Martha and the Doctor helped him to carry some things down into the Hub on the invisible lift. The Doctor had laughed when he saw what Jack had used the perception filter for, and admitted that he was very glad that it was Jack in charge.
As the lift descended, their eyes widened at the sight of the Hub. "Bloody hell Jack, you've got a proper underground base." Martha breathed
The Doctor pulled out his brainy specs and watched Myfanwy as she flew down to meet them, "You've got a Pteranadon!"
Jack looked at him askance, "No one ever gets that right, even Ianto got it wrong."
"Yeah, well I'm brilliant, aren't I? Where's this team of yours then?"
Jack looked around as the lift reached the floor and shifted the gun on his shoulder, "Probably off saving the world, if they're back."
"Do you really need to take that Jack?" he glared at the gun
"You never know, I hope I'll never have to use it but… How did you end up with it anyway?"
"You left it behind when we went off to fight them."
"Who knows? If I'd thought to take it, maybe we wouldn't be here." He slung the gun onto the sofa and headed up to his office to put the clothes and trinkets he'd got from the TARDIS into his bunker for the moment. When he got up there he stopped in shock at the sight of the mug on his desk, it was full of cold coffee, but it was his mug. Ianto hadn't stopped making him coffee when he abandoned them, abandoned him.
He sank into his chair in shock, the full year he'd been gone finally sinking in as he allowed himself to really miss his lover's presence. Tears flowed freely again, even though he'd thought he didn't have any more to shed. For Ianto though he was prepared to cry. He looked around his office, studying the small changes that had happened (like the lack of paperwork) and his eyes lighted on the calendar on the wall. It was the wrong picture; it shouldn't have been showing that for two months… And Ianto had crossed every day off, so he knew that he'd been gone for three months. Choking back a sob he went to stand at the door and watched the Doctor and Martha studying a piece of alien tech he didn't recognise with interest. "Doctor, it's been three months, not three weeks."
"Oh Jack…" he ran his hand through his hair and looked horrified, "Jack I'm sorry. Can we go back and put you in the right place?"
He shook his head, "I've not been here. For a start I've not drunk the coffee."
"What coffee?" Martha asked gently, aware of how close Jack was to tears
They spilled over, "He made me coffee, even though I've not been here for three months he's still making me coffee." Martha ran up the stairs to hug him as he broke down again, "I can't do this, I'm not ready."
"OK, come on, back to the TARDIS." She suggested and she held him, "We'll take it from there."
He shook his head, "I'm staying here, I have to see them all again. I have to know they're OK. Besides, if they see my stuff in my office they'll think I've run off without seeing them again."
"Well they're not here at the moment, so we can get some fresh air at least, yeah?"
They watched him walk away again to find his team and laughed in shock at the bombshell. "It can't be, can it?" Martha asked in shock
"I don't know." He laughed, "He's impossible, so anything's possible."
"Will he be OK?" she became suddenly serious as he vanished around the water tower, heading for the main entrance, "After everything we've seen, everything that happened to him, will he cope?"
"He's strong, he'll cope. Jack bounces, bounces back from death, and bounces when anything hits him. He'll be fine, but we'll keep an eye on him, just in case…" he smiled, "Honestly though, he won't need it. The only thing he'll need us for is if aliens invade or the rift opens and he can't deal with it. Not that that's likely to happen. Him not being able to deal with it I mean."
She smiled at him, "And you've always got someone to turn to."
"Yeah, in Cardiff of all places. Come on, the stars are calling."
