Chapter 2 –The Old Sailor

The Torchwood team walked into the old, traditional pub. There was no doubt it was the locals pub, as far as they could see there were no tourists. The walls were whitewashed but interjected with dark wooden planks the same which were supporting the roof. There was a large bar/counter down one side of the building. Down the centre of the room were a double line of tables with wood in between to give each table some privacy, Jack chose one of these tables, mainly so they could discuss 'Torchwood business.'

They took turns getting the rounds and the conversation varied from work to sport to Jack telling them stories from his past, until…

"So where's teaboy today?"

Tosh's head snapped up. "What do you mean?"

"Well you know he's been gone all afternoon, he could be doing anything."

"Don't worry Ianto's fine."

Just as Jack said this the door opened, Jack craned his neck to see who it was. "Ah speak of the devil." They all turned to look and sure enough there was Ianto, still in his jeans and jacket.

Gwen was about to wave, assuming he was here to meet them, when she was stopped by the arrival of the young girl who stood next to him.

Megan turned in a full circle to take in the whole room, finally she turned to Ianto.

"Your right it hasn't changed much, except I think it's brighter than it used to be."

"Yeh, captain finally learnt how to change the light bulbs."

"Oi!" said an elderly man from behind them "I resent that, the lower lighting created a good atmosphere."

"So why change it?"

"My insurance company didn't agree."

The older man moved away leaving Ianto and Megan looking at each other laughing. Ianto led her to the bar to order drinks.

Tosh looked at Jack "You said you didn't find anything!"

"There was nothing, he picked her up from the boat then drove off."

"Wait you followed him?" asked Gwen open mouthed.

"So that's what you were doing!" stated Owen.

"And you helped him!" Everyone then turned to look at Tosh.

"I…I only checked times and passenger lists."

"And only because I asked her to, so leave her alone." Jack said putting a hand protectively on Tosh's arm.

"Sssshhh." Gwen hissed "their coming this way!"

They all turned to look at Ianto and the mysterious girl as they sat at a small table with their drinks.

"You have admit the teaboys got good taste."

"If I didn't know any better Owen I'd say you were jealous."

"Then I guess it's a good thing you don't know any better then ay Harkness."

"Stop it you two. Don't you think it's a bit soon?"

"Hardly it's only just 10:30"

"Not what I meant Jack. I meant a bit soon after Lisa." Gwen whispered the last few words because that was still an undiscussed topic.

"I guess. But people move on in different ways, maybe his way is to move on like nothing happened."

"MEGAN!"

"Mike"

The whole team turned to look as a young guy came over to the table and developed the young girl into a big hug.

"Tad told me you were here, god it's been too long. Ianto you should have said she was coming back."

"Well I didn't know myself till last week; you know what she's like for being organised."

"Yeh well… um… maybe you know... I'll talk to you later."

"Definitely."

Megan smiled as Mike walked off waving over his shoulder, causing him to nearly walk into a table. Megan cringed but kept smiling. Ianto just raised his eyebrows.

Megan turned back round to look at Ianto "So have you told anyone that I'm here?"

"Hey I've been busy," this time it was Megan who raised her eyebrows "Doing very important, time consuming things… ok I haven't really done anything except run the tourist office and make coffee and cleaning… basically the same things I was doing before except now I am watched because Captain Harkness has put security cameras everywhere and the funny thing is I'm sure he hasn't realised that I know."

"Well you haven't really given them a reason to trust you in fact you've kind of done the opposite like anti-trust or something."

"I know"

Megan smiled, lowering her eyes to the table. Then her smiled faded, she looked at Ianto a little concerned.

"So do they know where you are, who… who your with?"

"Don't know. Don't ask, don't tell. You know the rules."

"Ah yes the rules. I wondered how long it would take for them to come up.

Ianto raised his eyebrows and she took that as a hint.

"Rule one you don't give someone information unless they specifically ask for it and even then you never tell the absolute truth. Rule two you never offer someone information they can use against you, rule three" she pulled a penknife from her pocket "When in Cardiff you always carry something you can use as a weapon." She opened the blade to reveal a well cleaned and sharp blade. "And rule four family comes first."

"Very good I'm glad to see I managed to teach you something."

"Well I've had it drummed into me since I was old enough to go round Cardiff with you and Pat." They sat in silence for a few minutes just sipping their drinks.

"So how's everything going in France?" Ianto knew exactly how to get a rise out of Meg.

"Belgium, I go to Belgium not France!" said Megan, angrily.

"You sure I'm certain you said France." Said Ianto trying to keep a straight face, his usual mask useless when talking to this age old friend.

The Torchwood team turned to look at each other. Shocked. Ianto and the young girl continued to talk to each other about Belgium and what she'd been up to.

Jack was confused at how Ianto knew about the cameras, Tosh was surprised by Ianto's rules, Gwen was struggling that Ianto had been talking about Torchwood, and Owen… well he was still wondering how Ianto had scored a girl like that.

The team were still in stunned silence when Ianto and the young girl stood up, put on their coats and left the Old Sailor. The girl once more holding Ianto's hand.

"Isn't some of what he just said against Torchwood policy?" Asked Gwen, looking at Jack.

"Um yeh I… I think so." Jack frowned; confused was an understatement of how he was feeling. He was pretty sure that girl knew about Torchwood though neither had outright said anything. It was a puzzle Jack would have to think over.

Gwen finished her drink before saying her goodnights and going home to Rhys. Tosh stood up to leave a couple of minutes later and Jack accompanied her outside because he was also leaving and he wanted to thank her properly for helping him. When they got outside he pulled her into a big hug and placed a kiss into her hair.

"Thank you" he said into her hair "And sorry."

"For what?" She asked pulling away.

"For asking you to spy on your colleague."

Tosh nodded her head and started to walk off before turning back around to look at Jack. "What are we going to do about this Jack?"

"I don't know, we'll have to find out how much she knows and whether or not she's a threat and then. I don't know."

"See you tomorrow Jack." Tosh turned around and left Jack standing alone on the pavement outside the pub.

Megan woke and looked at her clock, 5:00am 'WHAT!' she grunted, turned over and shut her eyes again. She was just drifting back off to sleep when she heard someone shouting.

"No, no please NO!"

She jumped out of bed, through the living room, ran down the corridor of Ianto's flat and opened his bedroom door. After turning on the lights she looked and what she saw broke her heart.

Ianto was in bed thrashing around like his life depended on it shouting for some unknown person to get away from him, asking them to stop.

Megan didn't hesitated she was kneeling next to Ianto on the bed within a second trying to catch his wrists and calm him down, but it wasn't working she couldn't do the two things at once. If anything she made it worse.

Ianto lashed out and hit Megan's face, she cried out.

"Stop, Ianto please stop." She didn't mean it to but it came out in a sob, she could fell the hot tears running down her face. She hid her face in her arms and sobbed. She hated seeing Ianto like this.

"Megan?" She looked up to and through her tears she could see Ianto looking at her the concern evident in his eyes.

She tried to speak but couldn't, all she could do was sob like a baby.

Ianto faced her and lent up on his elbow, resting his other hand on the side of face, wiping away the tears with his thumb.

"Come here chwaer fach."

Megan crawled onto the bed and under the covers. She rested her head on one of his arms while the held her protectively against his chest, she gripped the front of Ianto's t-shirt like it was the end of the world.

Feeling safe in each other's company they quickly fell back to sleep.