As the Torchwood team trudged into the Hub, Jack did a quick head count. Gwen—sitting on the couch and texting Rhys—, Owen—putting on his jacket and getting Toshiko's—, Toshiko—turning off the computers. He did another count, knowing that the numbers were off, but he still didn't see Ianto.
Gwen yelled a quick goodbye and Owen dragged Toshiko away as the last computer powered down, and Jack looked around again, hoping to see Ianto at his desk or the coffee machine. He was at neither location and Jack began to worry, because he couldn't have gone down to the Archives without anyone seeing him.
Ianto had definitely been in the car with them when they'd returned from the swamp that the Rift had taken them to—they wouldn't just forget a teammate, and certainly not Ianto—and he was sure that Ianto had followed them back from the SUV when they'd unloaded, but Jack had been carrying the latest Rift Gift and hadn't directly noticed him.
Swallowing down the worry, because maybe Ianto had started cleaning the mud off the car even though it was the middle of the night, Jack left the main Hub in the direction of the garage.
The lights in the corridor leading up to it were on since no one had bothered to turn them off as they'd passed it, and so were the lights in the actual garage. Well, Jack called it a garage… Ianto and Owen kept their cars here, and Jack kept both Torchwood SUVs and his personal one there, too, but the space was largely unoccupied.
And, since Owen was gone, one of the SUVs was getting fixed, and Ianto hadn't driven in that morning—he'd stayed in the Hub with Jack overnight and had walked there the previous day—there were only two cars there. It was to the dirty SUV that Jack went to, seeing the mud on the sides and wheels of the car even before he approached.
"Ianto?" Jack called into the room, curious that he hadn't caught him cleaning. "Ianto-oo!"
There was no answer. Jack was just about to turn back when he saw a faint outline in one of the SUV's back windows. He came closer and saw what it was—the side of Ianto's face, squished against the glass.
"Ianto!" Now Jack was scared. Was Ianto hurt? And had he not seen it happen and been there to help him? It took Jack three knocks on the glass—he didn't have the keys—to get Ianto to rouse. Confused blue eyes stared up at Jack through the window. "Open the door!"
Ianto did as told, and his eyes widened even more when Jack grasped his face, forcing him to look into the overhead light. "Jack?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm… I'm fine… Jack, what—"
"Are you hurt? Ianto, where are—"
"What are you talking about?" Ianto's face looked more and more confused the longer he stared at Jack. He looked away from the light. "Look: I'm alright."
Jack looked at him strangely. "Then why are you here? I couldn't find you, I thought—well, I thought that you were hurt—and then I came here, and you weren't answering me, and then I found you like this, and I had to bang on the window to get you to reply, and I… I just thought you were hurt."
"You worry too much." Ianto laughed, his smile quickly turning into a yawn as he surreptitiously checked his watch. "Jack, it's half-past three. Well, forty-two minutes past three. I'm just" —yawn— "tired."
"Oh." Jack relaxed his grip on Ianto's face and lowered his head. "I take it I just woke you up?"
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry." He was, even if he thought there were better places for Ianto to sleep in. "And I'm sorry we—I—left you here."
"It's" —yawn— "okay."
"You're tired." It wasn't a question, and Jack helped Ianto out of the car before he could even blink. Even with Ianto's supportive smile, he felt awful.
"No kidding." Ianto yawned again and shook his head. "Was fine until I looked at the clock when we entered Cardiff. Then just… well, fell asleep. Stop it."
"Stop what?"
"This…" Ianto waved his hand. "This feeling sorry. I don't even know which one of us you're feeling sorry for. You didn't forget me, hell, the sky could have been falling and I still wouldn't have woken up."
Jack chuckled. "How about I take you to bed, then?"
Ianto shook his head again, fighting another yawn. "I don't think I can tonight, Jack, I'm sorry. I'm just" —yawn— "so tired."
"I didn't mean like that." Jack laughed fondly as Ianto leaned against him, and began walking back to the Hub. "I meant sleep. You know, in a bed. I'd take you home, but I don't think—"
"Too far," Ianto agreed with a serious nod.
"Yeah." Jack could tell Ianto's eyes were closing by the second and that he had to shake himself awake when they reached the stairs. "But my bed's not that far."
His bed was much smaller than Ianto's, it was true, but right now… "That sounds heavenly."
Jack nodded as Ianto yawned again. He looked at him tenderly. "Yeah, it does."
By the time they got down to Jack's bunker, Ianto was dead on his feet. It took Jack only a minute to help him out of his suit—it was covered in mud and looked unsalvageable, but Ianto was a master at fixing things, so it probably wasn't—and only a few seconds to undress himself. He put the clothes on a chair the way Ianto usually did, knowing that he would appreciate it in the morning.
When he turned back to the bunk, he saw that Ianto was already under the blanket, having pulled it up to his shoulders, and was cuddling into the pillow. He sat down on the bunk with a contented smile and turned off the bedside light. Lying down, he wrapped one arm around Ianto's middle and drew him closer.
Minutely, Ianto shifted, relinquishing his grip on the pillow. Jack softly kissed his hairline. "Goodnight."
Ianto snuggled closer with a quiet hum, but didn't respond.
"Ianto?"
But he was already asleep, quietly matching his breathing to Jack's as Jack himself drifted off into the night.