A/N: Hoiked a line from a DW episode, other then that… enjoy.
Chapter Two- Nos Da CariadIanto stared down at the body of the Doctor in absolute horror, "Ianto, Ianto, look at me." Jack pleaded from where he was still chained.
"All the lives he's saved… and you chose me." Ianto whispered, his voice thick with emotion.
"Of course I did." Jack said as Ianto shakily got to his feet and walked over to Jack, "How could I not?"
Jack was close to tears, his mind so numb he didn't even notice Ianto somehow getting him out of the chains. The Doctor was gone. But Ianto was here, and he knew it was right. No matter how wrong he himself was.
One lifetime is long enough
Is long enough to wait
The rain like silver in my ears
Fat nothing on my plate
A bucketful of Babylon
A belly full of hate
Go to sleep my one true love
And may your dreams be sweet
"They're all dead." Ianto whispered as he and Jack sunk to the floor of their containment area, "Gwen, Tosh, Owen…"
"I know." Jack whispered in return, his own heart breaking along with Ianto's. They cried into each other's shoulders, the Captain's eyes were locked on the body of the Doctor, the man who'd changed his life forever, making him a better person.
Things started to move around them, " What's going on?" Ianto asked, his hand clinging desperately to Jack's.
"Time." Jack said, "I think it's reversing!"
Then we'll be running.
Time had reversed itself, Lucy Saxon shot the Master and the world had gone back to the way it had been. But the Doctor was still gone and the TARDIS was dead. Jack and Ianto loaded the TARDIS and the Doctor's body into a plane and headed back to Cardiff.
"Owen?" Jack said over the phone, "Owen?"
"Bloody hell Harkness, don't shout!"
Jack laughed, really laughed from deep in his gut, "Oh it's good to hear your voice."
"Where are you?"
"On a plane, we're on our way back to Cardiff."
"We?" Owen asked.
"Me and Ianto."
"Oh thank Christ!" Owen exclaimed, "Is he alright?"
"Huh?"
"There we were in the middle of the Himmilayas, Ianto was there one minute, gone the next. We were worried sick. Is he ok?"
Jack didn't know how to answer as he looked behind him to where Ianto was curled up on one of the plush chairs in the jet.
"Jack? Answer me damnit."
"He's been through a lot. Meet you at the airport… we're going to need a truck."
"A truck?"
"A truck Owen… just get it done." Jack hung up and looked to the pilot, "How long til we reach Cardiff?"
"About an half an hour." He replied and Jack settled down in the chair, pulling Ianto on to his lap.
See its face beneath the glass
It murmurs on the breeze
Like a long black Cadillac
It passes 'neath the trees
What is it you're waiting for?
Sweet love is on its knees
Go to sleep my one true love
And find your heart's release
Torchwood Three's staff were waiting at the airport when they landed. Jack stood there atop the stairs a sombre smile on his features, one hand behind him, holding tightly to Ianto Jones, deep down fearing that if he let him go he would lose him too.
"Jack."
"Owen."
Tosh and Gwen pulled Ianto into a hug, not missing how violently he flinched when they did.
"What happened?" Gwen asked, "Where'd you go?"
"It's a long story." Jack said, bringing Ianto closer, "I'll explain everything when we get back to the hub."
Then we'll be running
Afraid of nothing
Yeah we'll be running
They took the Doctor's body to the morgue, Jack made the decision to leave him in his suit, thinking it wouldn't be fair to make him like everyone else in their vaults.
Because he's not. He had been like fire, and ice, and rage, like the night and the storm and the heart of the sun. He should have been ancient and forever. Not lying here in the freezers of Torchwood's morgue.
Jack would grieve. And even though he didn't want to, he would retcon Martha and her family to before she met the Doctor. It was the least he could do.
Silence is golden
Here I am
I ain't afraid of nothing
Silence is golden
Here I am
Ianto was sound asleep in Jack's bed, Jack climbed back up the ladder and headed to the conference room, "So where have you two been?" Owen asked before Jack had the chance to sit down.
"Hell." Jack replied, "We saw the end of the world."
"I don't understand." Gwen shook her head, "How?"
"The Doctor, he was a friend of mine… I'd met him a very long time ago, traveled with his companion and him. I died."
"So? You're immortal."
Jack laughed lightly, "I wasn't always. The Daleks killed me… I didn't have a chance, not really. The Doctor had sent his companion back to her time in the TARDIS, but she found her way back. Rescued those who were trying to rescue her. She absorbed the Time Vortex and became what was known as the Bad Wolf. She brought me back… forever."
Gwen and Tosh gasped.
" To cut an exceedingly long story short, when I disappeared, I went with the Doctor… we discovered he wasn't the last of the Time Lords… there was another. The Master. But you knew him as Harry Saxon."
"The Prime Minister!"
"The one and only… he took over the world. Tortured the Doctor, killed me more times then I could count. And all of you…" their eyes widened, "And then he brought Ianto and the Doctor in and he made me chose who lived and who died."
"And you chose Ianto." Tosh said finally.
"I chose Ianto." Jack confirmed.
"Any regrets?" A shaky Welsh voice came from the doorway.
"You should be sleeping." Jack chastised.
"Answer the question please…"
"No." Jack smiled as he stood up, closing the gap between the two of them, "No regrets."
The sun above the cotton grass
Is sinking down like lead
The seagulls know the truth of it
And scream it overhead
Hold on to St. Christopher
The sky is murderous red
Go to sleep my one true love
Our glory lies ahead
Life went on without the Doctor. Torchwood continued to hunt the aliens. Jack and Ianto were never far from each other, and in the dark of night they lost themselves in each other, pushing away the memories of the Valiant and Timelords for as long as they could.
Then we'll be running
Afraid of nothing
Then we'll be running
Jack, on the rare occasion that he wasn't near Ianto, found solace in talking to the Doctor… having a one sided conversation about their past. About barrage balloons, aliens, Rose, killer robots... and Ianto.
"I love him Doc." Jack said one day, long before he'd truly said it to Ianto, "And it scares the hell out of me.
All wired up in a dawning ray
All wired up in a dawning ray
All wired up in a dawning ray
All wired up in a dawning ray
Ianto's coping mechanism wasn't that different from Jack's. When they weren't together he spent his time down in the archives, his hand reaching for a key the Doctor had pressed into his hand not long before the Master had decided to play his little game.
"Listen to me Ianto Jones." The Doctor had said, "This is my key to the TARDIS. One of us will make it out of here alive. That will be you."
"But-"
"It will be you." He repeated, "I'll need someone to look after the TARDIS. And I won't have Jack treating it like a shrine. Talk to it for as long as you need to… then lock her doors and let her gather dust in your archives."
"I'm back." He said, pushing open the blue wooden door, he walked up the ramp into darkness, and sat down on one of the chairs by the console and just talked about everything.
"You know, I love him. And I think it scares me more then anything. He's eternal and I'm not."
And for the first time in the three months that they'd been back, the lights came on and the ship came back to life. And the compartment containing the Heart of the TARDIS opened…
A/N: So sue me… I like happy endings.