Title: A World Apart
Author: evelyncarver
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Warnings: Spoilers for S01E04, S01E06
Summary: Everything feels wrong when Ianto comes back and Jack needs him to be there, not walking around in a different world.
Jack knew that something was wrong the day that Ianto returned. The hub had felt different with him gone, empty and quiet. And it had gotten messy and the reams of paper on his desk had piled up higher than they'd been since he'd hired Ianto so long ago. He'd been hopeful that everything would slide back into to place when the suspension ended.
But when the cog door had opened early the morning of Ianto's return, it didn't feel better or natural. Jack had watched silently from the computers in his office as Ianto had cleaned up the worst of the rubbish and started making coffee, his shoulders were hunched under his suit and Jack couldn't help but shiver at the cold, dead look in his eyes, as if the events of a month ago had been only yesterday. Jack didn't like the way that the hub felt, the last time it had felt like this, he'd gone on to find every member of his time dead.
It took Ianto two hours to make his way to Jack's office. He knocked and brought the coffee in, silently standing in front of Jack's desk for a second before his hands brushed over the top document on a tall stack. He glanced at Jack and opened his mouth, before closing it and looking back down at the papers. He gathered the papers in one arm and took three of the dirty coffee cups in his other hand, Jack's watched as he walked towards the door, wondering if there was anything to say, if he could say anything.
"Ianto." Jack called just as Ianto pushed the door open with his foot. When the msn looked back his expression was pained, but a second later his features smoothed over to an emotionless mask.
"Something you need sir?"
Jack wanted to sigh; it felt like Ianto's first week all over again, only much, much worse. "Are you okay Ianto?"
Ianto's jaw tightened for a moment, "I've got a lot of work to keep me busy sir, I'd be better if I could get some of it done."
When the door to Jack's office clicked closed behind Ianto, he allowed himself to sigh and idly run his hands over the cup that held fresh, perfect coffee in it. He glanced at the clock and sighed again, the feeling of wrongness was only going to increase when the rest of the so-called team arrived.
Jack spent the day in his office, avoiding Ianto despite the man's frequent trips into his office to collect piles of paperwork and leave new piles that demanded his signature or approval. He avoided Gwen, who just wanted to have a quick conversation about Ianto coming back and he stayed far away from Owen, who didn't think that anyone that kept a homicidal killing machine should be allowed to remain a part of their team.
The fact that surprised Jack was that he actually got some work done. He read at least two hundred old reports that had been sitting on his desk for ages; he even answered the backlog of his email from UNIT. It wasn't until his inbox was nearly empty that unread messages from Yvonne Hartman began to pop up and he deleted the rest of his mail. Some things he just couldn't think about, no matter how much time had passed and no matter how much be abhorred the person that it had happened to.
Gwen left early. She'd arranged it days ago and it had slipped Jack's mind that it was going to be Ianto's first day back. Since Tosh was off, that meant that the hub was nearly empty, the tension between Owen and Ianto spilling out and soaking into the air, Jack felt tense and he was far away from it all, and not really all that involved.
Jack stood up and stretched for the first time in hours, he really needed to try and get some of his work done on time rather than saving it up, then it wouldn't take so long. He knew that now, but he doubted he'd follow that logic, or even remember it in a few hours.
"Owen!" Jack called from the door of his office, his fingers laced around his braces. He waited until the medic appeared on the top step down to the autopsy bay. "Take an early night and be on time tomorrow morning."
There was no grumbling from Owen. He grabbed his coat, waved a hand in Jack's direction and left, mumbling something when he walked past Ianto. Jack let it go this time, the wrongness still permeated the air. For a second he thought that this was what the Doctor must feel around him, the feeling that things were wrong, that things needed to get fixed and there was no way of fixing it.
The hub felt better with Owen gone, but Jack sat at his desk, glancing at the monitor every few minutes until Ianto left, not knowing if he was counting down to the time when Ianto would leave and the hub would feel empty, or if he was waiting for Ianto to leave to make the hub feel less wrong. He skimmed a report from Gwen and three from Tosh, not really taking in any of the words on the screen in front of him.
Ianto brought him another cup of coffee around ten o'clock. He stopped at the office door and looked at Jack, who was pretending to be absorbed in paperwork. "I'm leaving now sir, unless there was anything else you needed?"
Jack shook his head and followed Ianto's movements through the hub as he locked it down, gathered the bags of rubbish and the bins of recycling, put his coat on and left through the Tourist office, shutting it up behind him. Jack breathed a sigh of relief, they'd made it through his first day back, even if it felt like it Ianto was living in a separate world, he knew that it would pass eventually, he hoped it would pass quickly.
Savouring his coffee, Jack opened his email again, examining a message from the regional police headquarters. Odd disappearances in the countryside, ones with no explanation, no pattern and no bodies had been found. He put his feet up on his desk and opened the relevant case files. This looked promising and perhaps a trip to the country, camping maybe, he'd bring Ianto along and get the man back on the same plane as the rest of them.