1
"What are you thinking about?"
Ianto turned to Jack with a raised eyebrow, surprised at the question, then looked back out over the bay as he considered.
"Ianto?"
"Once upon a time, in a previous life, like." Ianto decided to be truthful, "I was a fisherman named Bjorn."
"Bjorn." Jack grinned as he watched Ianto squint into the wind and he settled against the railing.
"Yep. Me hair was long, brushing me shoulders and bleached at the tips. I wore woolen jerseys knitted by me wife."
"Oh. Was she nice?" Jack asked with glee as he realized he was going to get one of Ianto's stories.
"Gretta."
"Ooo, good name." Jack turned back to look over the bay as well as he tried to let his imagination match his lover's.
"Gretta had rust coloured hair. She used to cut it herself with a pair of sheers she had for the sheep. It was a bit like a pixie cut, women pay big money for it these days but I always hated coming home to find it short again" Ianto lamented.
"Did she have a nice body?" Jack asked was a gentle push of an elbow.
"Not bad, a bit thick set after little Frank came I guess but a baby does that sometimes" Ianto shrugged, "Not that I minded. She was a grand wee cuddle monster."
Jack closed his eyes to imagine a tanned, weather beaten Ianto cuddled with a woman with rust pixie hair.
"She had wonderful tits" Ianto offered and Jack hummed.
"What did you catch?"
"Hmmm?"
"As a fisherman, what was your catch" Jack prompted.
"Fish. Cod mostly, whatever the season was" Ianto shrugged, "Wasn't my boat. I was just crew."
"Did you like it?"
"Yes. I did. I liked the routine, the monotony of it" Ianto shrugged, "Maybe that's why I like archiving. You rolled out of your bunk, got food, went up on deck. Watched the waves, braced your hip against something and ground the hard grind."
"How long were you out each trip?" Jack moved closer to brush arms with him.
"A week at a time." Ianto said after considering the question, "A week on and a week off. Two crews that swapped around."
"So … someone else slept in your bed each other week?" Jack asked and Ianto snorted as he saw the trap.
"Me wife was good, kind and true!" he scolded Jack, "She never had another in me bed! The bunk on the boat was shared though."
Jack laughed as he saw that his question had been seen through.
"Sometimes I would smell pipe smoke from me bunk mate" Ianto sighed, "I would climb into me bunk and it would waft around me like a whisper."
"I could have kept you warm in your bunk" Jack offered, "Like a naked bed warmer."
Ianto snorted, "Well, a strange mermaid indeed sir, would have been nice rolling with the waves hitting the wooden hull barely inches from us as we grunt and try to keep it quiet."
"How did you die then?" Jack asked what he really wanted to know, what always fascinated him. Ianto was always so good with this part, so thorough with the images. This is what made him such a great re-stager with the bodies.
His crime scenes were always believable, no matter how they truly died.
"Ah. We sank of course and I drowned." Ianto snorted.
"Drowned? Horrible, drowning." Jack grimaced as several of his own drowning came to mind.
"Well, it was terribly cold. A winter storm, blew in out of nowhere, we were trying to lift the gear and … well. It was stuck on something. Another ship already gone? Who knows but one minute we're racing the storm, then next the winch is screaming and we're getting swamped" Ianto closed his eyes, "The water kept crashing over the bull-works as we struggled to cut the lines. If we had just been a few minutes faster maybe ... well. Lance went over first, yelling at me as he reached back and I knew … even as I reached for him I knew."
"The water in your woolen jersey would have pulled you down" Jack agreed.
"Yeah, I managed to kick off me gumboots but god, it was so cold Jack. Black, just the boat lights as she went down, blinking and flickering as she sank into the deep." Ianto straightened up and seemed to shake with the feeling of the cold water.
"I felt for me wife" he said as he started to move away from the memory, "She was with child when I went. Me last thought was... if it was a son or daughter that I could never know. Poor woman, a wee one and another on the way. No body to bury, not that far out in the blue."
"Sorry" Jack winced, "Hard to leave family behind."
"Have you ever gone back? For a peek?" Ianto asked and Jack turned to look at him with surprise. He didn't usually involve him in his stories.
"You know, after the new life is set up and everything, did you ever just want a peek back?" Ianto seemed to be testing him somehow and Jack answered truthfully.
"Never."
It seems to comfort him; it was the right answer because Ianto smiled as he motioned to Jack that it was time to go.
They left the salty air behind with the faint smell of pipe smoke in Ianto's nose.