Thankyou so much to everyone who has reviewed and favourited this story! It is really motivating and I love you all!
Also, thanks to specialfrancine who identified the story whose premise I stole: It was Heart and Soul by evalentine. Read it, it's really good :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or concepts. BBC & RTD do.
"I'll see ya." said Jack with a grin. He turned and jogged away from the railing where Martha and the Doctor stared after him. He was looking forward to getting back to his team. Three months, the Doctor had said. How much might have changed in three months? He was sure they would have coped without him. They were his team after all.
There were kids playing around the water tower in the Plass, so he headed for the Tourist Office. It was currently closed, but that wasn't unusual, and he let himself in and headed down to the hub.
Tosh jumped as the proximity alarms went off at the cog door, and immediately reached for her gun. Gwen had just passed on her way to the kitchen and Owen was at his desk on her other side, so who was coming in? Owen was beside her in the same instant, his gun drawn as they saw-
"Jack?" Tosh exclaimed. Jack grinned up at them as they put away their guns.
"Where the bloody hell have you been?" Owen demanded.
"Good to see you again too, Owen." Jack bounced up the few stairs and hugged Toshiko, then clapped Owen on the shoulder. There was a crash like breaking china behind him as Gwen emerged.
"Jack? Oh my god!" Gwen stepped over the broken coffee cup and ran to Jack, who hugged her tightly. "Where have you been? What on earth happened? Why didn't you contact us?"
Jack hesitated, not certain how much he wanted to tell them -or how much he could bear to tell them. He didn't want to relive that whole year. But something more important was nagging at him. He looked around.
"Where's Ianto?"
Gwen stepped back, and glanced at Tosh. Owen carefully looked at the ground. The atmosphere was suddenly awkward. Jack was seized by a sudden fear. "Where. Is. He?" he demanded in a low voice.
"He's gone, Jack," said Toshiko quietly. "He left, a month ago. And we can't find him."
Toshiko, Owen and four Starbucks coffees entered the conference room, where Jack and Gwen already waited.
"OK," said Jack. "First off, I don't necessarily expect you to understand, but I never wanted to run off without a word, it's just how things happened. And I never had a chance to send a message back, or else I would have. As for what happened to me -it's a long story, and since you already know the ending, 'and then Jack came back', I want to talk about Ianto first. Agreed?" Tosh and Owen nodded. Gwen opened a file of notes.
"Well, I've got everything here that we could find. It happened a month ago. When Tosh got in one morning, she found a note on her desk," she began.
"That's right," said Tosh. "And I was the last one to see him the night before too. I'd offered to grab dinner with him, but he said he was going to finish tidying up and then have an early night."
"Here's the note." Gwen handed it to Jack.
Dear Tosh, Owen and Gwen,
I'm so very sorry, but I can't go on like this. I'm starting afresh. Take care of each other, don't forget to feed Myfanwy. And please don't try to track me down.
With regret, Ianto.
"And you didn't see this coming?" asked Jack.
"He was upset when you left," said Owen. "We all were really -it's not easy when your leader buggers off without a word." Jack grimaced. "But we all managed, and after a few weeks we had some idea of normality again. Ianto made coffee and kept things running smoothly as usual, and spent a lot of time in the archives like normal. He was quiet a lot -but that wasn't out of the ordinary for him. So no, we didn't see it coming."
"Right. So I assume you did try to track him down?"
"Of course -but this is Ianto we're talking about," Owen made a frustrated gesture. "He's nothing if not a perfectionist."
"We think he was planning it for weeks," said Gwen. "He moved out of his flat -ended the lease properly with the real estate and everything -but there haven't been any new leases in his name. And we think he had a new car too -he definitely isn't using his old one."
"It would have been too easy to trace," said Toshiko. "We followed him on CCTV and traffic cameras as far as we could, but of course Ianto knew where the gaps are in the coverage. I could follow his car until it headed down a quiet road, out of town. It never came back, so we headed out there, and found it, just parked by the side of the road. We put a tracker on it and left it there, but he never came back for it, so it's here now."
"And nothing in the car to give us a lead?"
"Clean as a whistle."
Jack sighed and held his head in his hands. This wasn't how he'd imagined his return. "What about bank accounts?" Gwen flicked through some of the papers in the folder.
"He spent a lot of money in the month leading up to it. But he took it all out as cash so there's no leads on where he was spending it. And a few days before he left, he cleaned them out. Again, in cash. If he opened new bank accounts, he did them under a new name. In fact, from all the evidence and what he said in his note, we assume he's created a whole new identity. New name, new car, new flat, new person."
"But I reckon he's still in Cardiff," put in Owen. The others looked at him, surprised.
"That road we found his car on," said Tosh. "It headed straight out of town -he could have gone anywhere from there. What makes you think he came back into Cardiff?"
"Well, he obviously had to do a fair bit of work before he disappeared on us. For starters, he moved house. It wouldn't be easy to move very far without us noticing -he would have needed time off. Also, he would have needed a job. I assume he would have at least started applying for jobs before he left. But if he got an interview, and it was outside Cardiff, he would have had to take time off. If the interview was in Cardiff, he could say he had errands to run and just disappear for a few hours."
Jack nodded. "Makes sense. OK, so he's probably in Cardiff, but other than that we know nothing?"
Gwen glanced at Tosh and Owen, before shaking her head sadly.
"No. We know nothing."
Jack sighed and rubbed his temples, wondering again why the Doctor couldn't have dropped him off at an earlier time. The paradox had taken place about a month after he left, and the Doctor had wanted to stay as far clear of that moment as possible -but surely the TARDIS could have gotten him home just a month earlier, in time to stop Ianto leaving?
It was no use thinking this way. What was done was done, and not even the Doctor could change that now. But it was a major blow to Jack. As much as he tried not to admit it, Ianto had gotten under his skin and he'd been looking forward to seeing him again, and making a bigger effort to show his care and appreciation for the boy. Now that chance appeared to be gone. He'd been back for a week, and he'd gone over everything the others had done to try and find Ianto, but it was pointless. Owen was right. The man was a perfectionist.
He flicked through the CCTV records again, replaying the moment when Ianto left the Tourist Office. He watched as Ianto looked straight at the camera and mouthed goodbye. Up until that point there had been nothing specific in his behaviour to suggest anything was wrong. They'd identified a period of about 30 minutes earlier which appeared to be a replay from earlier in the day, and Tosh had spent a long time trying to recover whatever Ianto had removed -but Ianto knew the system too well. She hadn't been able to get it back.
The cog door rolled noisily open. Jack turned off the screen and stood up from his desk. Toshiko and Gwen walked in and held up plastic bags.
"Chinese for lunch boys. See you in the conference room," called Gwen. Jack smiled and nodded back. He wandered over to the autopsy bay and looked down to where Owen was working.
"Coming?"
"Yeah, just cleaning up here." Jack waited as Owen finished, peeled his gloves off and threw them in the bin. "Let's eat."
Jack and Owen sat down and the girls passed the take away containers around. They had just started munching in contented silence when an alarm starting sounding.
"Rift activity!" Tosh was out of her seat and halfway out the door in a flash. Owen groaned.
"Why? Every bloody time! Never just as we're finishing a meal, is it?" They all followed briskly to Tosh's workstation.
"What have we got?" asked Jack.
"Something big. It's come through in Heath, but it's moving north-east."
"Tosh, stay here, see if you can figure out what it is and track it, let us know what you find," commanded Jack. "Gwen, Owen: let's go."
They piled into the SUV, Jack automatically taking the driver's seat, Gwen in the passenger. With Jack's usual pace of driving it was less than ten minutes til they were arriving in Heath. Jack hit his comms device.
"Tosh? Any idea what we're looking at?"
"It looks to be some sort of giant insect -like a praying mantis, but about 6 feet long. And it's flying, still heading north east -it's passing just west of Llanishen Reservoir now."
"Bloody hell it must be fast!" exclaimed Owen. Jack put his foot down and sped on towards the reservoir.
"Anything on how to deal with it?" asked Gwen.
"Nothing on the mainframe but I'm checking UNIT's database now," replied Tosh.
"Keep us updated," said Jack. "Owen, reach into the back -we need the net gun."
"The net gun -you want to capture this thing?" Owen was surprised.
"There's no reason to assume it's aggressive, if we can deal with it without killing it then all the better."
"Right. Sedative too then?" asked Owen. Tosh interrupted over the comms.
"I've found some information on UNIT's database, appears to be the same creature. They call it a mayfly. Not aggressive per se but will want to lay eggs in a host body, and that will eventually kill the host."
"Are they sentient?" asked Jack.
"UNIT were unable to communicate with them but they did show some signs of awareness and reaction to the activities of people around them."
"Ok, plan stays the same," said Jack. "We attempt capture and sedation. Keep your guns handy but they are back up only. Tosh, where is it now?"
"Head up Lisvane Road, you should be able to see it ahead on your right."
"There it is!" cried Gwen, leaning forward in her seat. The mayfly was flying about 20 feet above the ground, and still heading north-east.
"Right, let's get in front of it," said Jack. He pushed the SUV to it's limits to get to the bend in the road up ahead. Owen shoved a gun at Gwen.
"Gwen, take this. It's a dart gun, I've loaded the darts with sedative -we'll let Jack try with the net gun, but even if he misses, we can try to bring it down this way." Gwen nodded and took the gun, eyes still mostly fixed to the giant winged insect out the window. They screeched to a halt and jumped out of the car. Owen handed the net gun to Jack.
"Owen go left, Gwen go right." Jack watched as the mayfly flew towards them. It was very much like an insect -six thin legs, long skinny body, wings narrow like a dragonfly. He raised his gun, waited for just the right moment, and fired. The net flew outwards and hit the alien dead-on. Unfortunately that meant it didn't cover the wings, but it still served to interrupt the mayfly's flight. Gwen and Owen took the opportunity and each sent off a tranquilliser dart. The mayfly hovered, dropped a bit, and eventually came crashing down in the field beside the road.
The three ran over and Owen gave it a quick check.
"Both darts hit target, no other visible wounds -I'd say this is as good as a stop and capture mission gets, Captain."
"Ok, let's get it in the SUV and back to the hub. Good work guys."
The SUV pulled up alongside a cafe in Llanishen.
"Alright Owen, but make it quick," warned Jack. "Keeping sedated aliens in the vehicle for longer than necessary is not a smart idea."
"It's just a coffee Jack. Back in a minute!" Owen jumped out of the SUV. He hadn't had a decent coffee since Ianto left -Starbucks was definitely not Ianto quality. And now of course he was hungry too, since lunch had been so rudely interrupted. But then he'd spotted this little place.. it was always the little, out of the way places which had the best stuff, wasn't it? The ones only locals usually knew about. He went in, and up to the counter, thinking he'd order one for the others too. His treat.
"What can I get for you, sir?" asked a soft Welsh voice. Owen turned and stared at the barista in shock.
"Ianto?"
"Sorry?" The barista paused, and his smile faltered momentarily in confusion. "I was asking what you'd like? To drink?"
Owen shook his head. There was no recognition in the man's face at all. He was either a very good actor, or-
"Sorry. Sorry, mate. You just reminded me of an old friend is all. Guy named Ianto." He watched carefully for any reaction. The barista just smiled.
"Sorry, not me. I'm Tristyn."
"Nice to meet you Tristyn. I'm Owen."
"Pleasure to meet you too. So, can I get you anything?" Owen gave him the order for four takeaway coffees. The cafe wasn't busy so he decided he could have a chat while he waited.
"So Tristyn, you're a local?"
"That's right -although I did live in London for a long while. Moved back bit over a month ago. You? You sound like a Londoner?"
"Yeah, been in Cardiff for some years now though. Needed a change of scenery after my fiance died."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Owen waved it off.
"It was a long time ago. How 'bout you? Got a girlfriend?"
"No. Was engaged once, to a girl in London, but it didn't work out. Hasn't really been anyone since, and eventually did the same as you -wanted a change. So here I am."
"So here you are," mused Owen quietly. Tristyn handed him a cardboard tray with the four coffees.
"Enjoy."
"Cheers, mate." Owen headed back to the SUV, deep in thought.