A/N: This contains MAJOR spoilers for "Children of Earth". If you haven't watched ALL OF IT yet, then do not read this until you have. Also: READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE BOTTOM.
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood or Doctor Who. If I did, I would not have to worry about Jack remembering Ianto, because Ianto WOULD NOT BE DEAD.
While the Face of Boe was protecting her from the virus, Novice Hame heard stories, his adventures with the Doctor, his friends, his defining moments. And God, but they were amazing. Stories of different worlds, of Rose Tyler, of strange aliens, of families, of all the children he'd had over the years. Of John Hart, who'd only died recently, having been elected President of some faraway planet, much to the chagrin of Boe ("they'll have fallen into chaos within the week" he predicted. It was two weeks.). Of Amelia Averit, who had apparently saved him from many a monster, and a very horrible death.
Hame's favourite story was that of Ianto Jones. Boe didn't tell it much, it was a rarity, but it was wonderful and funny and she wished she could have met this Ianto Jones. Boe told her about how they had met, how Ianto made what was possibly the best coffee in the universe, Ianto's strange, sarcastic, wonderful sense of humour. He told her how Ianto was actually the one who took over when Boe disappeared all those times. He told her how he fell in love with Ianto.
He never told her what happened to Ianto. So one day she asked him.
He blinked slowly, and was quiet for at least ten minutes. When he spoke, his voice was heavy with grief and deep-embedded regret.
"He died saving his planet."
And so Hame heard Ianto's last story. Of the terrifying alien race who wanted children, of how the government had tried to wipe out the organization Boe and Ianto had worked for, how Ianto had saved Boe from being trapped in concrete. How Ianto had tried to stop the aliens from taking the children and how the aliens had released a virus, much like the one Boe and Hame were currently hiding out from, how Ianto had threatened the aliens.
How Ianto had died in Boe's arms. How Boe had promised never to forget.
How the aliens had moved on as though it was an everyday occurrence. How Boe had so very much wanted to stay dead, wanted to leave the planet to fend for itself, to just...go. How awful coming back to life was, worse than most times.
How his sister and nephew never forgave Boe. How Boe ran and ran and nothing got better, so he returned to Earth, only to find Ianto's niece, by now and adult, married with kids of her own, standing waiting for him. How she'd forgiven him and hugged him, and how he clung to her because she was the last part of Ianto he had left.
When he had finished, the misery was tangible. Hame felt what he felt.
She didn't hear about Ianto again until the day before the Doctor arrived for the second time. Boe had told her some story about fighting something called a pterodactyl and how the person fighting it with him had tried to tempt the thing with chocolate.
"So then I hired him," Boe said. "I hired Ianto because he tried to ply a dinosaur with chocolate."
Hame didn't understand at the time why, after all this time, Boe had brought up Ianto again. The next day, after he died, it occurred to her that maybe he knew that it was his time.
Maybe he brought up Ianto to comfort her, to let her know that he would be all right.
To let her know that now, it was all right to die.
To prove that he never forgot.
A/N: SAVE IANTO! There's a community over on LJ working to save our favorite Coffee Boy. It's called: Save The Coffee Boy: A Bloody Annoyed Ianto Jones - Science Fiction - The Natural Home of the Reset Button. JOIN IT. Get involved. Send coffee, emails, sign petitions, whatever you feel like doing. Get the word out. We are the audience. We are the voice. We are the power. We are coming.