Title: What They Didn't Know

Author: Keeper Of The Fandoms

Fandom: Torchwood

Episode: Small Worlds

Pairing: Captain Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones (Janto)

Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of suicide attempt, Mentions of suicide, Minor OC

The ride back to the hub was spent in total silence, broken only by the sound of ordinary Cardiff life outside the window. The team resolutely ignored Jack as he took the quickest route back to base so he could escape the unspoken accusations, the rage filled judgemental eyes.

They knew nothing of the faeries, of what they had done when a chosen was denied to them and what would happen to the chosen themselves. They had less than a week of knowledge about these creatures, Jack had decades and still they decided to ignore his reasons and focus only on their own emotion filled accusation.

The moment they parked, the team were out of the vehicle, striding quickly away from Jack and disappearing inside the building. He sighed deeply as soon as they were out of sight, rubbing his eyes tiredly and pulling a picture from his wallet, a shy teenage girl smiling sadly out at him from the picture.

Smoothing out the picture he placed it carefully back in his wallet with a multitude of others, a deep sense of rage welling up inside his chest as he remembered what had befallen her and what his tueam would have him do again.

Striding resolutely into the hub through the tourist entrance he caught Ianto's eye, smiling briefly at the Welshman and getting a concerned look in return. "Call a team meeting in the boardroom. It's time for a story," Jack said grimly, already moving further into the hub as he ignored the hostile looks from his team.

Several minutes later they were all gathered, steaming mugs of coffee in front of them as Ianto made a final one for himself and took a seat alongside the others. Jack stood firmly at the head of the table, hands in his pants pocket as he stared down each of his mutinous employees.

"I suppose you all have something to say, Ianto to since I'm sure you've filled him in on all the juicy details. Tosh first then Owen, Ianto, Gwen." Jack stated simply, squaring his shoulders as Tosh seemed to take a moment to consider what to say.

"How could you Jack?" She burst out suddenly, hands clenched on the desk in front of her, eyes trained on the Torchwood leader. "She was only a little girl and you just let her go with those monsters. You gave her up without a fight, it didn't matter what she thought she wanted she's only a little girl and she should be with her mother." Tosh seemed to have finished her piece and slumped quietly back in her chair.

Owen was next, the doctor griping the armrests of his chair harshly as he glared at his cup of coffee. "I'm a doctor Jack, I became one to help people, to save them and you just let a little girl go off with monsters because it was easier than fighting. I have never seen anything so unbelievably cowardly in all my time at Torchwood." The doctor went back to being silent, trying to boil his coffee with the heat of his gaze alone.

Ianto just shrugged, sitting back leisurely in his chair though his eyes showed compassion and understanding towards Jack, the time traveller surprised that the man who's girlfriend he'd had killed would be the only one to show any sort of understanding. "I wasn't there so I don't really have the right to an opinion." He said simply and went back to sipping his coffee.

This seemed to be a signal to Gwen who was on her feet within seconds, her strict moral high ground, as long as it didn't involve cheating, was armed and aimed straight at Jack. "How could you Jack bloody Harkness! Jasmine was so young, so innocent, you had no right at all to send her off with those monsters! Don't you have a heart or a conscience? You had no fucking right to send her away despite what she might have wanted, she's a child she has no idea! You seem to live on top of this great pillar looking down on us lowly mortals and thinking that you always know better, that no matter what you do it will always be the right thing because you're you! What gives you the fucking power to make that decision? What makes you think you know anything!?" Gwen screamed, working herself up into a giant fit.

While her morals and compassion may have been what attracted her to Torchwood in the first place it often blinded her to her own shortcomings, something she was quick to overlook as she berated the older man for what she saw as arrogance and cowardice.

"Her name was Charlotte," Jack said simply, tapping something on his wristband and a picture came up suddenly on the screens, the same own he had been looking at earlier. The team grew silent as they examined the picture, short red curls, hazel eyes and pale skin made the girl look more delicate than her thin frame appeared, a sad smile captured in time as she hugged her arms close to her body.

"She was one of the chosen ones, we found her when she was seven years old and the faeries were just starting to take an interest in her. She wanted to go with them, she begged and pleaded and threatened and begged some more. It went on like that for five days, she refused to eat or sleep or bathe choosing instead to cry for her friends to come take her away. Three men, her mother and her father died trying to prevent the faeries from taking her and suddenly they stopped. They came to us at night, calling for Jasmine in songs and still we stopped them. They warned us that she would know only pain and suffering, unfounded longing and loss for the rest of her life and then they left."

Gwen seemed to snarl like a rabid beast as Jack paused his story for a moment. "You mean if we had simply refused them for a while they would have stopped!? They would have left her alone and you gave her up?!" Her voice seemed to rise to a high screech and Jack finally had enough.

"You know absolutely nothing Gwen so shut up and sit the fuck down so I can finish!" Jack yelled, waiting till Gwen had slouched mutinously back in her seat before taking his own. "She came to live with us at Torchwood, her family was dead and she would never truly be safe in care, we didn't know what we had done until a few years later when she became a teenager. It was strange having a child at Torchwood but she was ours and we protected her as best we could, at least from what we knew."

Jack pulled the picture from his wallet, lovingly smoothing out the creases. "Do you know why the faeries choose the ones they do? It's not something random or even predestined but about the children themselves. These children are born with a part of the faeries old magic in them, something wild that has long since fled from this world and that something has to be protected. We can never understand you see, we can pretend and say that we do but we will never feel like the chosen ones do." Jack smiled to himself as if quoting a private joke.

"What do you mean Jack? If understanding meant keeping Jasmine safe then we could have learnt?" Tosh asked, still angry but more curious as to who this girl was and why Jack and let a little girl go with monsters because of her.

"Chosen ones don't just see nature, they feel it. They can feel as forests are uprooted, as oceans are polluted, as the ozone is destroyed and the animals slaughtered. They can feel as people are murdered, butchered in wars or random killings. They can see the wild where there's only concrete and skyscrapers and it breaks their hearts because they were meant to live forever in the wild magic. They feel as entire species of flora and animals are wiped from existence and it makes them weep because they were meant to protect them." The team was silent as they watched Jack stroking the picture, nobody commenting as a tear ran quickly down the side of his face and disappeared into his collar.

"What happened Jack?" Owen questioned despairingly, hoping this wasn't going where he suspected.

"Two hundred and thirteen." Jack announced suddenly, as if he was simply telling the time.

"Two hundred and thirteen what?" Ianto asked quietly, nails biting into the palm of his hands as he held his breathe anxiously.

"From the time she turned thirteen to the day of her eighteenth birthday she had tried to kill herself two hundred and thirteen times. A minute before her exact time of birth she succeeded. She left a note addressed to me. Dear Jack, now I'll be able to fly forever. I can't wait to see you when you come to the wild place. Love Always Lottie. I would never condemn another child to what Charlotte went through. You can think about her family, I'll think about her. These children were never meant to be adults." Jack finished grimly, pushing the picture into his coat pocket and leaving abruptly.

The team sat in silence for several long minutes, thinking about all they had heard and what they had said. A sick feeling pooled in their stomachs as they reflected on what they had said to Jack, on what they had thought and felt about him when he had let the girl go and about how very wrong they were to have thought bad of him.

"Next time I would trust him when he does something. It may seem horrible but it's always the better of two evils." Ianto spoke quietly, taking the empty cups and leaving the silent boardroom. The team came to a collective agreement, Jack hadn't condemned the girl, he'd set her free.

Ianto padded quietly about the hub the next morning, a hot cup of coffee in his hand as he made his way down to Jacks bunker, the older man lying in his bed when Ianto entered. The Welshman sighed but placed the cup on the bedside table, pressing a hesitant kiss to the side of Jacks head before he moved to leave.

"She would have liked you." Jack stated suddenly, his voice was muffled by the pillows but Ianto jumped anyway, not having known Jack was awake.

"You think so sir?" He asked cautiously, moving back towards the bed. Jack turned to him with a world weary smile, arms held out in a silent plea that Ianto couldn't refute when coming from such a charming individual. He toed off his shoes, draping his jacket over a nearby chair and clambered gingerly into the bed, pulling Jack closer so the older mans face was pressed into his chest.

"She liked to laugh, though she didn't do it often. She had such a beautiful laugh, sort of like yours. I know she would have liked you Ianto Jones, she liked nice people, kind people and I don't know anyone kinder than you." Ianto wasn't quite certain how to respond, luckily the deep breathing of Jack a while later told him the immortal had fallen asleep. "You're not so bad yourself Jack Harkness," Ianto whispered, draping the blanket over the two of them as he succumbed to the warmth of a comforting embrace, the kind he hadn't had in a long time.