Chapter 2

"This was a mistake – I should go." Jack abruptly sat up and rubbed his face. Taking a deep breath, he swung his legs out of the bed and focused on doing the right thing. He'd screwed up – he may as well have waltzed in, announced to Ianto that he was fast approaching the end of his life and that he was just dropping in to say goodbye.

"Hang on – not so bloody fast!" Ianto grabbed hold of Jack's arm and held on tight, not prepared to let him get up and leave. "You can't turn up like this and then just disappear-"

"I have to! I shouldn't be here." Jack didn't turn around, he just shook his head. It wasn't just Ianto he was trying to convince. "Timelines, Ianto –"

"Don't give me any crap about crossing your own timeline – that's never stopped you before." Ianto's research had uncovered the fact that Jack had apparently been in London in the 1940's on at least four separate occasions; he was surprised that he'd never bumped into himself. "Or did you just make it up that as a fixed point you were exempt from the usual rules?"

"No – it's just that if I affect what you do, you could change how I react to … certain events and that could have …" Jack stumbled over the words, barely capable of finishing his own sentences. "It might change history."

Ianto narrowed his eyes as he watched a range of emotions play out in Jack's face as he sat on the edge of the bed, his hands clutching the sheets so fiercely that his knuckles were white. He wasn't accustomed to seeing Jack out of control like this – even when he was at a loss he'd disguise his uncertainty with bluster. Slowly levering himself up into a sitting position, Ianto shuffled closer to Jack, not wanting to scare him away, but wanting to be close enough to stop him from running if his gamble played out badly.

"OK. How about- worse case scenario- I find out something that could have devastating effects on history, global or personal that is, well then, it's simple – you retcon me."

"Retcon?" Jack was startled from his melancholy by the suggestion.

"I packed some in my hand luggage," Ianto explained as if access to the drug was the main concern.

"Ianto Jones – do I want to know why you brought amnesia drugs with you on vacation?"

"Jack, ever since that first date – you know, the proper one – movie and dinner? Ever since then I have always carried retcon. It pays to be prepared. That, and a stun gun."

Jack let go of the crumpled sheet and wrapped an arm around Ianto's shoulders and pulled him close for a massive hug. He'd been so damned stupid in the past not to have valued this man more than he had.

"Indulge me for a moment and answer one simple question." Ianto felt Jack shudder and realised, belatedly that he thought he was about to ask how he was to meet his end. He slid an arm around Jack's waist and squeezed him in reassurance. "No, not that! I just want to know if we'll ever get the chance to get away from Torchwood together before, you know … or was this our last chance?"

Jack sighed and eventually shook his head. It was just one of many regrets he carried around with him, all accumulating to remind him of his mistakes.

"Right," Ianto dragged the word out as he worked through the possibilities in his head. He was astute enough to realise that the obvious conclusions to be drawn from that revelation were that either Jack left Torchwood sooner rather than later, or Ianto died before reaching thirty, or both. It wasn't as if he was totally unaware of the all too likely probability of at least one of these events. "I take it you never did make it out here then?"

Jack just shrugged. He didn't dare risk opening his mouth and saying anything. If it wasn't bad enough that he'd let Ianto down this time, he'd then promised to take him away again the next time the rift was quiet and that time had never come. Ianto had never complained or shown any sign of the resentment he would have been entitled to and that just made it worse. What the hell had he been thinking of when he decided to visit Ianto here and now?

"OK…" Ianto nodded as if Jack had replied out loud. "One more thing - I don't suppose you can tell me if I returned to Cardiff straight away or if… maybe … I stayed the whole week?"

The way Ianto strung out his question, as if testing the waters, gave Jack cause to smile. Casting his mind back he did recall firmly insisting that Ianto stay where he was and to have a well earned rest. He also remembered collecting Ianto from the airport, glad he'd forced him to have a vacation as he looked happier than he'd ever seen him. Jack had even wondered if he'd indulged in a holiday romance maybe – his eyes were brighter and he'd flushed pink when Jack had innocently asked if he'd had a good time. However, when he'd teased him over it, Ianto had solemnly sworn that Jack had been the last person he'd been let touch him, if anything he'd been particularly adamant about that. Now it was all slotting into place.

"Well?" Ianto prompted. "It's hardly going to cause a major time disturbance if I find out if I spend just a single night or a full week in Rome is it?"

"No, it won't." Jack smiled properly. "I can tell you categorically that you return to Cardiff on the flight you originally booked."

"Good. Let's get back to bed then." Ianto pulled the heavy bedcovers back and winked at Jack. "As I see it, I deserve a bloody break and from the look in your eyes so do you. Stay with me?"

"You sure about this?" Jack hesitated as he watched Ianto slide his long legs back into bed. He knew that Ianto didn't just mean for the night, he was suggesting that they spend the whole week together. That was more than he could have hoped for and far more than he would have deemed advisable.

"Very." Ianto figured that although a week wasn't long, it would be enough time to create some good memories for both men. If what he suspected was true, they would both need them.

As Jack crawled back under the covers and gathered Ianto to him, holding him close, it was evident that his priority was not sex and that only made Ianto even more certain that he'd made the right decision. This Jack needed him far more than the one back in Cardiff.

oooooooo

Ianto woke to discover Jack crouching on the floor next to the bed, the cover of his wrist strap undone as he held the device out in front of him, apparently aiming it at Ianto's head.

"What're you doin'?" Ianto mumbled, confused by the look of concentration on Jack's face. He wondered if he was scanning him for something.

"Filming you in your sleep – you're cute like this." Jack didn't want to admit that he'd been there for almost half an hour capturing images he wanted to hang onto and cherish properly this time around.

"Piss off … 'm not cute." Ianto pulled the eiderdown quilt over his head and attempted to burrow under the covers.

"Oh yeah? Wait until you see this …" Jack grinned as he made sure he caught the movement of Ianto wriggling out of sight.

"Put that thing away now, please?" Ianto pleaded from under a pillow.

Jack fastened the strap back onto his wrist and sat on the edge of the bed.

"You'd better get used to it – I think I'm going to be taking lots of holiday snaps."

"You can't be doing that out of doors, you'll just get odd looks, well odder than usual." Ianto yawned as he emerged from the safety of the bed.

"Oh," Jack huffed. "I guess I'll have to use a camera instead, or a cell phone. Did you bring your camera with you?"

"Yeah – but you can't use it. I can't have 'Cardiff Jack' finding pictures of me naked in bed here in Rome."

"Why not?" Jack leered. "I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy that."

"Really? And you wouldn't wonder who'd taken them?" Ianto raised an eyebrow. "So, you're not as possessive as you used to be, then?"

"Oh – I see." Jack winced as Ianto's point hit home. "Damn – I guess I'll have to make do with discreet indoor pictures then."

"Haven't you got any pictures of me?" Ianto's voice trembled a little as he asked what he knew was a leading question.

"Not of you, no."

"Oh, I see. I guess I never made it into the tin then." Ianto pressed his lips together and tried not to look as disappointed as he felt.

"Hey there - it's not like that – you did make it there. That picture that Gwen took of us together on the wall outside the hub, you were wearing that long coat of yours, very sexy. I was feeding you a sandwich." Jack looked wistful as if recalling a dim and distant memory. "I just don't have pictures of anyone any more… I lost it – the tin."

"Shit." Ianto knew what that tin of pictures meant to Jack and resolved there and then to make sure he got copies of every picture and store them in various formats so that Jack would be able to retrieve them. "Well – we could always buy you a camera –"

"You're gonna take me shopping?"

"It's Rome, Jack. It's a legal requirement." Ianto nudged Jack gently in the ribs. "You were going to buy me a suit…"

"I still can." Jack ran his fingertips through the curls that were starting to form in Ianto's hair. He didn't remember it getting this long.

"Oh yeah, and how do I persuade you back in Cardiff that I didn't sell my body so I could afford it! My salary doesn't exactly allow for designer Italian suits."

"Ah … you always refused to take a pay rise. It's not as if I never offered." Jack frowned. "Why was that?"

"I didn't want the others thinking you were paying me to sleep with you," Ianto said quietly, embarrassed by how pathetic it sounded out loud.

"What?" Jack was genuinely shocked.

"It makes life easier if I make sure I get paid less than anyone else, it also means that no one can accuse you of favouritism."

"So, when you said you were happy living where you were?"

"Oh, no - I love my house."

"So, this suit … I seem to recall you returning from your holiday with a gorgeous suit and that you'd charged it to my personal account."

"Really? Are you just making that up? Hang on, if I go along with your suggestion it will happen anyway, so it will be the truth. Fuck. Rule one - stop playing with my head." Ianto groaned as he rolled onto his back.

"OK then, so how's this gonna work? We spend a week together and then we retcon you?"

"NO!"

"Ianto, I do know that you never mentioned any of this to me."

"Doesn't mean you wiped my memory – just means I kept it secret." Ianto gave Jack a defiant look. They both knew that he was more than capable of keeping a secret.

"Oh…" Jack wasn't sure how he felt about the fact that Ianto had probably kept this from him.

"Jack – are you sulking about something I haven't even done yet?"

"It's complicated ..." Jack sat down heavily, his head in his hands.

"Not really." Ianto reached out and ran his hand down Jack's back, feeling the tense muscles beneath the smooth skin. "We've got the chance here to spend a week together, away from Torchwood. Unless the city is about to be invaded by aliens I'd like to remember this. What do you say?"

Before getting an answer, Ianto yawned, arching up from the mattress, pushing the bed sheets over the edge and revealing more than enough reasons for Jack to stay exactly where he was.

Leaning down to capture Ianto's lips in a slow, indulgent kiss, Jack wasn't sure that he could spend the whole week with him and then just leave. He wasn't sure how he'd resist wanting to whisk him away to safety and that really would screw up his own time line. Not to mention the timelines of countless millions.