Notes: Post "Adam", thus not having to deal with the effects of "Reset". Rated PG-13 at most. Light angst, mostly humor and a touch of fluff. This is my first Torchwood fanfic. Please remember that. Reviews would be lovely in every way. Also, it'll be up at my LJ soon, any community reccomendations for posting would be fabulous. 3! And now, onto the Fic...
Sorry, PS: Special Thanks to Taynna who actually pointed out that in the first draft when it was originally May, that would make it 7 years, 2 months. facepalm. So… I don't actually check my math, sorry. I was like 'no way I'm changing the name of the story' but then I realized that I could change the month cuz sarcasm I'm clearly a genius. Thanks again for the catch!
Alarming
Jack leaned his elbows against the cold metal railing, inhaling deeply the smell of the water before him. Behind him, Torchwood and the false tourist office protecting it remained still and quiet.
A sleepless, pointedly lonely night had made the team leader long to move about a bit. Wanting to take a nice long walk, but knowing that the Hub was, as a rule, not to be left unattended was what had spurred his mini-field trip. Not nearly as far as he'd have liked to stretch his legs, but the salty air was still refreshing.
The sky was his favorite sort of dull periwinkle blue of not-quite sunrise. Ianto had a tie of exactly that shade and it always roused a smile from Jack to see it. Looking out across the water, Jack tapped his booted feet against the pavement. He was restless. Without a hearty night's activities to wear him out, he could never seem to a get a healthy night's sleep. Like permanent jet lag… time lag really. Countless years on Earth and he still couldn't get a hang of the sleep schedule, it's not as though sleep was exactly popular in the 51st century. One of those little millennium dependent quirks he adored and remained utterly confused by. Ah well.
Gulls cawed overhead and they drew Jack's attention. Something about that sound irritated him. It was so hungry, so relentless. Jack closed his eyes and took a deep breathe, wishing for Ianto by his side. One of the things he treasured about the Welshman was his ability to keep Jack focused; be it on the cut of his trousers or the task at hand. He always had an easier time of concentrating with Ianto about.
Strange, because most of his other companions over the years had done the exact opposite for him. Jack smiled into the light breeze wafting across the water. But no, that's precisely why he'd come back for him. For him. To see why this strange and new (so bizarrely new to Jack even after all his travels) feeling crawling inside him was so irrevocably tied to Ianto Jones. Jack took one final breathe inward and turned about to walk back to the office.
His head felt lighter, clearer, but his bones were just a tiny bit heavier. It had been a long night, and a certain something about his restless feet, and the unsettling caw of gulls in the bay told him that the day ahead would be just as long.
Jack unlocked the tourist's office's door and was careful to lock it back up after he came inside. There was, after all, no use in worrying Ianto when he came in a few hours later. Jack realized he was smiling again when he pressed the lift button. A few hours, that was all there was left to wait until he could concentrate again.
"Good morning, sir." Ianto said, half a smirk on his face as he handed Jack his morning cup of coffee.
Jack smiled in return, letting his eyes flicker up and down Ianto fondly. He was wearing the red shirt today. Jack loved that shirt. "There's no one else here, 'Yan. You can call me--"
"We're still in the office… sir."
Jack pursed his lips in a valiant effort not to laugh and took a sip of his perfect coffee. He hummed in appreciation. "Excellent as always, Mr. Jones."
"I pride myself on service." Ianto said, blue eyes shimmering. Jack raised an eyebrow and let the joke he normally would have made go unsaid.
Ianto smiled that half-grin of his again and turned about to head back towards the kitchen, expecting Tosh and Gwen within the next half hour. Never off in his estimation, Ianto smiled softly to himself as Tosh and Gwen strolled in within minutes of each other.
Tosh arrived first, sending Ianto a truly warm smile as she breezed by. He remembered that she'd had quite a work load last night that she'd left unfinished. Ianto understood her desire to make a smooth transition back into work and so respected her unspoken wish to dive right back in once she arrived back after a few hours sleep. Her tea (Irish breakfast blend, splash and a half of milk, half a sugar pack) was waiting for her at her work station. In the form of a fond glance over her shoulder and a worn smile, Tosh thanked Ianto silently.
Gwen was always more chatty, regardless of whatever work she'd left behind the night previous. She bounced in, all smiles, and took her black coffee and cream from Ianto with her typical fountain of verbal praise.
Ianto smiled and went to sort through the latest stack of forms as yet un-submitted to the master archives at Torchwood Five. Owen wouldn't be in for at least another hour. The doctor had made a few remarks about hitting the pub last night and Owen was just unprofessional enough to let it really impact his working hours. Always had been.
Ianto strolled up to Jack's office, taking the few moments it took to get there as an excuse to take the Captain in. There were certain aspects to Jack that never failed to make Ianto stop and stare. The stretch of his blue button down over his strong shoulders. Not wide, really. Not formidable or eye catching. Jack was not overly burdened with muscle. He was more… cat like. Sleek, coiled with unspoken power. Ianto smiled slightly to himself. There was no use growing poetic about his lover, he knew that.
Poetry and candlelight never did anyone any good. In terms of professionalism and propriety, well, they were pretty much rubbish. Ianto felt that if something wasn't of much good to him in the office, it had no place there. Besides, poetry should be reserved for mutual affection, and in a distant and vaguely painful way Ianto knew that Jack's feelings for him were still… somewhat ambiguous.
That's not to say he didn't believe his Captain cared for him. There were many times when Ianto was willing to bet that Jack's feelings quite ran deep. But there was still a certain flash in his eyes when he looked at Gwen… at other men and woman on the street even, that Ianto fought not to notice or take too seriously. It left him feeling unstable, shaken. And that was certainly of no use, this funny welling up of emotion inside whenever he reminded himself of how unsure Jack looked sometimes. Nothing about his boss's behavior was particularly indicative of… of a serious attachment.
However, there was that other look Jack got not uncommonly. That starved glitter in his eye when he had all the time in the world to focus on Ianto. When he was whispering that he wouldn't change his decision for the world… or that he came back for him. Altogether, the signals were too crossed hatched and fuzzy to make a definite picture… especially of anything resembling love. No need for flowers and hearts, candies or poetry. Something about Jack just brought it out in him, though. Something about the dip of his rib cage to his hips and the flash of his pearly white eclipse of a smile. Ianto shook his head, wishing not for the first time that he could just be more certain about Jack.
It was a pity that he couldn't just believe Jack the way he wanted to, it really was. After Lisa's death, when the initial pain had subsided and when he had started dreaming of eyes that weren't hers and lips and hands that weren't hers either, Ianto had come to the conclusion that he wore love quite well. A strange conclusion, to be sure. But Ianto was rarely wrong about these sorts of things, and that was something he trusted. No, love suited him exceptionally. Focus and drive and, at times, strangely effective bouts of madness took up shop within him when he was in love. He was more useful, more devoted to any cause, and even perhaps more dependable when he was in love. Quite a transformation.
He wanted to be that man again. He wanted to be that man because of Jack. If only… if only he could be certain about the way Jack felt for him. He looked to the Captain again, and walked fully into the room.
Jack's eyes were drawn to the motion at the door and he smiled. Ianto had that sticky eyed look about him that spoke of having just been staring. Jack chuckled a little bit and smiled at his lover. Ianto knew he was caught.
This both bothered him and didn't. He'd been caught before, and had no doubt he'd be caught again, just as Jack had been caught and would be caught many more times. That was a comfort.
"Been staring long?"
"No, sir. Just observing."
"Anything of interest?"
"During my observation? Oh, yes, a great many things."
Jack bit his bottom lip. The bastard. That was not a fair act to commit in a work environment when it would be most inappropriate to rip off Jack's entire outfit.
"Fair to say you're liking what you're seeing then…" Jack murmured, casting playful eyes down at his desk full of work he suddenly had no interest in. Ianto smiled despite himself.
"Fair to say."
"Well… that's good."
Unexpectedly, the rift alarm suddenly went completely berserk. Normally, it would just emit a startling warning tone at timed intervals. Why it was suddenly going off at accelerated speed and flashing the lights of the Hub along with it, no one could have really said.
"That's not." Ianto said pointedly.
Owen picked that moment to walk in and glance worriedly about. "What's all this then?" he shouted above the din, rushing to his computer and bringing up the rift alarm history.
"No idea, it's only just started with this!" Tosh yelled back over the constant and somewhat frightening racket. Gwen hurried over to hover at Tosh's shoulder while Ianto and Jack raced over to stand beside them. The pterodactyl screeched uneasily which served to further unnerve the whole team.
Tosh quickly ran several searches of potentially harmful rift activity, coming up blank. Everyone frowned deeply in confusion.
"That's just impossible!" Owen shouted crossly, gesturing angrily at the screen and lifting his hands to his ears. The noise was bloody unbearable. "The damn thing's never wrong, we know there bloody well must be rift activity!"
Jack gripped the edge of the desk and leaned closer. "Scan it again." He commanded loudly, ignoring Owen's very skilled statement of the obvious.
Tosh nodded, typing in a detailed computer code and waiting breathlessly for it to carry through. The relentless blaring and honking of the rift alarm was really wearing on the Torchwood team. From beneath them, they could hear the rattling of caged aliens even over the monstrous din of the rift alarm. The sweep came up clean again.
"I don't understand." Gwen yelled, looking bemused and determined at the same time. Ianto may or may not have envied how cute she could be when she did that. Jack for his part seemed focused on the task at hand though, a gift of his in high pressure situations.
"No… no. Scan closer, Tosh. Scan the Hub itself."
Tosh raised an eyebrow at her new marching orders but did as she was told. The sweep went out again, searching the two mile radius around their structure alone. A tiny blip above the station showed itself. "That's… that's right above our heads."
"It's not much, why's the damn alarm gone nutters for such a tiny disturbance? Doesn't make sense."
"Tiny, yes, but concentrated." Ianto put in.
Jack nodded. "A whole shift in a compact area. It wouldn't show up on the city wide scan but it might make the rift alarm…"
"Go bat-shit?" Owen offered, walking away and still clutching his head.
"It makes sense." Jack said, sighing and rubbing at his temples. Ianto didn't blame him. The noise was quite awful. As suddenly as it had began, the unbearable maelstrom of sound ceased completely.
A bright red light flashed above Ianto's head and before he had any right idea what was happening he was knocked off his feet and to the floor. Tosh and Gwen screeched in surprise. Ianto groaned. On top of him, the instrument of his sudden plummet to the ground groaned as well. It actually rolled about and dug something sharp and suspiciously elbow like into his stomach.
"What the…" Ianto craned his neck up, prying open his eyes (which had fallen shut on impact) and frowning at the sight before him. The surprise he felt was not so much due to the fact that a person had fallen on him from thin air, though that was indeed a part of it. It was more to due to that person's remarkable resemblance to him. Identical, actually.
His doppelganger swore fiercely in welsh and squirmed in pain. The twin Ianto then slowly pulled away and gingerly straightened his suit, a dashing coal black with a fabulous cut, purple button down underneath and a black tie with a vertical purple line down the middle that matched the shirt perfectly. He brushed the jacket off and Ianto caught himself doing the same as he rose to his knees.
The click of four safeties coming off four guns brought both Ianto's attention away from each other. "Who the hell are you?" Gwen said warily.
The Ianto in purple stared her, raising his hands cautiously to show he was unarmed, something glittered in the light. He cast a concerned look at the whole group. "It might be more prudent to ask when the hell am I."
"When did you come from?" Jack asked harshly.
"21st of July, 2015."
"Seven years in the future?"
"Is today 21st July 2008?" Purple Ianto asked.
"21st September, 2008." Red Ianto answered.
"Then six years, ten months to be exact."