Summary: The rift brings two unexpected guests at Torchwood, how will this change the future set for Jack, Ianto and the rest of the team? Janto CoE&EW fix-it/AT
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood and Doctor Who, no copyright infringement intended. If you still want to sue bring Ianto back to Jack first.
Warnings: So fix-it that it's actually more an Alternative Timeline, still everything gravitates around canon events. Set right before Reset, so spoilers for everything happened in the series after that (MD not included). Implied M-preg. Not beta-read and English's not my native language. Constructive criticism is appreciated and, since I received some, I checked once again the posted chapters, now they should be easier to read.
Bad timed guests
Jack looked once again at the document in front of him, trying to make sense of the last case they were working on, when two strong hands grabbed firmly his shoulders and made him spin on his office chair. As he finished the 180° turn and stared at the culprit, he found himself face to face with his worried lover.
"Jack, you've been too focused on this case, you should rest a bit. Those data won't delete themselves and even if they do, I have four spare copies of them. Take a break."
Jack smirked up at Ianto challengingly. "Oh? And since when you feel allowed to give me orders?"
Ianto straightened himself and looked down at his boss, snorting calmly at him. "Since the day you named me your caretaker and manager of this hub. However, we're already afterhours, so technically speaking you're not my boss anymore, I'm free to do whatever I want with you."
"You're free to do whatever you want with me during working hours too, you know that. Besides, there's no such thing as afterhours in Torchwood." Jack argued, chuckling lightly and turning once again to his papers to reorder them and put them back into their folders. "Still you're right, I could use some distraction until Tosh and Owen are back from their trip to the forensics."
Ianto stared at him intently, measuring each and every movement Jack was doing and heartedly hoping that his lover meant with his words to tell him what he was waiting to hear for the last three hours or so.
"So" Jack said as he turned his chair once again to face Ianto, making him focus automatically on his lewd grin and seductive eyes. "Are you willing to provide me some?"
In the fraction of second that followed, Ianto's lips were hungrily on Jack's, as the Welshman's mind literally screamed 'Yes!', hearing exactly the proposition he wanted. His hands roamed all over Jack's chest, eventually climbing up to reach his shoulders and neck, only to move up once again and cup his face tenderly.
Jack, on the other hand, simply let Ianto's possessive touch soothe and relax him, meeting his lover's lips and tongue with his own and letting the younger man take the lead. Slowly, he found himself perched up his own desk, as Ianto's hands left his jaw to start fumbling with his clothes. It was certainly the right time for him to start doing something himself, even though he kind of liked the idea of letting Ianto completely take advantage of him: the man was inventive almost as much as he was.
Trying not to break the kiss even for the slightest time, both lovers tugged desperately at each other's shirt, Ianto having the worse of it, as his mind was way ahead of his current task, because of the mind-blowing kiss he was trying to control without much success. Jack let a small smirk cross his lips as he successfully let Ianto's shirt fall on the floor before his lover could even finish undoing the buttons of his own shirt.
Taking pity on him, Jack broke the kiss and slowly dedicated himself to trace Ianto's jaw with tiny bites and hungry kisses, hoping to this way to be less distracting for his lover, allowing him to focus back on his mission: undressing him. Unfortunately, the change in actions didn't help the Welshman at all, as he eventually just hid his face in the crook of Jack's neck and relaxed in his tender embrace, lost in the sensations he was feeling.
Even like that, eventually he managed to undo also the last button of Jack's shirt… right when the rift monitoring program yelled its danger signal along with the proximity alarms, urging them to stop fooling around and focus back on the work they were supposed to do.
Both of them groaned in disappointment, but quickly gave their attention back to Jack's computer to see what had happened and where. After a couple of quick inputs, the coordinates of the spike appeared on screen, leaving both of them astonished at the readings.
"Ianto?" Jack asked, just to be sure he wasn't hallucinating.
"It happened inside our hub" Ianto confirmed with worry.
"You stay here. Check our CCTV and see in which area the inside alarm went off or if the cameras showed anything suspicious. Use this computer, I don't want you out of this office for any reasons at all" Jack ordered, quickly buttoning up his shirt and fixing his braces. "If you find something, tell me via comm"
"Jack, it might be dangerous!" Ianto argued, recovering his shirt from the floor as he tried to reach for Jack's elbow before he stepped outside the office.
"This is why I need you to have my back" Jack stated with a wink, despite looking serious enough to make Ianto actually stop and just stare at him. "Check the CCTV and stay alert, I count on it"
That said, Jack headed for the main area of the hub, whilst Ianto simply stared at the empty air before muttering a soft and resigned "Yes, sir" as he went back to the computer.
After checking every camera they owned and waiting about half an hour without hearing any kind of news from Jack, though, Ianto began getting restless. The alarms that had kept echoing in their base had eventually died down, so theoretically speaking the situation had been dealt with. What worried him to no end, however, was that Jack hadn't even once attempted contacting him since he had left.
He tried to get his lover through his comm and, when no answer came from that, he used his own mobile, once again receiving only dead silence in return. After another rapid check among their security system registrations, he could only hope that, wherever Jack was, it was where the cameras couldn't show him and had not been transported in another dimension. His experience with Lisa and the following shenanigans with Jack had made him quite aware of the high number of blind spots in their over-technological hub.
"Jack?! Are you still here?!" Ianto yelled eventually, stepping barely a foot outside the office door. "Jack?!"
Exasperated by the weirdness of the situation, he rushed outside, his steps on the metal grates sounding too loud in his ears as panic won over his most sensible instincts and his Torchwood One discipline to follow his boss's orders.
"JACK?!" Ianto shouted again, searching everywhere with his eyes until he finally noticed the tip of Jack's shoes appearing from behind the water tower. "JACK! Why the hell weren't you answering!?"
He ran in that direction, still undecided whether to be more worried or angrier for Jack's lack of communication. He could only hope that the worst didn't happen.
As soon as he reached him though, Ianto could only feel drained of both those feelings, as surprise overwhelmed him and he gaped at the scene in front of his eyes.
Jack was currently kneeling on the cold floor, holding in his arms what seemed, in Ianto's eyes, a newborn baby soundly asleep. He was rocking it slightly, holding it delicately to himself like he wanted to screen it from all the loud sounds inside the room. Like the picture of the perfect father.
Ianto didn't know what to think about it, but he was quite sure that a tiny part of himself felt extremely guilty. Whether he felt guilty over interrupting the nice family portrait or for other reasons, he didn't want to know.
"Jack?"
"Shhh" Jack murmured, still looking at the baby in his arms, but most likely speaking to Ianto too. "All those bad alarms were enough noise for you, little one, weren't they? I found her crying in panic and she stopped only when silence reigned again, I didn't want to push it"
"I heard nothing" Ianto complained.
"The sirens were covering the noise, Ianto, I wouldn't have heard Janet growling even if I were with her in the vaults"
Ianto crossed his arms on his chest and pursed his lips in displeasure, showing him his annoyance despite realizing that his lover was most likely right.
"I was worried about you, you could have told me what was going on through the comm" He protested, speaking softly and joining Jack behind the water tower. "Was it the reason why the proximity and rift monitoring program alarms went off?"
"Yeah. Look at her, isn't she adorable? No more than a few weeks old I would guess"
Ianto took a good and distrustful look at the baby, but he had to admit that the infant really was something that could make his heart melt. He felt himself smile at her despite his better judgment, and eventually closed up the few inches left between himself and his lover. He rested his chin on Jack's shoulder to admire her from his same point of view, realizing only then how much he had given up when he decided to refuse being part of the life of his sister's children.
"I bet she made her parents proud… Tosh and Gwen would love spoiling her to death." Ianto told Jack, still in awe. "How do we send her back?"
He felt more than heard Jack inhaling deeply. "We can't. If things were different, this would just be another re-adaptation case, like with Diane and the others, but as a matter of fact we don't even know what she is."
"She seems human to me"
"Ianto, believe me, there's a great difference between appearing human and being human. We'll need Owen to check her up and then maybe wait a bit… Let's hope she's from a future in which her parents can track her signal and bring her back home, because if nothing comes in a short time, our only option is to set her up for adoption."
"Jack… She must have parents out there" Ianto said, his heart sinking in his chest. "C'mon, what if she was your baby? Wouldn't you like someone to help you finding her? There must be something we can do to contact them. Besides, does a future that allows tracking someone through time and space like that even exists?"
Jack's eyes didn't left the small baby in his arms as he traced her plump check with the back of his index finger.
"If it exists, it would be after the 51st century. It would be impossible do that even for our technology"
Ianto held Jack tight from behind, realizing the actual message behind his lover's words: even the know-it-all leader of Torchwood had no idea if it would ever be possible for them to give the child back to her family.
"There must be another way around it"
"Only one person might have a chance here…" Jack muttered, almost to himself, his comment only barely heard by his lover.
"She might really be your child, you know?" Ianto wondered aloud, hoping to change the topic and lighten the mood a bit. "You would still be alive years in the future and she does look a bit like you."
"What?" Jack asked, surprised to hear Ianto pointing that out for the second time in a so short amount of time.
"Yeah, look at her. She frowns in disappointment just like you, and I bet that she could even pout like a champion with a little mouth like that. You might have competition in getting what you want from now on… if we're allowing them to stay."
Jack laughed at the joke and relaxed in his lover's arms, reaching behind himself to steal a quick kiss on Ianto's cheek.
"Oh, really? Then what about her little button nose? It's just like yours" Jack's mood somewhat sobered as he stared deeply into Ianto's blue eyes. "You're young, you still have time to have children of yours."
Ianto allowed himself a smile and took a long sniff of his lover's pheromones, noticing the lingering smell of newborn baby mixing with it.
"My life plans don't include children at the moment, even though looking at this little bundle of joy really makes you reconsider…"
He reached for her cheek to caress it with the back of his hand, but, as soon as he touched the child's skin, Jack quickly escaped his embrace.
"What?" Ianto asked, gaping at his lover.
"Didn't you hear it?"
"Hear what?"
"A click"
"I heard nothing, Jack"
As they stared speechless at one another, a well known noise echoed inside the hub, making their eyes widen in surprise. Jack, preventively shut his mouth tight and looked around himself to discover where the source of the noise was and what he could do to hide Him from Ianto.
The Welshman, on the other hand, had no such qualms. "The T.A.R.D.I.S.?" He asked mildly surprised.
Jack turned swiftly to stare shocked at him, but Ianto simply smirked knowingly at his lover and shook his head at the man's naiveté. The captain frowned back at him and tightened unconsciously his hold on the baby, since he still failed to see the Doctor's blue box.
All of sudden, the noise stopped and Ianto quickly stood right in front of Jack protectively, staring at the hothouse worried.
"I bet he's in there"
Jack had no time to ask what might have given the Doctor's presence there away, that a desperate thin man with a bowtie ran out of the conservatory, staring at them with accusing eyes.
"Don't you dare touch that baby!"
"I guess you're a bit late for that…" Jack complained with a snort, before surprise settled in and he raised an eyebrow at the newcomer. "Doctor?"
"Yeah, regenerated, but that's beside the point" The Doctor stated, striding down the stairs and through the main area. "I meant you as in you two."
"You two as in… a couple?" Ianto asked interested, earning Jack's reproachful eyes on him.
"You two as in you," The Doctor explained pointing his finger towards Jack "the hopefully fixed point in my headache, and you," he continued, this time pointing it towards Ianto "the one who's currently the main reason for giving me one"
"We… are we going to meet again in the future?" Ianto countered. "Again aside this precise moment I mean"
"Actually" The Doctor protested. "We were never supposed to meet"
"Then how can you say I'm giving you headaches?" Ianto pointed out, unmoved by the Doctor's bitter drama.
"Look, here the safety of the space continuum depends on a click and everything is you fault so…"
"A click?" Jack interrupted their bickering incredulous.
"A click" The Doctor confirmed significantly.
"He heard a click" Ianto stated and the Doctor's attention flew back to him.
"Who heard a click?"
"I heard a click" Jack clarified, earning the Time Lord's eyes back on him with a swift movement.
"Was it a click click, a not quite click or a-?"
"Doc, it was a click kind of click. However, I was the only one hearing it, so maybe I was only hallucinating."
"Did you two touch the kid together?" The Doctor inquired, panicking significantly.
Jack and Ianto felt suddenly guilty for no reason at all and both swallowed hard before they answered together with a feeble "Yes"
"You see? That's why he gives me headaches!" The Doctor told them angrily, slapping his knees in hysterics. "God, he click-tricked me!"
Looking at the scene the Doctor was causing, Jack and Ianto didn't feel much guilty anymore, even though the slight hint of worry was still there.
"What's the problem with the click?" Ianto asked annoyed, eventually moving closer to Jack, as it seemed unlikely that the Doctor wanted to take his lover away again.
"I already told you, the safe of the space continuum!" The Doctor exclaimed exasperatedly.
"How?" Jack demanded, vaguely distracted by the baby in his arms, who was trying to grab his braces but not quite succeeding in the act.
"Isn't it obvious? Because of that horrible baby!"
Jack and Ianto's eyes stared back at him, widened in shock.
"What's wrong with this child? Besides, she's all but horrible" Ianto argued, completely horrified by the Doctor's rudeness.
"Oh, what would you call something that might destroy the points around which time revolves?"
"Someone" Jack pointed out warily. "And all of this thanks to a single infant…" He added doubtful. "Look, I think you should take it out on her parents or whoever brought her here, if you're right, and not on her. Babies are always innocent"
"Well, now. It's exactly what I'm doing at the moment, I'm taking out on you two and especially on him!"
"What?" Jack and Ianto asked together, and the Doctor simply sighed loudly, sitting on the nearest chair and burying his head in his hands. He really didn't feel like storytelling at the moment, but since the other two couldn't understand it by themselves he had to make an exception.
"I went two thousand years in the future" He drawled in a tired monotone. "And I found Jack still moping about your death-"
"Wait," Ianto interrupted "you said-"
"Yes, two thousand years in the future he will still be thinking about you. And it's not romantic, it's plainly weird. And wrong." The Doctor registered the uncomfortable shift of the two humans, who barely glanced at each other before turning their attention on him again. "So I decided to bring Jack to a crack in the void, so that thanks to the T.A.R.D.I.S. energy you two could meet a last time. It was supposed to be something quick, to make Jack realize that maybe he had romanticized too much his lost boyfriend, and end of the games, back to normality. However…"
"However?" Jack asked uncertain, earning the alien's glare on him.
"However you closed the two of you inside a temporal bubble, so that you could stay longer together. 7 seconds passed for me, so I guess that they were at least 7 years for you. And" The Doctor continued glaring at them both. "You came out with that kid and, not happy with just that, you sent her back in time! Now there's a fixed point in the future more fixed than the others thanks to the T.A.R.D.I.S. energy and in the proximity of a future time related location. An event happening two thousand years from now where he is still alive and you two had that kid! It will rewrite everything in the middle, also other fixed points in time! Do you realize what you did?"
"Technically speaking I did nothing!" Ianto protested, clenching his fists in anger. "And besides that, what has me touching the baby along with Jack to do with all of this!?"
"Genetic recognition" The Doctor explained. "That Ianto was momentarily alive, but temporally still dead, you're not."
"I still don't get what's so bad about all of this and why I'm the bad guy here. Jack trapped us in a time loop, so what has this to do with me?"
"I don't really think Jack would be so keen with the consequences of sending the child back to rewrite history" The Doctor told him seriously.
"What consequences?"
"You becoming immortal" Jack answered instead of the Doctor, with a voice so weak and uncertain that Ianto had to stare back at him to convince himself that it had really been his lover the one speaking. "You will need to be immortal to have a kid with me two thousand years in the future. Time now has to accommodate that and the baby's age, time bubbles are not recognized by the flux."
"Make it more like the children's age, because you will have at least one more I know about." The Doctor snapped at them and got up, reaching for their mind with his own to share his memory with them.
Jack and Ianto's surroundings began to fade, turning into what Jack could only guess was the new interiors of the T.A.R.D.I.S. They had only a vague perception of themselves, but what they felt and see, at the moment, was from the Doctor's perspective. They felt like they were separated ghosts inhabiting the same body, a body that functioned by itself and that they couldn't influence whatsoever, just like they both were the Doctor at the same time as much as they were two separate beings momentarily filling the same person's shoes .
At the moment, they were looking frantically around themselves, searching for something inside the room in a frenzy, until eventually they heard themselves speaking with the Doctor's voice: "Damn, he tricked me!"as the alien punched the near control station in anger.
Jack and Ianto, living the Doctor's memories, had no time to swear further than that, as a white light exploded inside the TARDIS and they found themselves face to face with who could be no other than their future selves.
Ianto's incorporeal presence swallowed thickly, as he couldn't refrain to notice how his future self wasn't much older than he was now. Apparently, Jack noticed the same thing, because even though they were still seeing and feeling things from the Doctor's point of view, Ianto could also perceive his lover's hand searching for his shoulder in order to offer him comfort.
Ianto followed the feeling of it, and could actually perceive the outlines of Jack's hand and follow them to reach his lover's back. He instinctively tugged him in his arms, eerily mimicking the scene playing in front of them. The only real difference between them and their future-selves was that the other Ianto was the one holding the small girl tightly to his chest, whilst the future Jack held in his arms a little boy, no older than four years old.
"What the hell have you done!" They heard themselves yell, once again in the Doctor's enraged voice. "Jack, I trusted you!"
"I'm sorry, Doctor" The future Jack told him, looking completely subdued as he cradled his son's head close to his chest. "I'm sorry, I-I couldn't-"
"Doctor" The other Ianto called out, his eyes almost blazing with determination. "There's no other choice"
The Doctor had no time to ask Ianto what he was referring to, that the Welshman let his Jack go, took out from his pocket a small device and put it on the sleeping baby in his arms. The Jack and Ianto spectators of the show didn't know what it was, since the sharing didn't go as far as to take part of the alien's knowledge, but the Time Lord recognized it immediately.
"How did you managed to get something like that!? You were inside a loop!"
"We used our time well" The future Ianto said as, with a trembling hand, he reached for the tiny switch on the tool to activate it.
"Ian?"
Future Jack's and his Ianto's eyes met for a fraction, but the captain's distraught expression only gave the dead Welshman back the courage he was lacking at the moment.
"There really is no other choice" He whispered, almost trying to convince himself more than the others, then he switched the device on and, in front of her parents' panicked eyes, the baby disappeared from his arms, engulfed by shining golden dust. The dead Welshman's face blanched at the inevitable consequence of his own actions and, after failing to steady his breath a couple of times, he burst in hysterical tears, soon comforted by the future Jack's warm embrace as the vision began fading into the darkness along with the Doctor screaming at them about the disastrous consequences of their act.
Words and yells eventually died away in a confused background noise, while all around Jack and Ianto the familiar surroundings of the hub materialized themselves.
Ianto instinctively tried to tighten his arms around Jack, but his captain escaped from his embrace hastily and glared at him, obviously shaken by what he had just seen.
"Take the girl Ianto" He ordered, barely containing his anger. Ianto could do nothing but obey, even though he tried to reach for his lover's shoulder all the same as soon as the baby was safely nestled in his arms.
"Jack, listen-"
"I don't want to talk to you at the moment" Jack snapped, and then his glare moved to the child and to the Doctor too. "I don't want to see any of you at the moment, actually."
He stormed back to his office and closed the door with a loud slam, managing not to shatter the glass door, but to break Ianto's heart anyway.
"Jack…" Ianto moaned in pain, trying to keep his composure.
"You dag your own grave" The Doctor commented dryly, seeing Ianto's distraught expression. It didn't take Tosh's genius to understand that, despite the anger, the alien was actually feeling quite sad about them fighting, but it still didn't mean that he was willing to show them.
"I did nothing, actually" Ianto managed to say, successfully keeping a blank expression on his face.
"Well, while you have your own mental breakdown, I'll go and park my T.A.R.D.I.S. downstairs, where it's safer. I have the feeling that we'll be here together for quite some time."
As soon as the Doctor disappeared inside the hothouse and then his blue box vanished into thin air with his characteristic noise, Ianto let his well kept mask fall, allowing himself to collapse on the nearest chair and simply try not to cry.
He could only hope to wake up from this dread and find weevils, aliens and dark artefacts all together endangering the safety of the universe. That he could survive, but breaking up with his lover and becoming a father all within the same couple of hours was too much for him to bear, no matter what Torchwood had taught him to endure.
TBC