forester country inn. He was used to 4X4 range rovers, and jeeps, and to the more battered local SUV's used by the farmers, but this was both sleek and menacing in its blackness. It had looked as though it was going to overshoot the car park, but then suddenly turned and came neatly but suddenly to a halt in the space closest to the entrance. The storm had passed, leaving weak sunshine that was giving way rapidly to the twilight, made darker by the trees pressing in on the opposite side of the road. He watched the two men as they confidently exited the SUV, slamming the doors shut without looking. They were both tall, the driver taller, graceful in his movements, the other broader, and purposeful. They laughed as they walked towards the Inn, sharing a joke, and he felt a little like he was spying on them, but then the light over the porch caught the features of the driver and he knew he was lost.
The driver rubbed his hands together as he entered the hallway, looking about him for reception, but it was the passenger who approached him, and asked if they had received a registration in the names of Harkness and Jones. He realised that the man was looking at him strangely, and that he was repeating the question. He swallowed, and blushed, looking down to the diary in front of him. He swore he saw sympathy in the man's eyes, as he patiently waited for him to gather himself together. Jack joined Ianto at the desk, casually leaning on it. His scent assailed the young man and he became confused and wordless.
"Jack can you go and get the bags please?" Ianto asked. Jack looked at him surprised, then he saw the young man blushing furiously and Ianto nodding towards the car, no doubt Ianto would tell him all about it later.
The young man felt a mixture of relief and disappointment, but at least his words were now lining up in the right order and he could speak.
He processed the registration, and gave Ianto the keys. He was able to direct them to their rooms without too much hesitation given that Mr Harkness had come back to stand uncomfortably close.
Jack came to join Ianto in his room a few minutes later.
"What was that all about?" he asked
"I think he fancies you."
"What? He'd only seen me for a few seconds."
"At that age its all it takes, don't you remember what it was like as a teenager?"
"A little bit long ago for me Ianto, how old do you think he is?"
"Difficult to say, fifteen maybe."
Jack shook his head in wonder.
"I think the SUV may have something to do with it. Look."
Jack looked out of the window, the young man was walking round the car trying to peer in the windows, standing back to look at it and running his hand over the body work.
"Did you lock it Jack?"
Jack looked hurt. "Of course, don't want some yokel trying to take it for a joy ride."
"Secure lock down?"
"Mm, you really don't trust me do you?"
"Where little details are concerned, experience tells me not to."
"Oh really, I don't remember you complaining about lack of attention to detail in the past."
Ianto smiled reminiscently, "true, you can be very detailed and painstaking where your pleasure is concerned, but just a little distracted over work details."
Jack moved closer, "We could just see if I can still be as painstaking where pleasure is concerned."
Ianto pushed him away. "I thought we were going to have a date? Do this –whatever this is, properly?"
An hour later and they were ordering in the restaurant of the inn. A young waitress served them, She recommended the steak and chips "anything else is just microwaved, but give him credit he can cook a mean steak" she nodded towards the kitchen. Ianto wondered who 'he' was.
The steaks did indeed look good, the chips crispy and hot, although the salad accompaniment was that typical english curled iceberg and a slice each of cucumber and tomato. Jack and Ianto sat peaceably, aware that the restaurant was a little too quiet for them to discuss their work, yet not intimate enough to discuss anything else. There was only one other couple in the restaurant, and four waiting staff, the air was cool and the décor a little faded and worn. A typical English inn, set at the back of beyond, out of season.
Ianto felt his blackberry buzz, he took it out and checked up on the e-mail from Tosh, he passed it to Jack, who sighed. "Sorry Ianto" Ianto shrugged
They left the table, Ianto ran upstairs for coats, and Jack apologised to the wait staff. Jack was already in the SUV as Ianto got in and he gunned it out of the parking lot heading back up towards Symmond's Yat. This time though they bypassed it and headed down towards the ferry that crossed the Wye.
A single police car and ambulance marked the spot. The police officer was leaning against the ambulance chatting to a paramedic.
Jack jumped out of the car, headed over. "What have you got for us?"
"You Torchwood?"
Jack nodded.
"Got a couple of teenagers, say they saw a giant bird, it swooped down on them, one of them fell into the river, then it just disappeared. The one who fell in nearly drowned, hence the ambulance."
The light caught Ianto's features, the policeman did a double take "Ianto? You survived? I thought you must have died with all the others."
Ianto shook his head "Marks?" Ianto reached out to shake hands, but the other man ignored it. Ianto put his hand in his pocket, abashed. Sometimes he forgot that Torchwood was a dirty word to the police. To be honest he had thought that Marks was a friend.
"You too know each other?" said Jack.
Ianto nodded, "This is Steven Marks, he was one of the beat coppers at Canary Wharf, we used to chat sometimes, when I went out for coffee, how come you're here?"
"I'm from round here originally, after that day I decided there was something to be said for rural peacefulness, so I transferred back."
Marks looked pleased that Ianto was alive, but he stood back from them, his attitude typical of police who had dealt with Torchwood on a daily basis.
"How come you're here so quick? I only called in the details a few minutes ago."
"We were already in the area, investigating these sightings." Said Jack.
"You'll be wanting to go down to the visitors centre then. They keep a record of all the oddities that happen in the forest."
"Sure," said Jack, not really interested. "Let's interview these kids."
The two teenagers couldn't tell them anything they didn't already know. The bird had appeared out of nowhere, dived at them and then disappeared as quickly as it came. The paramedics needed to get the youngest to hospital so within an hour Jack and Ianto found themselves back at the Inn. Marks had laughed when he heard where they were staying. "Wouldn't be my first choice, although I hear the steaks are good."
They walked up to the front door, only to find it locked. "It's only ten o clock" said Jack, "they knew we were out, why lock it?"
Ianto quietly reached past him and rang the bell. A few frustrating minutes later the door was opened by a middle aged man they hadn't seen before wearing pyjamas and a tatty dressing gown.
"Yes? What do you want?"
"We're staying here?" Jack said "Harkness and Jones?"
"Sorry. Sorry. My son told me everyone was in already. I've been out and wanted an early night, come in, come in."
He let them in and closed and locked the door behind them. "I saw your names in the register. Are your rooms OK?"
Ianto nodded. "When your secretary rang she said you would be alright with one room if we were busy, but I said that would be OK, can't have our usual guests thinking we would put two men in the same room to sleep. I don't need that kind of a reputation thanks very much, not to mention what you two would have thought if you'd arrived and I'd done that what with all our rooms being doubles"
Ianto said a hurried good night and hustled Jack up the stairs before he could say something more outrageous than what had already been said. He collapsed weakly against the wall laughing at the expression on Jack's face, Jack just gestured "What?" with his hands, he managed to look disgusted and confused at the same time. Ianto looked up at him, and leant in and kissed him on the cheek, as he looked up he noticed the young man from earlier. He was standing at the other end of the landing, he blushed when he saw he had been spotted and disappeared behind a door, Ianto noticed it wasn't shut though. Jack pulled Ianto into his arms and attempted to kiss him properly, Ianto allowed him to but soon pushed him away gently. "We're being watched" he said. Jack spun round, and the door at the end of the landing banged shut. Ianto stopped Jack from running down the corridor, "Relax, it was the young boy from earlier, I think he was just intrigued."
Jack grinned "well at least he can learn from the master" and carried on where he had left off.
Jamey couldn't believe his luck when he spotted the two men on the landing. The driver, Mr Jones was laughing hysterically, he knew they had been speaking to his dad, and felt embarrassed that they were laughing at him. He was used to that feeling, his parents embarrassed him everyday in every way.
With the men talking on the landing he could dare to look at Mr Harkness, Jack without being noticed. Then to his astonishment, Mr Jones kissed Jack as though it was a normal everyday thing to do to another man. He froze in astonishment, then jumped when he realised he had been spotted. He ran back inside his bedroom, but couldn't resist peeping round the door. His heart was in his mouth, he felt sure they could hear it. Oh, my god. They were kissing properly. Like a man and a woman, but they were men. He knew this was possible, he knew he liked men, but didn't they realise you could go to hell for what they were doing?
Jamey was filled with jealously, fear and curiosity. Fear won the day, he lay shaking, buried beneath the covers of his bed. He prayed hard for forgiveness, and for God to take away his burden, but mostly that his Dad would never find out about him, or what the two men were doing. If he found out about that they would be thrown out, and then he wouldn't be able to see Jack ever again.
The next morning over breakfast, which was a surprisingly good full English, Jack read the paper and Ianto read a leaflet about the visitors centre and various drives through the forest. Jack had teased him about a busman's holiday when he saw him rifling through the leaflet rack, then Ianto had shown him the picture of the visitors centre. There was a lake in front of it, with a sculpture of a winged serpent rising from it. They recognised it from the fossilised remains they had in the archives.
There had been no sign of the young boy that morning, they had been served by the proprietor who had let them in last night. Ianto had enquired kindly about the "efficient young man who had registered them." He had learnt he was called Jamey, aged fifteen, and that he had gone into Gloucester to register for a catering course.
The visitor centre opened at ten so they had a leisurely drive through the forest. The sun had come back, and shone through the golden leaves on the autumn trees. They passed through quaint little villages, passed over streams with humped bridges, and got lost once or twice in the maze of tiny roads that crisscrossed the forest. Eventually they pulled into the parking lot. Ianto stood by the SUV for a while listening to the susurration of the wind in the trees and watching the leaves drifting down like golden snowflakes. He was pulled from his reverie by Jack's excited call, he had crossed over to look at the chainsaw sculptures at the other side of the car park. The sculptor had a remarkable skill, he had made two sculptures of the miners who worked the coal seams under the forest, capturing perfectly the raw emotion and endurance of that life, but he also made sculptures of mythical beasts, or aliens, if you knew what you were looking for.
They paid to go into the centre, and wandered around looking at all the exhibits, but there was little on the myths and legends of the forest and the staff could only direct them to a small booklet. They had coffee in the café, then walked around the grounds, trying not to look as though they were searching for anything. They walked around the mill pond, as the lake had turned out to be and on up the incline towards an old mine, and the exhibition of woodworking. Giving in to the peacefulness of the location, Ianto allowed Jack to hold his hand. In some ways this was he realised the closest he might get to a date if you worked for Torchwood, and Jack needed the physical contact, Despite what Jamey might have imagined, the two men had not made love last night, or not in the sexual sense. They had ended up in Jack's room, kissing passionately, hands seeking out well known pleasures, but then Jack had started to shiver, he had backed off from Ianto, eyes closed, arms crossed across his body.
"What's wrong Jack?"
"I can't do this, I cant feel anything. I'm numb Ianto. I want so much to feel, but I'm so afraid, Ianto, help me to feel something. Help me Ianto."
Ianto reached out and touched Jack's wrist, Jack jumped as if he had been burnt. "Don't touch me, don't hurt me anymore, I can't take it anymore."
Ianto realised Jack wasn't talking to him. He backed off, "Jack, it's Ianto, we're safe Jack, Jack, can you hear me? I'm making coffee, you like my coffee."
He switched on the small kettle left for the convenience of guests. He had to make do with the filter cups he had bought with him, but he hoped the smell and sound might bring Jack into the present again. He quietly but with authority told Jack to sit down, all the time telling him he was safe, that he would be taken care of. He held the cup of coffee in front of Jack, careful not to touch him. Gradually Jack's face cleared, he took the coffee and looked up.
"Ianto, what happened?"
"I think you had a flashback Jack, when I started to touch you, you couldn't bear it. You had to back off, then you said something about not being hurt any more."
"Oh God I'm sorry Ianto."
Ianto shook his head. "Don't be, can you tell me about it?"
"I don't remember it all that clearly, I know I was tortured for about a year. The Master used me in every way he could think of, for his own sadistic pleasure."
Ianto didn't know what to say. "You were only gone a few months Jack."
"Parallel time line, can we talk about this some other time?" Jack was shaking again, Ianto took the coffee cup.
"How can I help Jack? I think you need to get into bed, but I don't want to set off another flashback."
"Let me get myself into bed. I don't think I can even bear someone to look at me naked, " he paused, continuing in his more natural voice, "did those words ust come out of my mouth?"
Ianto grinned, "Yep. Are you sure you'll be alright alone?"
"I don't want to be alone, would you sleep in here?"
"Yes. I'll go get ready for bed as well, then you can get yourself sorted in private."
So they had slept together, and there was a heck of a lot of love in the room, although Ianto slept on top of the covers, and did no more than whisper soothing nothings when Jack cried in his sleep.