Jack walked out of the bar he had stepped in for a drink. The night was dragging on, but then, that is what tended to happen when you sleep very little. Jack did need sleep, just not as much as everyone else. He looked to the stars, wondering what he was going to do with the rest of his evening. He found himself wondering why he had even told his traveling buddies to leave him here until he found another ride. Now he was dreading the potentially long wait here in Cardiff.
A shiver ran down his spine, even through his great coat. It wasn't the fact that he felt the cold bite of the weather; it was just the ghosts of his past. He almost thought he could feel Ianto's spirit whispering through the wind, but he shrugged that off as longing and want.
He truly missed the young man.
He found it amazing how attached he had gotten to someone, even when he told himself that he would never let it happen again. Still, Ianto had been something special. After his girlfriend, Lisa, had died, he had become kind of distant. Jack found, however, that after Ianto had forgiven him, he was very receptive. Jack figured he just needed someone stable.
It was after Ianto found out that his leader couldn't die that he really started to show an interest in Jack. He supposed the promise of someone who couldn't die would seem very appealing after all the death he had experienced in Torchwood London.
Jack had been told by Gwen later that when it was all said and done, no one really knew Ianto. The real Ianto anyway. He had hid himself from everyone, maybe because he was afraid of what might happen should he show his real feelings. Jack had always suspected something like that, but never pressed the issue. Jack hid things from people all the time, so trying to get Ianto to share his innermost secrets would be very hypocritical of him.
Jack was musing over all this as he meandered down the Cardiff streets. He used to know them so well, and found that while a few things had changed here and there, for the most part, nothing had changed. He still basically knew his way around the city.
Jack's attention was suddenly focused on a man across the street. He was tall and lean, wearing a dark hood. He was trying to stay in the shadows, looking back and forth, staying hunched over slightly. He looked Jack's direction just for a moment, but for Jack, it was enough. He only saw the man's face for a second, but it made his heart freeze.
Against his better judgment, Jack decided to follow the shifty figure through the darkness. The shadow weaved down the streets, and for a while, Jack wasn't sure he knew where he was going.
Eventually, Jack was led him into a late-night shopping mall. In the light of the mall, Jack could finally get a good look at him, but just the backside. Even from the back, the clothes the man wore were tattered and dirty. His thick, brown pants were threadbare or holey. The black hood was tearing at the seams, and the dark jacket worn over the hoodie was darned in several places with patches of fine ash covering it. However, this time, the man kept his face turned away from Jack, almost as though he knew he was being followed.
Of course, Jack revised, he probably did.
He paused, looking around and causing Jack to stop after walking over to pretend to investigate a nearby store front. It was a clothing store. Jack's nose involuntarily wrinkled at the clothes in the window. He couldn't believe that people were wearing that. Hopefully, he thought, they would go out of style soon. He watched the man closely out of the corner of his eye, slowly pulling out a stopwatch from his coat pocket.
He tried not to think about the device's history. It would've made his current assignment next to impossible. It was, in fact, Ianto's old stopwatch. Its yellow faceplate had been cracked in the explosion of the hub, but was still readable. Jack had considered getting it fixed, but couldn't bring himself to. He didn't want to change a thing from the day he salvaged it from the ruins. The tarnished silver was still smooth after years of use. It was old, but Jack couldn't let it go.
The man Jack was following looked at the map of the mall, studying it carefully. Jack could see his hand was resting on his chin, stroking it just a bit. He lifted a finger and touched something on the plastic surface as though making sure he knew where it was. Then, he was off again.
Jack waited a few beats, counting the seconds on the ticking stopwatch, and then, giving one last, disdainful look at the ugly display, fell in step behind him as he began following the man again. He knew how far he needed to stay away. He had tracked many people before. He feared that his thin cover was already blown, however, as the man had seen him earlier in the street.
He led Jack up the escalator, past many other stores, including book, game, movie, and clothing stores, right to the food court. On the second floor, the food court stood next to the entrance to an arcade.
The tempting smell of food swam over Jack, and he took a sniff. Many different scents mixed together, but Jack found he could tell the different scents from each other. There was pizza, burgers, he thought he smelled Chinese and fried chicken.
In spite of the late hour, the food court was still bustling with people, even at this late hour. Of course, most of the people in the food court now were either teenagers or drunks.
Jack watched from a distance. He considered sitting down at a table, make himself look less conspicuous, but decided against it; what if he needed to get away quickly?
The man looked around, checking every direction. Jack could easily see the man knew what he was thinking of doing was wrong, but felt he had to anyway.
One last glance around and he moved towards the buffet that was off to one side just as the attendant stepped back into the kitchen. Jack watched in disbelief as the man first stuck some food into his mouth and then took napkins and started placing food into them, wrapping them up and shoving them into pockets on his coat. He grabbed meats and breads, taking some from each tray.
Jack looked around. No one else noticed this. The drunks didn't care and the teenagers were so caught up in their own thing that they never even looked over. He couldn't believe teenagers these days. Security wasn't anywhere to be seen either. He knew that if he didn't do something, the man would be long gone by the time they go here.
Jack sprang into motion, coming up behind the man.
"Hey," he sharply called.
He reached out and grabbed the man's arm, but the man didn't like that at all. Reacting quickly, the man twisted himself around, jabbing his elbow into Jack's gut and causing him to groan. Another swift move and Jack was on the ground, lying on his back and blinking in shock.
His mind was screaming to ask what just happened, but he couldn't get words to come out of his mouth.
By this time, the security guards were swarming onto the scene, but for a brief moment that seemed to last forever, Jack was looking up into the man's face. The looming face, the man who was standing over him with his foot on Jack's chest, he knew. The hood had been flung off, and the shadows dispelled, and Jack found his mind swimming.
He could only find one thought as the security guards drug the struggling man away.
That man was Ianto Jones.