Title: An Evening Out
Rating: PG-13. Couple of swear words.
Pairing: Jack/Ianto, plus team.
Genre: Character bonding.
Warnings: Couple of swear words.
Spoilers: If you've watched both series so far there aren't any, and really if you've only seen the first there aren't many. This story is set a couple of weeks after Kiss Kiss technically, so it ignores most of season 2.
Disclaimer: I make no profit, they're not mine, none of it is. Well, except my three OC's but even I don't like them much so I don't want them.
AN: First Torchwood fic, please be kind! Reviews gratefully received.
It had been a quiet day in the Hub. A quiet week in fact, and for once Jack wasn't complaining. He'd been through quite enough adventure and excitement for just a little while during his latest travels with the Doctor, and he was enjoying the opportunity to get to know his team again now that they'd stopped giving him the silent treatment for disappearing on them. One member of the team in particular of course … Ianto. Jack still couldn't quite believe he'd asked the other man on a date, a proper date, with talking and the knowledge that the evening might not necessarily end with sex which even Jack had to admit was his usual reason for taking someone to dinner.
It had been fun though, he recalled. More relaxed than their usual encounters which he had found surprising. He had expected Ianto to grill him about his disappearing act given the chance, but the Welshman had chosen to enjoy the fact that Jack was back instead and had even taken the time to fill him in on what exactly had been going on back in Cardiff.
"Just full of surprises aren't you Ianto?" Jack mused to himself, and jumped when a confused voice answered him.
"Sir?"
He turned to find Ianto standing in the doorway to his office, holding a mug that Jack was sure would be filled with abnormally good coffee.
"Nothing." He said, directing a high-powered beam of a smile at Ianto in the hopes of distracting him. "Is that for me?" He added, nodding at the coffee.
"Uh, yes." Ianto replied a little distractedly and Jack congratulated himself on a diversion well done, getting to his feet, taking the mug and moving the two of them back out into the main part of the Hub before Ianto had a chance to clear his head.
The rest of the team were all still there despite the relatively late hour, taking the opportunity the quiet time gave them to catch up on some of the paperwork that often got left undone when there were Weevils to chase and aliens trying to kill them. Gwen looked up and smiled as he and Ianto entered, but Tosh was obviously engrossed in something on her computer and didn't even notice them and Owen … well you could never tell with Owen. He might have honestly not noticed them or he might have decided to ignore them, either way he didn't react.
Jack frowned, taking in the slightly down atmosphere in the room. Even Gwen's smile hadn't had the usual accompanying sparkle in the eyes. Looking closer he noticed the signs of tiredness, dark circles hidden by make up in the case of Gwen and Tosh and possibly treated with something alien and therefore highly unethical in the case of Owen. None of them had been sleeping, and he didn't know why. They weren't angry with him anymore and their caseload had been lessened since he'd been back. He wondered what was going on and then, being Jack, decided to just ask.
"Hey." He said, only succeeding in stopping Ianto who had been about to head off to the Archives and getting Gwen's attention again, Owen and Tosh still hadn't looked up.
"Hey!" He said again a little louder, finally getting a reaction from everyone.
"What?" Snapped Owen, his head popping up from the little morgue.
"Over here, all of you." Was Jack's answer, as he made his way over to the small seating area up against one of the walls. Slowly, and with a lot of reluctance from some, the team made their way over and threw themselves into seats.
"Well?" Owen again of course, always on the defensive.
"I want to know what's going on." Jack asked in his usual straightforward manner, but the team misunderstood.
"Nothing's going on Jack." Gwen started. "The Rift has barely even hiccupped in the last few days, we've had no reports of anything alien, there's no …"
"Not what I meant." Jack interrupted her. "I mean what's going on with you, all of you. You've been quiet and I've just figured out that you've not been sleeping. Is there something I should know?"
They all started to mutter something in protest, but as Jack fixed them all with a steady gaze they gave up and answered him properly.
"I've just been busy." Tosh spoke first. "With all the close calls we've been having I'm trying to improve all our equipment so we can learn of sightings faster, and I've been trying to sort out the security inside the Hub a bit more just in case. It would help if people would stop deleting sections of the CCTV footage. I can get it back it just takes a lot longer."
Jack grinned at that and tried very hard not to look at Ianto who he knew would be blushing right about now at the idea that Tosh might have seen some of the things they had got up to over the past few weeks.
"Alright." He said, directing his attention at Tosh instead. "But you don't have to do it on your own, Ianto can help with that, and you don't have to take your work home with you. When you clock out, you stop working, got it?"
Tosh nodded. Jack regarded her a bit sceptically, not sure she'd actually be able to hold to that, but accepted her offer to try.
"What about you?" He asked, turning to Gwen who squirmed a little under the attention.
"I … it's Rhys." She said finally.
"Problems?"
"No. Well, not exactly. I just hate keeping things from him and ever since we got engaged it's been worse. I go home at the end of a day when something's happened and I need to talk about it and I can't, and it's poor Rhys that suffers when I'm frustrated about that. And then I feel guilty about it all so I can't sleep."
Jack internally slapped himself. How could he have forgotten that Gwen always had to talk about what happened, she couldn't just work it through on her own like the rest of them, she needed to understand. He realised that he had been so wrapped up in repairing his relationship with Ianto that he had shut her out a little and made things worse for her.
"What if we set aside some time out of office hours each week to have a chat?" He suggested. "If there's something bothering you from an earlier case we can talk about that or you can just get some feelings out in the open."
Gwen nodded slowly, but her eyes fell on Ianto.
"I don't want to take up your time though." She said. Jack went to reply but Ianto beat him to it.
"I can handle it." He said with a smile. "Be nice to have a few moments to myself every now and then."
Gwen grinned back at him and Jack noticed again how much closer the two of them had become during his absence. He knew that Ianto had supported Gwen rather than Owen during that period and that their shared heritage gave them something to talk about other than work … or him.
"Do we have a deal then?" He asked and she nodded her agreement far more convincingly than Tosh had. "Good. We'll sort out the details later. Can't have you just turning up, who knows what you might walk in on."
He slid a smirk onto his face and watched in satisfaction as her face turned red as she thought of the possibilities. Laughing when she waved a hand at him in annoyance he turned at last to Owen, who did not look thrilled at the idea of sharing.
"So?" Jack finally had to speak as the silence had stretched on, Owen staring mutinously at the floor so as not to meet his eyes. "Owen …"
"What, Jack? I don't feel like doing the group therapy thing today. Alright?"
"No, it's not alright." Jack replied, feeling his temper rising. "I'm worried about you."
"'Course you are." Owen scoffed, looking as though he didn't believe it for a moment. Jack frowned and moved to crouch in front of him, putting his face directly in Owen's line of sight. The other man shifted, obviously uncomfortable, but Jack didn't relent.
"Come on Owen. You want me to be more open with you then you have to be more open with me. I'm trying here, and maybe I don't always get it right but at least I'm making the effort. You want to know my entire history, all I want to know is why you're not sleeping, I think it's a fair deal."
"Doesn't mean I have to tell the rest of them." He replied, eyes darting between the other members of the team.
"We've all seen what secrets can do here." Jack replied, glad that he was in a position to give Ianto a reassuring smile as he spoke. "Which is why we're trying this new thing called actually talking to each other. So talk to us Owen, maybe we can help."
Owen brought his eyes to rest on Jack's at last and the two of them held the gaze for a long moment. Jack didn't know what the other man was looking for but apparently he found it, as he finally gave a short jerk of the head and began to speak.
"Drinking. And sex. I leave here, I find a pub, I get hammered and I find someone to shag so by the time I get home I'm so exhausted I can just fall into bed for a couple of hours. Because if I don't do that …" he paused and took a deep breath, "if I don't do that … I dream."
"Dream of what?" Jack asked gently.
"Her … them." Owen replied, and no one needed any more clarification than that. Her was clearly Diane, the woman who had finally broken through his tough exterior and helped him fall in love, only to leave again. Them, well only Jack really knew the history behind that wall Owen had built, and he didn't feel the need to share that with anyone else.
"I'm sorry." Jack said, his voice full of compassion. "I'm so sorry. But there are other ways to deal with this, ways that don't hurt you. You're a doctor, aren't there pills that can stop you dreaming?"
"They don't always work." Owen replied shaking his head. "And it hurts too much to take the chance."
Jack opened his mouth to list off some more suggestions but was again interrupted by Ianto, who carefully moved his boss out of the way and sat down next to Owen.
"Do you know that old saying? Time heals all wounds." Owen grunted a yes and was about to argue the point, but Ianto's next words shocked him into silence. "It's a lie. Whoever came up with it can never have known the loss of a loved one. It does hurt, it hurts every day and it never goes away, but you can live through it. You'll wake up every morning and the pain will still be there, you'll dream of her and wake up crying, you'll think you see her in another woman's face – and you'll do that until you accept what happened and remember her for who she was. As long as you hope that she'll come back you will always feel the pain when she doesn't. If you accept that she's gone, well, it doesn't stop it hurting but it does let you have a life again."
Owen was silent after Ianto's obviously heartfelt speech, visibly taking in the words. None of the rest of the team made a sound either, though Gwen and Tosh both had tears in their eyes and Jack was staring at Ianto with a mixture of pride and sorrow in his. Ianto returned the look with a gentle smile and returned his attention to Owen, who had just let out a ragged breath.
"How can I stop it hurting if I remember her, if it's when I remember her that it hurts the most?" He asked, speaking more to himself than Ianto though the latter replied anyway.
"It's hard, it's hard and it takes time. But if you have people there for you when it gets too tough you can make it through. I had Jack, you have all of us if you'll let us help."
Owen stared at Ianto, indecision swimming in his eyes. Jack and Tosh who had both gone through similar things over the years each placed a hand on him, wanting to show their support, and even Gwen who had never had to survive that kind of pain reached out to him. The combination was too much for Owen. He buried his head in his hands and they watched as his back heaved for a few moments. There were no tears; Jack privately suspected he'd cried too much to produce any more, but racking sobs ripped through him even so.
It felt like hours but was probably no more than a few minutes before his body was still again and Owen sat back in the sofa, resting his head on the back of it.
"Ok." He said, his voice hoarse but lighter than it had been before his breakdown. "Ok, I'll try it, but you have to give me time. I can't start dealing with this all at once."
"You shouldn't." Jack agreed. "Take as much time as you need, we'll be here for you if you need us, right team?"
Owen had to smile as Jack put three fingers to his head in a boy scout style salute and the rest of the team quickly followed suit.
"Bunch of loonies the lot of you." He shot at them, but there was no malice behind the words.
"Well," Gwen spoke up suddenly, "I don't know about you but I've had quite enough revelations for one evening. Back to work?"
"Nope." Jack said, standing up and crossing his arms over his chest.
"Oh come on Jack," Owen all but whined, "there's only Ianto left and he's obviously been sleeping well."
Jack had to bite down on the impulse to produce his usual smirk at that point, not wanting to embarrass poor Ianto any further.
"I don't mean we have to keep doing this," he explained, waving his hand at the group, "but I do mean we're not doing any more work today. We're going to the pub."
"Why?" Owen asked, his tone suddenly defensive again. "This supposed to be some kind of test 'cause …"
"No." Jack interrupted firmly. "This is supposed to be a bit of fun. It's quiet and I think we could all do with a bit of relaxation after this. So, get your coats."
They all stared at him, apparently unsure if he was kidding or not.
"Come on! Look whoever's last at the door buys the first round."
That got Owen up at least, ever the cheapskate, and Tosh and Gwen slowly followed, Gwen pulling out her phone to let Rhys know she might be back late. That just left Ianto, who took Jack's hand and pulled him round a corner out of sight of the others and kissed him, taking Jack by surprise. He wasn't complaining though, especially not when Ianto pushed him into the wall and deepened the kiss.
"What was that for?" He asked when Ianto finally pulled back for breath.
"Caring." Was the only reply he got before Ianto disappeared upstairs to fetch his coat.
Slightly confused but very happy Jack waited for a few minutes to give himself a chance to calm down and then made his own way back around the corner, only to find the other four stood by the door waiting for him.
"Your round mate!" Owen called, and Jack rolled his eyes as he went to fetch his wallet.