PART TWO

"Hi Tosh, how are you?"

Toshiko smiled at her monitor, Ianto's sombre face gazing back at her for the morning video conference. It wasn't official and normally they managed it about three times a week.

"Hey there. You look tired." She sipped on her tea.

Ianto nodded. "We were out tracking those lights again last night, haven't been to bed yet." He turned his face from the web cam for a moment then back again. "I'm sending you the data now. I've no idea what it is we are dealing with. The MOD and local police insist it's nothing to do with them."

Tosh computer pinged on receipt of the files.

"I'll make it my priority this morning. Did you talk to Jack last night?" She had to ask, she was desperate to know what was said between them. Ianto was shaking his head.

"I was out when the call came through. I figured he'd try again this morning."

Tosh knew he was being evasive. "It's good to have him back, he's been asking about you."

Ianto was clearly trying to look disinterested. "Well I'm sure he'll call me back. I'll have to get the Torchwood Two logs ready for him, I imagine he'll want to look at them."

"Ianto...."

"Was there anything else Tosh?"

She sighed but shook her. "I miss you, when are you coming back?"

Ianto closed his eyes for a moment. "I'm not sure that I am. Things are going well here, I like it here and now that Jack is back I want to come back even less. I'm sorry Tosh, it's just me starting over. I have a chance to do some good up here. There's nothing to stop you coming up for a holiday, the scenery is lovely once you get out of Glasgow."

She had to admit to herself that she was really tempted. "I'll wait for the summer Ianto." She replied with a mischievous sparkle in her dark eyes.

"I'll hold you to that. Anyway I'm gonna grab a couple of hours sleep. I'll call you later to discuss those lights." He waved and then signed out.

Tosh leant back in her chair, suddenly aware of Jack's gaze on her.

"Was that Ianto?" He stepped forwards a mug of Simone's tea in his hand, he'd only just met her and liked the look, but not the tea.

"Yes, he just sent down some data for me to look at, strange lights over Loch Lomond in the night. I said I'd review their readings."

Jack plonked himself down in Gwen's chair quietly grateful that the woman hadn't come into work yet.

"He didn't call me back." He handed over her mobile phone. Tosh took it, noting the disappointment on his face.

"He was working most of last night Jack. He's expecting you to call him, said something about getting all the logs ready for you to review."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, that's standard procedure when there has been a change of leadership at a branch, guess I should call him then."

Tosh reached out and rested her hand on his knee. "Give him a couple of hours Jack, he's been up all night."

"Yeah, sure, so..... strange lights?" He tried valiantly to lift the mood with a cheeky grin.

Tosh returned her focus to the monitor and began opening up the files that Ianto had sent to her.

"Yes, doesn't look like anything serious, but it's been going on for a few nights now according to this......" She hesitated before facing Jack again. "Was it worth it Jack?"

He blinked confused.

"Was it worth it, I mean running away the way you did?"

Jack sucked in a long calming breath. "I got the answers I needed. The Doctor told me I was unfixable. I wanted to be..... I wanted to be normal Tosh and I hoped he could make me that way because I wanted so much to be able to come back here and spend the rest of my life....... well it doesn't matter." He trailed off looking away from her.

"Spend your life what Jack? It obviously does matter..... Jack?"

When he looked back to her face there were tears in his eyes and he wiped at them, angry that his emotions were betraying him.

"I just wanted a normal life. I came back for Ianto. When I was away, it put everything into perspective. I saw so many terrible things and all I wanted was to come home to him."

Tosh passed him a tissue from a little packet in her hand bag.

"Then tell him that."

"You don't think I'm too late?"

Tosh shrugged. "I don't know Jack. Your leaving hit him really hard. We were all hurt by what you did, but Ianto just lost his way. In some ways I think Archie's death was fortuitous. Ianto's done good things up in Glasgow."

Jack was glad about that. "I had to go Tosh and I am sorry I left the way I did, but I am not sorry that I went. I waited a long time, Ianto knows that. I was hoping he would understand."

"He thought you were waiting to be reunited with a long lost lover Jack. He told me how much you talked about the Doctor and Rose, he said he could never match up to them. You never once told Ianto how you felt, did you?"

Jack shook his head. "No, not in so many words. I don't think I really knew until after I was gone and I was stuck in a place where I had plenty of time to think about it. I love him Tosh."

"Then get on a train to Glasgow and go and sort things out. We can manage here with out you for a few more days."

Jack nodded. "Can you put all of the data he's sent you onto a lap top?"

Tosh nodded.

"Good. I'm just gonna pack a bag. Can you handle breaking the news to Gwen and Owen?"

"Go on, just go Jack sort it out one way or the other and if he turns you down, you come straight back here, because we still need you and love you." She got up and hugged him and Jack enfolded her in his arms, his little, beautiful Toshiko.

"Thanks Tosh."

An hour later and Jack was on a train to Birmingham New Street to pick up his connection to Glasgow Central. Gwen and Owen were not impressed by his disappearing act but as soon as Owen found out Jack had gone to Glasgow he kept himself from commenting. He was entirely grateful for the weevil alert that got him and Tosh out of the Hub. Simone hid herself in the tourist office to keep out of Gwen's way.

Ianto sat in his customary place in the boardroom. Torchwood Two was somewhat different in the regard that it was situated in a large converted Georgian House. The upper most floor had been Archie's flat, shared with his Labrador Boris, it was now Ianto's home. The ground and first floors were dedicated to the running of the smaller less active branch of the organisation. On Ianto's arrival 4 months previously it had been a mess of box files, stale coffee cups and malfunctioning equipment. Mel, who was restricted to the ground floor because of her wheelchair had done her best to cope with Archie's eccentricities but Ianto had been left with a monster mess to sort out. In the end he was grateful for the distraction. He spent the first month, cleaning and sorting. He got a contractor in to install a compact lift to the first floor, he had a kitchen, bathroom and locker room added to the back of the house and recruited two men, one from UNIT and another from the British Navy. Jordan was from Brighton, a ten year veteran of UNIT as a communications specialist with a degree in Astronomy from Oxford and Ben was a medical Doctor with 25 years of active service under his belt. Both men had been looking for career changes, neither of them were married. They were flat sharing in Glasgow city centre, next door to Mel in Torchwood owned property. Within days Ianto had formed a cohesive team that got along and worked their arses off. Ianto was very proud of them, they had come to regard him as the boss though the atmosphere was relaxed. Work mostly consisted of cataloguing things brought over from Torchwood House in the Highlands and monitoring the local airspace and news reports. This morning Ianto surveyed his team with a smile and began the briefing.

"I spoke to Toshiko Sato this morning and she is going to go over our readings from last night. The other news I have is that Director Harkness has returned from where ever it was he went. I have no idea what that will entail as far as the running of this branch is concerned, but I will be insisting that none of you are to transferred to Cardiff or if I am that the three of you can continue to run things from here without interference Torchwood Three." He kept his voice level taking in the concerned looks from his team.

"Is he likely to make changes?"

Ianto had no idea and he shrugged. "I don't know, Captain Harkness can be a little unpredictable at times, but I suspect he will leave things as they are. I haven't spoken to him yet so I am expecting him to call at some point today. I know all the logs are in good order and the standard of your work for me has been exemplary."

Jordan was grinning, he knew Jack from an encounter a few years before. "He'll probably just ignore us if it's anything like the way he treats UNIT."

Ianto nodded. "Most likely, so where are we at?"

Ben decided that the whole Captain Harkness thing just didn't warrant his concerns.

"I've organised a boat for tomorrow so we can take some equipment out on to the Loch. I've hired a dive Master name Jenkins, he's a local man known to Archie so he knows the drill with keeping stum but he's got all the gear if one of us needs to take a dip. We'll be meeting him at Balloch Castle at 7am." He ran a hand through greying cropped hair. "There's been some stuff on the local news so I don't know if want to throw them a false lead?"

Ianto sipped on his mug of coffee. "Yep, we saw a news crew out there last night and couple of sight seers. Mel could you spin something for me?"

"No problem, don't worry I won't use the swamp gas excuse."

The three men grinned at her. "You've been watching the X-files again." Jordan teased.

"Caught me!"

"So, anything else?" Ianto asked after a few moments of giggling.

"Yeah, I've almost done going through the latest batch of gear from the mansion house. We've two requisitions from UNIT and one from Cardiff that you need to look over. I left the details on your desk."

"Ok, anything else?"

Ben slid a folder across the table. "That's a list of things I'll need for the new med bay. It's not much, but it means we'll be handle to emergencies if we need to and UNIT have agreed to take on anything bio hazardous or toxic because it would just be too difficult to build a sealed containment area here. Commander Lexburgh has been most co-operative, I guess he and Archie got on."

Ianto smiled, Archie had always maintained excellent relations with the other agencies. "That's brilliant, I'd like to make sure we continue to get on. Another couple of weeks and we can consider ourselves officially open for business."

"Unless Harkness shuts us down." Jordan put in.

Ianto shot him a frown. "He won't, because I will not allow it. He's already abandoned his responsibilities once, he has no right to dictate terms, so don't let it concern you."

Jordan nodded, wondering if there was something else going on. "Is there something we need to know boss?"

Ianto closed his eyes for a moment suddenly feeling like the youngest person in the room, which he was.

"Jack and I were involved when he left, obviously that's over now and it will not get in the way of things because.... well quite frankly he isn't worth it. I will endeavour to keep you all clear of any personal disagreements that Jack and I have." He felt extremely uncomfortable and Mel reached a hand to his and squeezed it, she had known all about Jack because Ianto had gotten badly drunk one night and poured his heart out to her. The subject hadn't been raised since. Ianto sucked in a breath and gathered himself.

"Right, ok. If that's all. Ben you and I are on Loch watch tonight, then you go home to be back here for 6am. Jordan, can you keep going through our sensor logs and liase with Tosh, maybe between the two of you......"

"Yeah, no problem boss."

"Mel if you could continue with the updating of the electronic archive."

"Of course."

Ianto got up. "Thank you everyone. Ben, we may as well go through this and have a look at starting work on the med bay space."

"Right then." He offered up a warm smile to the young Welshman, quietly confident that he was handling things just fine, amazing considering how young he was. He'd had Ianto's medical records sent up from Cardiff, they did not make for pleasant reading.

Ianto hesitated when he felt his mobile vibrate in his pocket. He took it out, a text from Tosh.

'Jack is on his way up to see you... should be there 6pm... be nice. T x'

Ianto swore in Welsh.