A/N: Thank you for all your wonderful reviews for the first chapter, sorry about the wait for this but rl tends to get in the way occasionally. Enjoy.


Martha, his beloved Martha

Martha, his beloved Martha. Ianto watched Jack and this mysterious, beautiful woman laughing over some shared memory. Who was she? Jack trusted her, liked her, seemed to feel as though he owed her something…yet she said they'd only spent a few days together. He'd overheard Martha telling Owen that she and Jack went forward as well as back. When Jack had broken down and spent the night talking himself hoarse in Ianto's arms, he'd mentioned a Martha and said that she'd saved the world, but it was hard to tie those heroic acts relating to an event he had no memory of with this small, but fierce, woman. It made Ianto aware of just how much he didn't know about Jack.

"Hey Yan, we're going for a drink. Do you want to join us?"

Jack had sauntered over while Ianto had been lost in his musings.

"If the two of you don't mind…I don't want to interrupt anything."

"Don't be silly. I want to get to know the man who managed to domesticate Captain Jack Harkness!"

Martha reached for Ianto's hand and tugged gently.

"Well I wouldn't go as far as saying I've domesticated him…"

"Come on…it'll be fun."

Jack turned his puppy dog eyes on Ianto, who sighed in defeat. He didn't stand a chance against puppy dog eyes.

"Fine, I'll get my coat."

They walked along the dark streets of Cardiff towards their favourite pub – a small, intimate place with coal fires and draught ale, with Jack in full storytelling mode.

"So anyway, there we were, the Doctor and me virtually naked, chained in this horrid dungeon type thing with flesh eating who-knows-what just waiting to devour us alive, and all he's worried about is his damned sonic screwdriver! Honestly, the man's priorities are way off…"

Martha laughed.

"Sounds like the Doctor! So how'd you get out?"

"Oh, well the Doctor gave me permission to flirt so I charmed the guard…use your imagination!"

"Wait, you needed permission to flirt?"

Ianto was struggling to imagine Jack waiting for permission to do something which came as naturally to him as breathing.

"Well…it was kinda my fault we were in that situation in the first place…"

Now that was something Ianto could believe. Martha wanted more details.

"I kind of accidentally flirted with the big cheese on the planet and maybe sort of almost caused a royal divorce…after we were stripped and thrown into jail the Doctor banned me from so much as saying hello to anyone."

"Yeah well I know how you say hello to people, and quite frankly I'm not at all surprised. You're incorrigible Captain Harkness."

"Hey! I'm a reformed character, just ask Ianto!"

Ianto had been observing the proceedings with amusement.

"Well I wouldn't say reformed as such…more…erm, controllable maybe."

"See, you have domesticated him! Besides, I have it on good authority that Ianto is the only member of your team that you've slept with. Definitely under the thumb if you ask me."

"Oh yeah? According to who?"

Jack held the door to the pub open as Martha walked through. She glanced back at him over her shoulder.

"Gwen."

"Oh really."

Ianto watched as Jack's eyes darkened to a shade so close to black that Ianto had learned to fear the actions that usually followed, which were often on an apocalyptic scale.

"Jack…"

He gave his one warning – shut up, don't air your dirty laundry in public, and calm down, all enclosed in one word.

Martha glanced from one to the other and saw a silent battle raging, blue on blue, eyes flashing, both determined to take control. Suddenly Jack softened, his eyes cooled and returned to their normal shade of blue.

"You're right, I'm sorry."

Ianto simply nodded and lead the way to the bar.

Much later that evening, Jack and Ianto lay in a sweating, panting, exhausted heap, recovering from one of Jack's more avent garde experimentations. Ianto turned his head on the pillow to look at Jack.

"I hope you don't expect me to move anytime before Friday."

"Pfft, pathetic mortals – one good go round and you're useless for the next 48 hours."

"Well not all of us can shag to literal death and live to tell the tale."

"But you enjoyed it though."

That was more of a statement than a question.

"Oh yeah."

"Go on, sleep. You know you want to."

Jack was barely at the end of his sentence before Ianto was snoring in his ear.

"Wish it was that easy for me."

Jack still rarely slept, too plagued by nightmares to make the process worthwhile. Besides, it wasn't like he needed much anyway. He remembered the feeling of waking in Ianto's arms after he talked to him that night…last time Jack had felt so rested and safe was on the TARDIS when he'd woken entangled with the Doctor and Martha. Back then it had taken the two of them to make him feel secure enough to relax, now all it took was one young Welshman to make his world turn right. It always amazed him that here he was, essentially immortal, a fixed point in time and space, yet it still took a simple act of human goodness to make him feel truly at peace. Like the Doctor Jack had an undeniable attachment to this little planet and its inhabitants, especially this particular inhabitant. Gazing intently at a soundly sleeping Ianto, Jack felt more sure than ever that returning to Torchwood and refusing the Doctor's invitation to travel was one of the best decisions he'd ever made, one that, if given the chance, he would make again.

Tugging Ianto closer Jack mused on his team, and the sacrifices he'd made to remain with them. He wondered if they had any idea the lengths he'd go for them. Jack knew that his sudden disappearance and subsequent unexplained reappearance had shaken their faith in him; he knew Owen thought him a coward for vanishing when things in Earth got rough. He also knew that no matter what he said or how he said it, he still wouldn't be able to communicate his depth of feeling for them all. He was, after all, a 51st century man. Vocal emotional expression simply wasn't his style. As Jack lay pondering how to convince his team he was in this for the long haul, an idea came to him. Smiling to himself, he rolled towards his sleeping bedmate and burrowed his nose into the welcoming, comforting and strangely addictive scent that was so uniquely Ianto, and once again allowed sleep to overwhelm him.