CHAPTER 2
7:30 AM. Roald Dahl Plass. Rather, at a café overlooking the Plass. Ianto Jones is dressed in a suit and sipping a coffee that's significantly better than the one that horrified Jack Harkness on their second meeting. He's here because he was told last night to report for work, but was given neither time nor location. He knows from working in Torchwood London's archives that Three is around here somewhere, but he can't imagine where. He sees nothing like the shiny offices of Canary Wharf, or even the run-down façade of Torchwood Two in Glasgow, and all the storefronts appear to be legitimate as far as he can see. So here Ianto waits, watching for Captain Jack Harkness to appear with his usual flair for the dramatic.
Yes, he could stand in the middle of everything, near the water tower, maybe, but that would make him look eager, and he's not. Ianto is here because– actually, he doesn't know why. It makes no sense at all; he was nearly killed in what the media is now calling a 'terrorist attack', has a faked CV appropriate to his skill set courtesy of UNIT, and a settlement large enough that he doesn't have to work for years if he's prudent. He doesn't need a job. The smart thing to do would be to spend some time recovering, physically and emotionally, but here he is.
8 AM. He's beginning to think he's in the wrong place until he sees a lone figure out of the corner of his eye. Harkness? He turns to look but there's no one there. He's imagining things, the same way he always heard his mam whistling in the kitchen after she died; just his mind trying to construct a comforting reality. He snorts and turns back to his coffee. After a moment, he sees it again, just on the edge of his perception, but when he turns, gone. Ianto closes his eyes to think. The word 'perception' filters through his mind, reminding him of something he read once in the archives. He focuses carefully on the table in front of him, and this time when the man appears at the edge of his vision, he slowly slides his gaze, never once shifting his attention. He turns his head, eyes locked, and the man remains visible. He's overcome it. It's not in his head. It's Captain Jack Harkness standing by the tower, and no one else seems to be noticing him. Perception filter, then, from the Doctor. According to records, Harkness is a former companion of the Doctor; he must have a Tardis key, and he must enjoy keeping people off balance by appearing and disappearing at will.
Ianto tries to remember everything else he's read about the man, and realizes that that are very few hard facts amid a lot of conjecture, opinion, and outright lies. Fact: former companion, older than he looks, can't die. Conjecture: time traveler, con man, killed previous Torchwood Three team. Opinion: obstinate, unconventional, extremely promiscuous. He's not sure who had the nerve to add that last bit to official personnel records, but after meeting the man, Ianto suspects it's true. He's not sure how he feels about that; there was an undeniable attraction in the warehouse last night, but maybe everyone experiences that? Is there really something worth exploring? Because he's not here for a job he doesn't need, he's here because he needs to know what it is about Jack Harkness that made him feel alive.
8:30. Captain Harkness is still standing unnoticed on the Plass, and Ianto doesn't know what to do. He knows the mortality rate of Torchwood agents– it's obvious when one notices that there are no employees over forty except the odd scientist or two. He also knows that he's had two close calls (the other having been the Sycorax blood control incident) and the law of averages is not on his side. Torchwood Three will kill him if he joins them. It will be exciting and glorious and he'll save the world and his life will mean something, but he'll be dead before he ever thinks about retirement. Is it worth it? Is it worth giving up the possibility of a future? Is Jack Harkness, who is unbelievably handsome, possibly a slag, and takes Ianto's breath away, worth the risk?
He watches Jack standing on the Plass until nine, when his shoulders slump and he fiddles with something on his wrist that makes him appear to sink into the pavement. When he's completely gone, Ianto leaves the café. He needs to think.
It's three weeks before Ianto sees Jack Harkness again. He's picking up groceries after finishing his job as a security dispatcher when Harkness and two others rush in, sweep the entire shelf of drain cleaner into a trolley, throw a stack of large bills at the cashier, dump all of it into the back of a huge SUV, and drive off, leaving all onlookers blinking in confusion. He imagines the crisis that might lead Torchwood to require large quantities of sodium hydroxide with insufficient time for a rush order of industrial quantities (sloppy not having it on hand). Either the drains are backing up, or they have a huge amount of something to dissolve. Remembering what happened in the bowels of Torchwood London, Ianto isn't sure which scenario is more horrifying. Shame they don't have someone on staff with the foresight to stock such things for the inevitable emergencies. He absentmindedly tosses a package of Hobnobs in his trolley while he tries to convince himself that he doesn't miss the excitement of Torchwood. Not at all.
Back at his flat with an uninspiring supper of Pot Noodle and biscuits, he allows himself to think about what he saw at Tesco. Captain Harkness, of course, but two others with him: a man and a woman. Both were dark haired, and about the same height. All three seemed easy with each other. It's the kind of camaraderie he misses most; the archive department in London had been vast, but there had been only six researchers. He remembers vaguely that the Cardiff branch has a small team, as well. Ianto wonders what they're like, these people who have chosen the notoriously short life of a field agent. Captain Harkness offered him a job, so maybe he should look them up; if nothing else, he wants to know if he can still access the off-site servers of Torchwood London.
He's been doing a lot of things lately 'just to see if he can'. Testing himself. He leased a flat two days after avoiding Jack Harkness on Roald Dahl Plass, having his things delivered a week later. Since then, he's gone through them all, separating his own belongings from Lisa's and boxing hers up. He hasn't been able to get rid of them yet; the boxes are still stacked, neatly labeled, in the hall. He figures he's solidly in the 'bargaining' stage of grief (if I get rid of her things, what will I do if there's been a mistake and she comes home needing them?), and while he knows it's not rational, that his Lisa is gone, he allows himself the illusion of hope, at least until he stops feeling ill at the thought of never seeing her again. At least it's more productive than the 'anger' stage, which left him with quite a lot of broken glass and crockery to clean.
He's replaced the broken dishware, though he barely uses it. The kitchenette is spotless, which would be impressive except that Ianto only ever uses the microwave and the kettle. Most of his time at home is spent in bed sitting up with his laptop and reading everything
he can find about Torchwood, aliens, and the Doctor. He'd stayed away from Torchwood's own information until now, considering that it's likely to be quite biased, but it's the only place he'll find out what he wants to know about Harkness's team.
It's almost shockingly easy to get into Torchwood London's off-site virtual RAID, almost as if no one knew it existed to secure it. Once connected, he traces back to Cardiff's mainframe to pull up the personnel files of Torchwood Cardiff, only to find them locked. Locked since long before the Battle, in fact. Locked since Captain Harkness took over from Alex Hopkins, whom he may or may not have murdered New Year's Day 2000. But Ianto Jones is nothing if not resourceful, and while he's not a computer wiz, he's very good at finding things, and that's really what this is. London must have had the information at some point, and even deleted and overwritten files leave behind traces.
Working through what's left of the London archive, he shuffles through digital files until he hits pay dirt. Literally- he's found what he was looking for as part of a budget report when Cardiff had been asked to defend its payroll expenditures. In addition to Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood Three employs three agents: Suzie Costello, Dr. Owen Harper, and Toshiko Sato. Their CVs are incomplete, though. There are pictures (it had been Harper and Costello with Harkness at the Tesco) and basic vitals, but nothing on the circumstances of their recruiting or their specialties. No annual reviews or pay grades, just bare data. Curious about his own file and what Captain Harkness might have seen, Ianto pulls it up to compare. It's all there: family, education, psych evals, project assignments, and commentary from supervisors. He considers editing it, but it seems sort of pointless. Who would care at this late date? Anyway, Harkness has already seen it.
When Ianto looks back at the budget files, there's nothing. Blank pages. He backtracks through the server. Where there had been folders and files and directories, there's nothing. In the time he's been searching elsewhere, it's all been wiped. He finds no further information on Torchwood Three or its employees.
Sitting back, Ianto flips his laptop shut. Someone, either Sato or Costello (assuming Dr. Harper is a medical doctor), had been watching those files, waiting to see who looked for them. Now he's been caught, possibly traced, and at some point Jack Harkness will come to see why he was looking. It's inevitable.
Author's note (and abject apologies): The continuation of this story has been in my head since the day I posted it. Of course, the very next day, I was gifted a down payment for a house, and since my landlord was looking to raise the rent, I started house hunting. Already a thing I do with difficulty, writing became impossible. My brain was much too busy being utterly useless. It's affected my beta work too, so go tell Gmariam how much you still love her, since it's all my fault things are taking so long. She gets my deepest gratitude, by the way, for the support and inspiration. We have very different ideas on who Ianto is, and I think our discussions create a richer character for both of us. Plus, she sends me pretty pictures.
Yes, there's still more. Looks like three chapters more, each about this length? We'll see. I've got parts of three written, anyway.
