Slipping Through Holiday Special
Written by Totally4Ryo
Date Written: 12/24/08
Rating: G
Word Count: 4071
Fandom: Torchwood/FAKE
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Dee/Ryo, Gwen/Rhys, Owen, Toshiko
Spoilers: FAKE – all through to volume 7, and Like, Like Love, Torchwood – through Series 2, Doctor Who – through S03, especially "Voyage of the Damned", to be safe.
Warnings: M/M .
This did not go through beta yet.
NOTE: This is a giftfic for my gorgeous partner in crime for Slipping Through, Gracie_Musica. I asked her what she wanted for a fic and she asked for a Slipping Through Christmas. I hope you like this, Gracie! 'Cause you've been amazing. Besides, you showed me Torchwood! *HUGS* Happy Solstice and Merry Christmas!
Slipping Through Holiday Special Part 1
"So what do we owe this honor?" Ryo asked as he stepped aside and allow Jack to enter the flat.
Jack grinned at Ryo. "Just stopping by. Ianto's out Christmas shopping and didn't want me along." In a low conspirator tone, he added, "I think he's shopping for my gift." He winked at Ryo.
Ryo laughed. "And you found yourself with nothing to do, huh?" He started down the hall toward the doorway to the lounge.
"I guess I could do some shopping," Jack admitted. "But holiday crowds just don't do it for me."
Ryo watched as Jack made himself comfortable on the couch of the spacious lounge. "In a couple of days, I plan to go shopping for Dee's gift. Maybe I can drag you along for help? And get some of your shopping out of the way?"
Jack chuckled. "Shopping with Ryo Laytner-MacLean," he mused. "That sounds like an offer I can't refuse. Just don't let your husband know we have a date."
"You wish," Ryo commented, looking amused.
When he first found himself, along with Dee, in a world where Torchwood was real and not just a television show, he would constantly blush under Jack's persistent flirting. When he had left New York City for a second honeymoon in Cardiff with Dee, he believed from all the years he shared his life with his husband, he was beyond blushing so easily. It took a lot to get a blush from Dee, being used to his husband's sometimes outrageous ways. Finding himself as the recipient of Captain Jack Harkness' constant flirting proved him wrong. He even caught Dee blushing at times when the Captain directed his full charm on his husband. But like life with Dee, as time went by, he started to become accustomed to Jack's ways. He blushed less, and able to give back. Sometimes Jack would still get him to blush, like how sometimes Dee still could find a way to rise the blood to his face.
Jack laughed, leaning further back in the couch.
"Can I get you some coffee or tea?" Ryo offered.
"Coffee, please. It's not Ianto's – no one can compete with Ianto," Jack added with pride for his lover in his voice, "but there's some damn good coffee in this flat. And I'll admit, it doesn't matter which one of you makes it."
Ryo grinned at Jack. "I'll take a compliment when I see one. Alrighty then, two coffees. We still have some pastries from breakfast."
"A snack too. Good. Now I know why I came here."
Ryo laughed and went into the kitchen. As he made their coffee and set a plate with some pastries, he would occasionally glance into the lounge, to find Jack fiddling with the remote to the TV, seeming unable to settle on one channel.
"I still find it strange to have to pay a TV tax," Ryo said. "Dee says it's no different than paying for cable at home, but I notice the difference."
"I couldn't tell you," Jack remarked. "Being I never paid for anything. I get everything including satellite in the Hub."
"Of course," Ryo replied. He picked up the tray with their coffee and pastries, and walked into the lounge, setting the tray on the coffee table. He picked up a cloth napkin and tossed it at Jack. "Here, use this. You and Dee," he mused. "I can't understand how you two can make a mess with minimal food."
Jack raised his eyebrows as he picked up the mug that he knew was his, Ryo having designated everyone with their own mugs upon moving into the flat in Skypoint. Among the few possessions the Laytner-MacLeans had to move from that flat into Owen's old one, the small collection of mugs came along with them. Dee was a mug collector, and most of them had something to do with Cardiff or Wales. He explained that when they had a chance to go back, he hoped to be able to take the mugs to give as souvenirs. His logic was they were spending enough time in Cardiff to have trinkets to bring back to everyone in New York.
"It's an acquired skill, what can I say?" Jack commented and took a sip of the coffee, the napkin settled on his lap in a crumpled lump. "Delicious. If you can't have Ianto Jones' own, then Ryo Laytner-MacLean's coffee will definitely do." He had another sip. "Hell, even Ianto drinks your brew with no grumbling. Like he does whenever I attempt to make coffee." He put the mug down and picked up a danish.
The Captain stuffed half of it in his mouth, crumbs falling onto his black shirt and lap. Ryo was certain some landed on the couch cushion too. The flaky crumbs stood out on the dark material of Jack's shirt, causing Ryo to shake his head, half in annoyance and half amusement.
"Stop that," Jack stated, his mouth full. He had another drink of the coffee, washing down the pastry in his mouth.
"What?" Ryo asked innocently, picking up his own Danish, and took a bite, holding a napkin under it to catch the crumbs.
"You know what," Jack said, stuffing the rest of the pastry in his mouth, and grinned at Ryo.
Ryo rolled his eyes and continued to eat his pastry, deciding to ignore Jack's eating habits for the time. Besides, it was Dee's day to vacuum when he returned from his shopping.
~+~ ~+~ ~+~ ~+~ ~+~
Jack and Ryo were watching an old movie when they heard the door to the flat open.
"Ho ho ho!" Dee's voice drifted through the hallway and into the lounge. "Merry Christmas!"
"We have another week, Dee," Ryo called out.
They heard giggles. Giggles that were distinctly feminine. Ryo raised an eyebrow in intrigue, recognizing the owner of the giggle.
"What are you up to, Dee?" Ryo asked, standing up to greet his husband.
Dee appeared in the doorway, loaded down with brightly colored carrier bags hanging by the handles on his wrists and he grabbled a large clumsy box. "Nothing," Dee grinned, trying to look innocent.
Behind him, Gwen appeared, also laden down with bags. "Hi Ryo. Oh Jack! Hi. What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I could ask you the same question," Jack remarked amused. He watched as Ryo attempted to relieve Dee of his load, but the other man refused to give up anything he held onto.
"Tut tut," Dee warned. "Go sit down and let me take care of this."
Ryo's eyes went down to the box. "That's a Christmas tree, Dee."
"Yup!" Dee's grin was wide, his green eyes sparkling with excitement. "That it is."
"I thought we weren't decorating around here. Who knows when we might have a chance to leave," Ryo reminded Dee of a discussion they had right after what was in the U.S. Thanksgiving Day. The two New Yorkers were thankful it had been a quiet day, because they had prepared a traditional Thanksgiving feast and invited the Torchwood team, along with Rhys for dinner that day.
"I changed my mind." He glanced around the stark apartment that lacked much in any personal touch. "We need a little Christmas around here," he proclaimed. "And while I was out, I ran into my own personal elf to help me." He winked at Gwen, who grinned back at him.
Ryo groaned, slapping his forehead. "I'm getting a bad feeling around here."
Jack fell back in the couch, laughing. "I'm getting a feeling things are about to get interesting around here."
"Tonight is Christmas decorating," Dee stated, going over to the dining room table, where he put down the box. He removed the bags from his wrists as Gwen added to the growing collection on the table. He picked up on bag and said, "Excuse me for a moment while I hide this." He winked at Ryo and left the lounge, to where Ryo assumed would be their bedroom.
"You're lucky I'm not like you, snooping around to peek at your presents," Ryo called out.
Dee's head poked back in the doorway. "You mean you got me more than one?"
"No! I didn't even get yours yet."
"Well hurry up," Dee said, laughing. "Before we know it, it'll be Christmas Day. Oh, there's more, but I'll let Gwen fill you in while I find a good hiding place." His head disappeared from the doorway as he continued his way to the bedroom.
Ryo looked over at Gwen, crossing his arms. "Well, what did he pull you into today?"
Gwen smiled as she sat down in a chair at the table. "I'm afraid it was my fault," she confessed. "Dee ran into me while I was picking out some new decorations for our flat. I thought being that it's our first Christmas married for Rhys and me, that we needed some special ornaments. So Dee went along with me. Next thing I know, he's standing in the middle of the store, and decided that your flat needed to be decorated."
"That's Dee, but I can hardly blame you for wanting something special for this Christmas," Ryo admitted. He sat down in a chair next to her, glancing back at his other guest.
With a put upon sigh, Jack stood up, acting as if he was inconvenienced from his comfortable place on the couch to join Ryo and Gwen at the table.
"Dee and I both went a little crazy with wanting new and special to mark our first Christmas married," Ryo informed Gwen, his eyes turning soft as he remembered the time. "Bikky thought we had finally lost it." He chuckled warmly. "Threatened to move in with Carol and her aunt."
"So how come you decided not to decorate this year?" Gwen asked, resting her chin in her hands, elbows resting on the table.
Jack looked on in curiosity.
"For one thing, we can't take all this back with us," Ryo replied, indicating everything still in bags on the table with a sweep of his hand.
"Dee said something about donating it all to Torchwood so next year we can make the Hub look more seasonal," Gwen explained.
Jack frowned a little. "Oh? So what is Dee trying to say here?"
Gwen giggled. "Not so much Dee as me. There would be no excuse if we have decorations that were given as a gift by one of ours, don't you think, Jack?"
Jack frowned a little. "Yeah. But first we need to get Dee and Ryo home."
"I know," she said to Jack. She placed her hand on Ryo's arm. So what else, Ryo?" Gwen asked.
Ryo shrugged and looked over to Gwen. "Bikky," came his single reply. When Gwen looked confused, Ryo added, "He's not here with us." He rested his arms on the table, and with his shoulders sagging, he further explained, "Before Bikky came into my life, I didn't decorate for Christmas. Not when I moved out on my own, that is. While I still lived with my aunt and uncle, they would decorate like you wouldn't believe." The corners of his mouth turned up a little. "I made the mistake of taking Dee to their house during the season, because it gave him ideas for the next year." He lost the small smile. "You know about my parents and how I lost them just before Christmas, and that I ended up spending that first Christmas Eve alone in the house, when it was supposed to be with my parents, because they went through all the trouble to come back to be with me on Christmas." His dark eyes glittered.
Gwen squeezed his arm a little tighter, as if lending her friend support. Jack stared on in concern. At first when Jack saw her look as if she was going to say something to make him talk more, he was going to cut her off. Looking at Ryo, Jack decided that it might be something that Ryo didn't need to do and, knowing the ex-detective as well as he did, he would probably not talk about it otherwise.
"I'm sorry, love," Gwen murmured. "I guess Christmas isn't the best of times for you."
"They got better. After that I spent Christmas Eve with my aunt and uncle, and the years I couldn't, I found myself partying up a storm with friends. Then suddenly there was Bikky." He shrugged. "I still didn't decorate. I used the excuse that I worked too much, but I still didn't feel like it. Somehow I still ended up alone. Bikky went to Carol's for the night. Why shouldn't he? Carol's Aunt Elina had their place decorated. Thank goodness for Dee. It turned out to be a wonderful night." Ryo smiled softly at the memory of when Dee suddenly appeared in his bedroom, with champagne and a small tree, along with the way they spent the evening. "But the year after, Dee and I were together – as lovers. His place was decorated and he made sure to invite me and Bikky over. I think he did it mostly for Biks, but one day when we got back from Dee's to my stark little flat, I realized that I was hurting Bikky. We went out and got a tree the next day. I pulled out the old decorations I had from when my parents were alive." Ryo's eyes met Gwen's. "And then we went shopping for new ones to add to the collection. Ones that belonged to me and my son. And somehow to Dee, too. He came over and added a few that he made when he was a kid, and Mother would put up on the orphanage tree every year."
Ryo paused for a moment, looking down at the table. Jack glanced around the room, and noticed Dee hovering just barely in the doorway to the lounge, but mostly hidden, as if the other man feared his arrival would stop Ryo from talking on.
"Since then, Christmas was our time: Bikky's, Dee's and mine. Even before we moved in together, we were a family." A fond smile graced Ryo's face. "By the time we were living together, we had a routine. The day after Thanksgiving, we would go and buy a tree, and that evening we would decorate it, along with the rest of the apartment. Sometimes we'd have Carol with us. Even if it was my birthday, we'd still go. Then the next day, we'd wake up and after breakfast, head out to the tree lots again to pick up the biggest, prettiest tree we could find to take to the orphanage. It'd be a whole day party, decorating, baking, singing Christmas carols when everything was done. It was important to Dee, and also to Bikky, because some of his best friends lived there. It very quickly became important to me, too, to make sure the children in Mother's orphanage had the best Christmas ever." Ryo's smile grew. "While we'd have the biggest and best tree at the orphanage, our own tree was the opposite. We would be on a search for the scrawniest tree, a tree that no one would consider taking home with them. Bikky led the expedition. We knew why. That could have been him, the kid no one wanted, overlooked even by child services. Instead he had a home again and a family. So we would pick out this poor little tree and take it home. By the time we were finished with decorating it, it was the most beautiful, proudest Christmas tree ever. And I'd look at Bikky's shining eyes, and know he was that tree.
"He might not have known it then, I kinda knew that way back on that first night I took Bikky home with me. Within 24 hours of arriving at the 27th Precinct, my life changed forever. For the better. First Dee, and then Bikky. That first night, I knew Bikky needed somewhere to go. He was lost, angry and confused. He saw his father get killed in a drug deal gone bad. I didn't want him to get lost in the system. I've seen enough on the force to know where he was headed and fast even at 9 years old. A dead end. I didn't want to see that happened. I thought to myself that if I can save just this one kid from that life. Just one. So I took him home with me. I also asked Dee to join us, though I didn't know why. It just felt right. Anyway, pretty much by the time we got Bikky settled in my place, I felt paternal toward him. I knew that night that I could never let him go. I had someone who needed me, depended on me, and I swore I'd give him everything I could so he had a chance at a better life. Before long, I looked at him, and I saw my son. Bikky will always be my son. There was also something right about having Dee with us that first night. Dee helped me settle Bikky in. He told him when it was time to go to sleep. Pretty much from day one, Bikky was our son, even if you couldn't get Dee to admit that. Bikky may have lived with me, but Dee and I raised him. We were always a family. And I think he came out pretty okay. Bikky does things for others that I don't expect, although by now, I should, and makes me so proud of him." Tears glistened in his eyes. "And he's not here with us. I haven't seen my son in so long, and sometimes I think I never will. We'll be stuck here, without Bikky. And he'll find himself alone again, with no one to care for him, and never knowing why his fathers never came back to him."
The tears fell down Ryo's face. Gwen put her arms around him, hugging him. She rested her head on his shoulder, tears in her eyes. "You'll see him again, Ryo," she assured him, hoping she was right.
Jack reached across the table and took Ryo's hand in his. "Listen to Gwen. And we'll do our best to make sure when you get back, your boy won't never know you were gone, other than on your vacation." Jack noticed Dee enter the room, holding a small square gift box.
Ryo did not notice Dee yet. "I almost changed my mind before leaving, and had him come with us. Then maybe…. But he insisted that a second honeymoon should be just the two of us. Then he added that he didn't want to be embarrassed by his dads fanboying in Cardiff. He assured us he'd be at my grandparents in Edinburgh when we get there. One week. Just one week away from him before we would have him with us at my grandparents."
"He'll never alone, you know," Dee's voice quietly said.
Ryo lifted his head to find Dee standing next to him, soft eyes staring down at him.
"Even if we don't make it back, he'll always have others who love him. We made sure of that, Ryo," Dee said. "There's Mother, who we saw him with last when we dropped him off at the orphanage. There's Elena and Rick. Elina, too. Our friends. Everyone we call a family back home, Bikky has them, Ryo. He'll be fine." Dee rested his fingers on Ryo's wet cheek. "He won't have us, but he'll still have family." Dee bent down and kissed Ryo's forehead. "But that won't happen. I still believe in blue police boxes. It might take a while. Which is why it's important we keep our spirits up. When we finally get back to our son, we can't look like we went through a war when we were supposed to be on our second honeymoon."
"You're right," Ryo said, still sounding upset. He glanced over to Gwen, who stopped hugging him around the shoulder, but hugged onto his upper arm. He smiled at her, then at Jack. "I'm sorry. This all has been a mixed blessing. I mean, I'm living a dream. No one back where we're from can say they met Captain Jack and the rest of Torchwood, and that they belong to Torchwood. It's amazing and dazzling and wonderful. It's a gift. And yet a curse, because I miss our son. I miss our family, and our friends. And this is the time of the year that reminds me of losses, and it's just hitting me more than usual. Normally I can go on. I don't forget Bikky, but I cope. I live."
"I know you do, Ryo. And I don't expect you not to breakdown once in a while." Dee pulled over a chair to sit next to Ryo. Ryo's eyes fell on the box that Dee still held. "I'm sorry. I didn't think when I decided to get decorations anyway."
"What's that?" Ryo asked, his eyes on the box.
Dee smiled. "A gift. One of your gifts. But I think you need deserve it now."
"Dee, I don't want to ruin your surprises," Ryo protested.
"You won't. This one was meant to be opened early." Dee held out the box.
Ryo felt Gwen squeeze his arm, giggling a little, giving him the feeling that she knew what was in the box. Jack looked at Gwen then at Ryo and the box in curiosity.
"Open it, Ryo," Gwen urged, excited.
"Okay. Fine." He looked at Dee. "Are you sure this was not originally meant to be opened on Christmas."
Gwen laughed. "If you wait until then, it will be too late."
"Yup," Dee agreed with a grin. "So open it." He kissed Ryo on the cheek.
With a shrug, Ryo opened the gift. When he lifted the lid to the box and peered in, his eyes went soft. "Oh Dee…." He lifted a Christmas ornament from the box – a big shiny blue ball. On the ball was a picture that Dee kept in his wallet of Ryo, Dee and Bikky. Bikky was sticking his tongue out at the camera, as usual. Ryo laughed as he gazed at the ball. Above it, written in a scroll font said: The Laytner-MacLeans.
"It's beautiful, Dee," Ryo said softly, a gentle fingertip lightly tracing over the photo. "Thank you."
"We can hang it up in the window or something," Dee said.
"I thought you bought it to put on our tree."
Dee shrugged. "I realize I was an ass for going against your wishes. If it hurts you that much, we won't decorate. Because I don't want you to hurt."
Ryo heard something in Dee's voice, something that he was certain that Gwen and Jack missed. They didn't know him like he knew his husband. They couldn't read Dee like he could.
"No Dee. You went through all this trouble so we can have a festive Christmas, then we're decorating tonight." He pulled Dee to him and kissed his husband soundly. "I think we should have a party tonight." He turned to Gwen. "You think Rhys would like to come over for dinner and some holly jolly?"
"Sounds wonderful, Ryo. But I should be going and hide my gifts before Rhys gets home. When should we be here?"
Ryo looked at his watch. "Say around 6. Give me time to make dinner. Jack? What about you and Ianto?"
"I'll go see what he's up to and we'll be back by six," Jack said. "And on that note, can I see you to your car, Gwen?"
"Sure." Gwen knew it was time to leave the two men alone. She had faith in Ryo that he would work out why Dee really decided on decorating. At least Dee was getting what he wanted, and she knew it would be good for the two of them.
"I'm going to give Toshiko a call," Ryo said.
"Maybe Owen might want to join us too," Dee said. "I'll call him."
"Right," Jack said, standing up. Gwen also got to her feet. "We'll be off then and see you later. Thanks for the coffee and snack, Ryo, along with the company." He winked at Ryo.
Ryo stood up and saw them to the door, telling Dee to get ready to go out again, because they had some grocery shopping to do.