Title: Music and Lyrics

Author: Caz251

Beta: janiemc – who is simply amazing. Thank you so much.

Prompt: Music and Lyrics done with a Torchwood Twist.

Characters: Jack, Tosh, Ianto, Gwen, Rhiannon Davies, Rhys, Andy, Owen, Lisa Hallet, Suzie Costello, with mention of John Hart.

Pairing(s): Jack/Ianto, Owen/Tosh, past John/Jack, past Ianto/Lisa

Rating: pg-15

Warnings: slash, het

Spoilers: Someplot spoilers for the film Music and Lyrics and general character spoilers for Torchwood.

Artist (cover): Caz251

Word Count: 9,931

Disclaimer: I do not own Music and Lyrics, nor do I own Torchwood.

Summary: When the lyrics are missing there is just music, Jack Harkness needs a lyricist he can work with, can his agent find him one that he can work with on more than just one song.

AN: This fic is written for reel_torchwood and is based on the film Music and Lyrics written so as to give the story a Torchwood twist.

Chapter One

Toshiko Sato sighed as she put the phone down, another cancellation. She looked at the diary in front of her, crossing out the booking, now she just had to figure out how to tell Jack. Barry Island had been one of their biggest venues, she wasn't looking forward to explaining to Jack that despite his charm he wasn't pulling in the crowds with the old songs, just middle-aged women. She knew that he would not release a new album, and after his first disastrous solo album she didn't blame him. He could write music, but lyrics had never been forte. That had always been Hart's domain, when it came to the music of Torchwood. Torchwood had been huge in the five years that Jack and John had worked together, although it had only felt like a few weeks at the time. Jack and John had formed the band Torchwood together and they had worked well, at least musically that is. They had been best friends and occasionally lovers, and they had been a great team, enjoying the life they had made for themselves.

Toshiko had been their manager and had watched as they grew as a group, and been there to pick up the pieces of Jack that John had left in his wake when he left. Torchwood had been at the height of its success, but they had the opportunity to climb further and they would have made it if not for John accepting an offer that he received. A solo career on a better label, a chance to showcase his abilities on his own and gain all the profits and admirers for himself. Toshiko had not been surprised in the least when he had jumped at the chance, leaving without a second glance or care for Jack. Jack hadn't been too upset at the loss of his lover; they weren't in love, but rather friends who really enjoyed a good time. He was on the other hand devastated at the end of Torchwood, the first real thing that he had been good at. There had been other careers and jobs in his past, but Torchwood had been something that he enjoyed as well as being good at it. He had tried to make it himself as a solo venture, after all if John could do it then he could, he was just as good as the other man and slightly less destructive. He at least didn't need to spend a great deal of time in various rehab centres.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that his solo venture wasn't as successful as John's, rather that it wasn't successful at all really. He was a great composer of music, and an amazing singer, but he wasn't a lyricist, and he had even bigger problems when trying to find a lyricist he could work with well enough to get work done. After the failure that was his solo album Jack had spent two years or so in a slump, of which he couldn't remember much at all, before pulling himself out of it. Or rather, she had pulled him out of it, refusing to let him wallow any longer. She had proposed the idea of doing smaller venues with the Torchwood songs, songs that worked, with a fan base that was already there. It had been working for years, and it had kept them both afloat, but that didn't seem to be the case anymore. Less and less people were turning up, and it wouldn't be long before even diehard fans stopped attending, at which point she was sure that the only thing she would be booking for Jack would be old school reunions. Hopefully things wouldn't come to that though, she just had to move Jack into another venture and the perfect one had come along only the other day. She had met with a young artist who had loved Torchwood and John in particular who wanted him to create a song for her new album. Toshiko had immediately agreed to have a demo done for the woman, and had begun to order Jack into production mode, setting him up with a lyricist that was supposedly one of the best in the business; Suzie Costello.

Toshiko grabbed her diary and her bag, readying herself to leave, knowing that she would need to sit over Jack almost to get him to play nice with the lyricist, he wasn't always happy about having to share his space, or working and cooperating with others. She knew however that he would make this work, mainly because he wouldn't want to disappoint her, she knew it was low, but sometimes using emotional blackmail was the only way to get through to him, and if it was what it took, then she would certainly do it. Arriving at his flat it was to find him sat at his piano looking ready to tear his hair out, something that she meant literally, surprising due to his vain tendencies, but she supposed it could be seen as being necessary. She had been informed that Suzie Costello was the best lyricist in the business, but she hadn't been informed of her eccentricities, which were plain to see upon meeting the woman. That is if you can call being completely insane an eccentricity, Toshiko was sure that she could get away with it. She watched from a chair out of the room as Jack tried to work with Suzie, her stare compelling him to at least try and produce something of worth. However with the lyricist she had chosen she could tell that that may be problematic, especially given the brief that she had been given about the song itself. The teen pop sensation Gwen Cooper, known to the industry as Gwennie, wanted a song about love, more specifically about loving over and over again, for some reason or other. Toshiko had been given a basic explanation about why she wanted that theme, something to do with an on and off again relationship if she remembered correctly, but she couldn't be quite sure.

Suzie was staring at Jack as if he was something distasteful as he bashed away on his Kawai. She tried not to stare at the woman and her messy hair as she rocked back and forth in the chair muttering to herself. Sharing a quick look with Jack she tried to hide her smile as he rolled his eyes. Jack let out a sigh as a knock on the door interrupted the womans mutterings and Toshiko used it as an opportunity to escape the tense atmosphere that was present in the livingroom.

Opening the front door she was startled to find a young man in a suit on the doorstop. She looked at him for a moment, wondering what he was doing there, asking herself if he was maybe a friend of Jack's. She asked who he was and was surprised when the man started to ramble about a friend, a holiday, rounds and did she own a bucket, because she was supposed to have her own. She figured out from his quick speech that he was doing a friend's cleaning rounds while she was on holiday, oh and his name was Ianto. She let him in and directed him towards the kitchen where she assumed that Jack kept his cleaning supplies before going back to the living room to referee Jack and Suzie's arguing. She couldn't help but wonder about the man in the kitchen though, who cleans in a three piece suit. She tuned back into the argument between the other two in the house to hear Jack recoil in horror.

"We can't use that. Not for a pop song." Jack exclaimed. "There's nothing pop about it."

"Why not? It's catchy." Suzie pouted. She then began to recite, 'Love is a cold Mistress. Fooling you over and over, She is oh so vicious. Pushing you off the straits of Dover'.

"No." Jack stated again, "Even I know it doesn't work, and lyrics aren't my strong point, try something else."

Toshiko nodded, agreeing with him, they couldn't present something like that to Gwennie, the poor girl would probably cry at the angst in it, having only ever sung light and fluffy poppy music before. She caught the look that Jack sent her, asking her what she had been thinking when she had selected Suzie as the lyricist to work with him on a pop song, she certainly wasn't very upbeat, and she herself had to admit, even if just in her own head, that she may have made a mistake.

Suzie sighed loudly, and slumped further in her chair, thinking for a moment or two. She then spoke once more, "Okay how about this, 'Love is a cold Mistress, Fooling you over and over. A bitter mortis. Running you over in a land rover'."

Jack's head fell forward hitting off the keys of the piano, before he pulled himself together, sitting up and looking straight at Suzie, ignoring Ianto who had come into the room while he was face down on the keys. "No! Definitely not! We need something fluffy and light and in love, not about death and dying and road traffic accidents." He then began to play the tune that he had come up with, trying to block out Suzie and her weirdness as she began to mutter to herself again. The first two lines that she had stated being a recurring feature in her mutterings, she obviously liked those two the best.

A voice humming along to the piano muttering words to themself joined in the sounds of the room, as Ianto worked away, cleaning the windows while the others worked. Toshiko couldn't tell what it was that he was saying, but Jack seemed interested as he perked up immediately, but then again that could have just been the result of seeing the handsome man for the first time. Apparently it wasn't though as Jack had stood and was demanding that Ianto repeat himself, startling the other man to cut himself on the edge of the window frame.

"Say it again." Jack repeated, seeming to forget that the man had just cut himself, or that he may not want to answer him, it wasn't as if he had any obligation to him, or had even met him before.

Toshiko watched as the man tried to think for a moment before he spoke, "Love is a cold mistress, Fooling you over and over, Showing a perfect surface, Hiding that four leaf clover." The young man finally replied to Jack after a couple of minutes pause.

Thinking over the lyrics Toshiko couldn't help but smile at the disgruntled look on Suzie's face, while Ianto's lyrics weren't perfect they were much better than that of the acclaimed lyricist, well less morbid at any rate. She watched with amusement as Jack completely ignored Suzie's presence in the room, instead focusing all his attention on trying to get Ianto agree to work with him. The look of disappointment on his face as Ianto rebuffed his offers was quite amusing as well, it wasn't often that Jack pouted, but he looked adorable when he did. As Ianto rushed off, intending to do something about his hand Jack yelled after him, telling him where he'd be that night and asking Ianto to join him. As the door shut she watched Jack turn back towards a glaring Suzie who looked ready to commit murder due to having been shown up by someone not even in the business.

"Do as you like, see if I care. I don't want to write for some perky pop princess anyway." She called back to him as she stormed off towards the door, slamming it in her wake.

Toshiko looked at Jack and could tell that he was feeling rather drained already and it was only lunchtime. She could tell that he was worried about upsetting or disappointing her, and that he thought he had done by chasing her handpicked lyricist away, but she was nothing of the sort. Suzie hadn't been right for the song, or as a writing partner for Jack, but hopefully Ianto would come to the reunion that Jack was doing that night and would agree to work with Jack, it was at that point she realised that Jack didn't even know Ianto's name, but still wanted to work with him. Toshiko didn't care what it would take, she had to get Ianto as Jack's writing partner, mainly because the other man had made such an impact on Jack that he had forgotten to ask his name, or even to flirt with him.