"No news from Gwen or Owen," Ianto announced as he entered the supposedly abandoned house.
"I'm sure they're fine," Toshiko said to assure herself as much as him. She was sitting at what was left of the Torchwood computer system. The two of them had been able to take that as well as a few artifacts with them before they had evacuated the Hub. They had escaped in the nick of time, for no part of their base and second home had survived the explosion. Well, at least that was what they believed, not being foolish enough to look back.
The two had been trying to contact Own and Gwen for two months now. The four had agreed to split up and meet in the countryside a week later, but when Owen and Gwen hadn't shown up Tosh and Ianto had quickly evacuated the area. An underground group of what remained of UNIT had found the two of them weeks later. Although most of their technology had been destroyed as well, their primary goal was to locate former members of UNIT who had gone missing. No one had objected to adding Gwen and Owen to the list.
"Torchwood and UNIT coming together, this really is the end of the world," Jamie Rush, one of the leaders had said to them. Jamie had been shot down by one of the Toclafane five days after Ianto had met her.
"Well I have good news," there was the ghost of a smile on her face. "I figured out how to contact the Valiant." It had been Jamie who had told them about the Valiant, and both Ianto and Tosh suspected that was where Jack could be.
"I don't understand." They had discussed this before, but had come to the conclusion that even if they were able to send a signal they wouldn't be sending it to Jack. Ianto looked at Tosh's computer screen where a scale outline of the Valiant was being displayed. On one of the lower levels of the ship, there was a pulsing red dot.
"That," Tosh pointed to the dot, "is a mobile phone. It's probably too out of range to be of any service to it's owner. It's practically just a paper weight, which must be why they didn't take it off her."
"And it's owner it?"
"Tish Jones, sister of Martha Jones." Tosh pulled up a screenshot of a news from the day that it had all started. There was a picture of a girl who was most likely Martha Jones, a man, and Jack. "This can contact her phone, no matter how out range it is." Tosh gestured to the Torchwood computer system.
"Could they trance the signal?" Ianto asked, this sound far to good to be true.
"Yes, but I think we'll have about an hour before they'll be able to notice us. We'd have to move fast, and it might not work, but-"
"It's worth it," Ianto said shortly, and Tosh nodded.
"I packed everything else," she informed him. 'Everything else' only consisted of a bag full of possessions. The UNIT base was about five miles away, but they didn't want to endanger them by going anywhere near. Instead they planned to hide out in a city two miles east of their location for a few weeks. They'd send word to UNIT as soon as they could.
"Ready?" Tosh asked. Ianto gave a small nod, and she entered a few codes into the computer. The sound of the phone ringing played on the speakers. It rang three times before a timid voice answered.
"Hello?"
"Hello, it this Tish Jones?" Tosh asked in a pleasant voice.
"Who is this?" Tish sounded both amazed and frightened.
"My name in Toshiko Sato, Ianto Jones is with me, we're friends of Jack Harkness." Tosh said. "Is there anyway we can talk to him?"
There was a pause.
"I don't know, but I'll try," Tish finally answered.
Jack awoke with the usual jolt of pain, gasping for breath. He instinctively tried to bring his hand to his forehead, to touch where the bullet had punctured his skull, but the chains on each of his wrists barely let his arms move a few inches. His head was pounding. Being shot through the brain was his least favorite way to die, it always gave a nasty headache that could last for days on end.
Taking in another breath of air, he let his eyes scan the area around him. There was no one in sight, and he began to wonder how long he had been out. He had given up trying to tell time on his own. Not that it really matter how many minutes or hours went by, he doubted any of them would bring a solution.
Jack trusted the Doctor, and he knew he had a plan. Yet, as long numbing time passed and his worry for the people that he cared about grew, his faith began to wear away. He didn't know where his team was or if they were even still alive. Maybe knowing would only make it worse.
Jack's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. He raised his gaze to see Martha's sister, Tish. The only time that any of the Jones' paid him a visit was when he was given food, so Jack was surprise to see her with nothing in her hands but what looked like a mobile phone, and an expression of both worry and terror.
"I'm with him," she said into the phone. "Jack, y-your friends called me."
"What?" She didn't seem taken aback by the astonishment in his voice.
Oh great, Jack thought. Now I'm hallucinating! That is just perfect.
"Jack," Tish's voice broke his train of thought. "I-I need to go." She stated, pushing a button on the phone and pressing it into his hands. She gave him all that she could muster of a smile and hurried away.
Jack looked at the object in his hand. He gave it a small squeeze, just to reassure himself that it was real. "Hello?" He called hesitantly into the device.
"Jack?" The voice on the other end nearly brought tears to Jack's eyes. "Is that you?"
"Ianto Jones." Jack's voice broke as he uttered the name that had been on his mind since the beginning of all of this.
"Tosh is here to," Ianto's voice said.
"Hello, Jack," he heard Tosh say.
"Hey-"
"Jack what's going on," Ianto cut him off. "Why are you...where you are?"
"It's complicated."
"That's not an answer," Ianto's voice was bitter. Jack wanted to tell them what was going on, but he didn't know how to. There was a short moment of silence, before Ianto spoke again. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound that harsh."
"It's fine," Jack quickly said. "It's just so good to hear your voice."
"It's even better to hear your's, sir." Ianto responded without missing a beat, Jack could tell how hard he was trying to keep his voice light.
"Are you two alright?" Jack asked, knowing how stupid of a question that was. "Do you know if Gwen and Owen are alright?"
"No," Tosh answered. "We were separated from them." Jack nodded, even though they couldn't see him.
"Jack, are you alright?" Ianto's voice was smaller now.
"I've been better," Jack tried to force some humor into his tone, but it came out dry. "I'll be ok."
"What does that-"
"I don't know how long we have until someone realizes that I'm talking to someone, but I need you to listen to me right now." They were both silent, and he took that as a queue to go on. "I know how things look, but I swear the Doctor is going to fix this. I don't know how long it's going to take, so promise me that you will both be as careful as possible until then. Forget about Torchwood, forget about saving the word or being the heroes, just stay alive. Ok?"
"Ok," Tosh whispered.
"Alright." Ianto's voice was full of the words that Jack knew he desperately wanted to say. Jack hated that he was telling them to keep their heads down until it was all over, but he didn't want them to endanger themselves any further.
"Knowing that you are safe is what's going to keep me going until the day that I see you again." Jack hadn't meant to say that out loud, but didn't regret that he did.
"Ianto, we need to go," he heard Tosh say. He could tell she was trying to keep her voice calm. "Goodbye, Jack."
"Goodbye."
"Jack," Ianto's voice was desperate. Jack could tell that there was so much he wanted to say, so much he wanted Jack to know. "I love you."
He hadn't expected those words. For the longest time he had feared them, feared what hearing them would mean. However, now he didn't know how he would have lived without hearing them. He only wished that he could have seen Ianto's lips as he spoke.
"I love you too." His voice came out louder than he had expected. "Now live for me. So that the next time I say that I can look you in the eye."
"Jack?" Jack looked up form the document that he had been reading to see Ianto standing in front of him. He quickly set it down, and gestured for Ianto to sit.
"Hey." Jack stood up, not liking how his desk was in between them, and walked in front to lean on it, so that Ianto's chair was only a few feet away. "You should go home, it's late."
Ianto shrugged. "Not tired." He paused for a moment, as if think for the best way to fraise what was on his mind. "Jack are you alright?"
"What?" The question caught Jack off guard. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Ever since you came back," Ianto started. "You've been...well the way you look at the others, it's like sometimes you can't believe that they're..."
"Alive?" The words left Jack's mouth before he had realized what he was saying.
"Yeah." Ianto waited to see if Jack would say more, before asking: "Jack, what happened?"
"It's complicated," Jack sighed, knowing that was never going to be a good enough answer. "Can you imagine a year being..." Jack searched for the right word. "Being erased from time?" Ianto slowly nodded. "Well that's pretty much what happened."
"It never happened, and you can remember it?"
"I was at the eye of the storm when it was erased, as I said it's complicated."
"So in this year-"
"The world ended." Jack stated.
"We died?" Ianto asked.
"They did." Jack's voice was solemn.
"And I didn't?"
"You and Tosh contacted me," Jack tried to explain. "I made you promise that you would keep out of danger. I don't think Tosh could resist trying to put a stop to the horrors that were happening day after day."
"And I could," Ianto's voice was full of disgust.
"No!" Jack nearly shouted. "No, I didn't mean it like that. It's just..."
"Just what?"
"Nothing." He cleared his throat, needing to change the subject. "You really should go home. Get some rest, Ianto Jones."
The corners on Ianto's mouth lifted in a small, sad smile. "Goodnight, Jack." He stood to leave the room, but before he could take more than one step, Jack pulled him into a long hug.
Jack almost wished that Ianto could remember their conversation during the year that never was. He wished that he was brave enough to repeat what he had said, but now the fear of the pain that those words would bring once Ianto was gone had come back. Maybe someday Jack would be able to tell him, but for now their spoken love was just a string of words in a lost conversation.
Hello whoever is reading this! I'm not sure if I'm happy with how this came out, but I've had the idea for a while now, and if I didn't write (and finished it) it would become one of the stories that sit on (in?) my computer collecting virtual dust. Anyway, thanks for reading, please review! ;-)