A/N:

Sorry this chapter is a bit long. Also, sorry for flashbacks within a flashback! And before anyone accuses me of "bashing", nobody comes across at their best in this chapter. Chapter 3 will be up tomorrow for people reading as it's posted. I expect delays with this story because A) it is the first I've started posted without it being close to finished, B) showing Jack only in flashbacks isn't as much fun for me to write, and C) I have a paid writing thing I have to finish (but frankly don't know where to begin with it!) For people reading it in the future *makes appropriate future waving motion* - ignore my ramblings and enjoy!


Chapter 2 – Bad Day at the Office

Ianto rolled out of bed painfully and grabbed the only clean clothes he had at the Hub. There was a time he would never dream of wearing blue jeans and a mock turtleneck virtually anywhere, but especially at work. Weeks without a day off had changed that.

It wasn't that Ianto took many days off before, but he had time for things like laundry and even shopping when Jack was there. Now he didn't have time for cards with his buddies or long lunches not to mention chores like dry cleaning and bill paying. He was feeling overworked and underappreciated. Oh he knew on some level the others appreciated some of what he did, but he also knew they still didn't understand what he did. They still expected their coffee on time and their workstations tidied.

Normally, Ianto wasn't bitter about his lot in life. He had his moments, but for the most part he kept his disappointment and anger to himself. Today, however, he was angry at himself because yesterday he'd lost his temper. They'd all seen him lose his temper on occasion and Jack had joked with them how they hadn't seen anything of the angry bear under the surface. In truth, they hadn't. When Ianto squabbled with Owen it was a way to release some of the pressure. Yesterday, that hadn't been enough and Ianto was angry at himself and ashamed of his behavior. And, he feared, the worst was yet to come. He had to apologize.

It had been so ridiculous. Owen wanted coffee. Tosh needed a device from the Archives. They both insisted they needed theirs first. He assured them they would both get what they wanted as soon as he was done typing the email they had interrupted. They insisted they couldn't wait. He acquiesced and quickly retrieved Tosh's device and made Owen's coffee. He was just returning to the computer when Gwen appeared wanting to know if he'd sent the email to UNIT yet.

"I was just about to," he said hoping she could read the look in his eyes to leave him be to get on with it.

"Ianto, it's important! You said you would take care of it!" Gwen sighed loudly and Ianto almost lost it. Almost. He reigned in his anger.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do everything at once," he said overly calmly.

"Maybe he needs some help in prioritizing," Owen said.

"You did used to have better organizational skills," Tosh added before Ianto could reply.

"It's like you aren't putting the effort in anymore," Gwen said frowning.

"Excuse me?" Ianto said indignantly.

"Well look at your clothes! Ianto Jones wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and an unbuttoned button-down! Is that a missing button? It's like you aren't even trying," Gwen said narrowing her eyes.

"So I'm not trying? Not making an effort!" Ianto shouted standing up from his computer. "That's what you all think? When was the last time any of you had to clean your own gun? Put petrol in the SUV? Convince a London bureaucrat there isn't any need for an onsite inspection? None of you have any fucking clue what it takes to keep this place going! It was hard enough when Jack was here, but with a man down…"

"So that's what this is about," Gwen interjected. "You think if you give us enough of the 'woe is me' attitude we'll hire another field agent! We've all had to make allowances, Ianto! You aren't the only one who's had to pick up a few extra tasks."

Ianto knew it was a sign of how stressed everyone was and intellectually he knew Gwen and the others weren't purposely being thick. He was about to let it drop when Owen decided to intervene.

"You've got it wrong, Cooper," Owen said smiling unpleasantly. "Teaboy's problem isn't that we're short-handed. It's who that hand belongs to! This is what happens when he ain't getting any! Missing the Captain's little Captain, are we?"

Owen didn't see the punch coming any more than Ianto realized he was angry enough to throw one. Tosh and Gwen were immediately at Owen's side inspecting the damage.

Ianto was about to announce his resignation and demand Retcon when the Rift alert sounded. His sense of duty kept him from stomping out. Instead he stomped to Tosh's workstation.

"Medium spike," he announced. "Looks like something organic came through."

"Let's check it out," Owen said wiping at his bloody lip. "Are you coming, Ianto, or are you too important to do field work?"

Ianto didn't say anything and followed the team. Nobody spoke on the way. Ianto thought about apologizing then, but he was still angry. Had he ever asked any of them to do anything? He felt like the more he gave, the more they demanded. He was still thinking about resigning. He knew it was petulant, but he rationalized the team would be better off without him. They'd have to hire a real field agent then. Really, he reasoned, quitting could be saving one of their lives.

The drive seemed to be taking forever. Ianto was always anxious about field work, but after his loss of control in front of the team he was even more so. His anxiety was not relieved when they arrived at the car park where the spike originated and found a three foot tall bipedal creature covered in lilac colored fur with impossibly big eyes.

"It's adorable," Gwen said jumping out of the passenger seat.

"Don't go near it," Ianto shouted.

"What," Owen began getting out of the driver's seat, "are you afraid it will shed on your suit?"

"I can't connect to the alien database. Remote server error," Tosh said not looking up from her monitor.

"It's a Craglor!" Ianto shouted cautiously opening the door. "Keep back!"

"Never heard of it," Gwen said smiling and approaching the creature. "It looks scared. The poor thing's shivering! Hi there. Welcome to Earth," she said bending down to the creatures eye level and slowly advancing.

"About time something came through that wasn't trying to kill us," Owen said smiling uncharacteristically.

"No!" Ianto shouted as Gwen reached out a hand to the timid looking creature. Running as fast as he could from a dead stop, he tackled Gwen throwing her to the floor as the creature snapped with its previously concealed jaws.

The jaws and razor-like teeth slammed shut with an audible crunch barely missing Gwen's outstretched hand. Claws sprang from the creatures hands and it slashed viciously at Ianto's back. He rolled away, but felt the edge of the claws cut into his shoulder blade.

"Shoot it, Owen," he screamed.

"Shoot it," Gwen repeated trying to pull Ianto and herself further from the creature.

Owen snapped out of the daze he found himself in and aimed his gun. He fired. The creature turned towards him. Its oversized eyes now looked red and menacing. Owen emptied his clip into the creature. It slowed, but didn't stop. Gwen raised her gun and shot into the creature, too.

Tosh leveled her gun with her scanner in her other hand. She lined up her shot and carefully squeezed the trigger. The bullet ripped through the creature's right eye. It howled, flailed, and dropped to the ground. Tosh cautiously approached it and put another bullet in its left eye. The corpse jerked theatrically.

"Just in case the database meant my right not the creature's right," she said.

"What the hell was that," Owen asked dropping to the parking lot floor.

"Craglor," Ianto huffed. He mentally tried to breath slower, but his body insisted on not catching his breath.

"And what the fuck is that?" Owen sniped.

"It's a native of Traispa IV," Tosh said. "I finally connected to the database."

"And how did you know that, Teaboy? I don't recall having one of these stroll by." Owen crawled over to the creature.

"I put it in the database from a UNIT card," Ianto said with a grimace.

"Oh, Ianto!" Gwen exclaimed looking at Ianto's back. "You're hurt! Please tell me it doesn't have poisonous claws!" Tosh and Owen ran to Ianto and Gwen.

"Don't think so," Ianto replied. "Painful though. Like giant paper cuts."

"Nothing in the database about the claws," Tosh said looking from Ianto's torn shirt which was turning red to her scanner. "It says its primary line of defense is looking harmless to lure prey towards it. It emits a kind of empathic signal to entice prey."

"That's why you didn't shoot it straight off," Ianto said wincing as Owen and Gwen helped him off with his button down shirt.

"Oh ha ha, very funny," Owen said tearing the holes in Ianto's t-shirt wider. "Not too bad. Won't even need stitches. For your back," Owen clarified. "It will take quite a few for your shirt." He tossed Ianto's button down at him and went to take another look at the alien.

The ride back to the Hub was as silent as the drive out had been. Ianto spent most of it clutching his bloodied and tattered shirt and willing himself not to cry. It hadn't even been an especially nice shirt and had, as Gwen as mentioned, lost a button, but it seemed metaphoric for how things weren't just falling apart around him. They were being ripped asunder. He spent the rest of the trip wondering how 'asunder' and 'ripped' became a common combination. It kept him from remembering Jack childishly destroying Ianto's trousers when Janet tore his suit jacket and how quickly Jack had turned from childish to raunchy or how quickly he had turned from startled to wanton. No, phrase etymology was a much safer subject to ponder.

At the Hub the silence continued. Owen disinfected and dressed Ianto's wounds almost wordlessly. Tosh looked over her security code and set about rewriting the remote access protocols. She quietly typed. Gwen looked through a report Tosh and Ianto had written about the illegal trade of alien artifacts. She stared at the colorful graph without a word.

Ianto, not a particularly boisterous person at the best of times, left Autopsy and went to change clothes silently. As he changed he thought about his big plans for the night – laundry. He had more clothes at the Hub than he did at his flat. He had installed a washer and dryer at the Hub not long after Jack reluctantly hired him, but the washer hadn't worked properly in months and everything put in the dryer came out smelling like a rotting Hoix.

It seemed a little extravagant, but Ianto wondered if he could make room in the budget for a new pair. He imagined a sleek, red metal, front loading washer and smiled. He'd have to keep Jack from…Ianto's smile faded.

"Jack," Ianto remembered saying exasperated, "get off it. It's a washer, not an amusement park ride."

"Can't it be both," Jack had said with a grin. Ianto shook his head trying not to look amused.

"It shouldn't make that sound," Ianto said alarmed by the sudden thump from the machine. "The load is unbalanced."

"I've got a load for you," Jack said bouncing on the machine.

"Then I suppose I'd better get on with it. I think you're going to enjoy the fluff dry option," Ianto replied dryly, but unable to keep the smile from his lips. Jack looked at him blankly for a moment then returned his grin.

Ianto shook his head as if he could force the memory to leave him. At least, he thought biting painfully on the inside of his cheek, I won't have to worry about Jack wanting to test the spin cycle. He took a steadying breath, fumbled as he went to straighten a tie he wasn't wearing, and returned to the main area of the Hub.

"I'll send the email to Colonel Labret at UNIT right away," Ianto said settling down at the work station he was using for convenience. He still preferred using the one in Reception or the one in the Archives. He didn't think he'd ever get used to working so closely to the others.

"Thank you, Ianto," Gwen said quietly. They each sat with only the typing of keys breaking the silence for several moments. "Ianto?" Gwen said breaking the silence. "You mentioned something about UNIT cards. Is that something new?"

"Not exactly," Ianto said smiling. "Just a moment." He jogged up to Jack's office. Ianto rummaged through a desk drawer and returned quickly holding up a deck of playing cards.

"Are we playing Old Maid?" Gwen asked.

"These are no ordinary cards," Ianto said dramatically shuffling through the cards. "This is a deck of very rare, circa 1992, UNIT playing cards."

"You're joking!"

"He's not," Tosh said. "They're like those cards the Americans made for the Gulf War."

"'Know the enemy'," Ianto read handing a card with a Weevil on it to Gwen. The card had an enraged looking Weevil along with a 3 of Diamonds and in tiny print there were a few Weevil facts. Along the top in a larger font were the words 'Know the enemy'.

"The idea is the troops would learn a little about how to identify an alien while playing cards," Tosh said walking over to Gwen's station. "I doubt it was very successful."

"It seemed to help today," Gwen said trading the Weevil card back to Ianto who handed her the 7 of Clubs. "That's not a very good picture. 'The Craglor'," Gwen read aloud, "'can best be eliminated with a gunshot to the right eye. Avoid close contact.' That was good advice."

"Here's another old familiar," Ianto said smiling with a tinge of melancholy. He handed over the card.

"Oh my," Gwen said. "I suppose I know why Jack kept them."

"Yep, Jack of Hearts," Ianto said clearing his throat to cover the sudden emotion he felt bubbling up. The card was the Jack of Hearts and featured a picture of Jack Harkness complete with cocky grin.

"'Suspected alien'," Gwen read, "'currently using the name Captain Jack Harkness. Freelance agent contracted by Torchwood.' This is too much," she added laughing.

"It's a nice touch making him the Jack of Hearts," Tosh said. "I wouldn't be surprised if the cards were designed by an ex-lover."

"That doesn't really narrow down the possible designers," Gwen joked. Tosh smiled. Ianto, notably not smiling, pulled the card from Gwen's hand.

"I'll put these back and update the database with our new and hard won knowledge of the Craglor," he said putting the cards back in their box.

"Ianto, I'm sorry," Gwen began.

"No need," he said plastering a fake smile on his face. He quickly turned and went to Jack's office. He sat down at Jack's desk and opened the drawer purposefully ignoring the other contents while returning the cards. He wasn't fast enough as another memory ran through his mind.

"Suspected alien," Ianto said running a finger along the edge of the playing card.

"It could have been worse," Jack said smiling one of Ianto's favorite smiles. There was a hint of teeth, but not so much that the smile seemed forced. "They could have named me Public Enemy Number 1! I wasn't exactly popular with UNIT for a while there."

"Just a while," Ianto said handing the card back to Jack.

"Well, a few decades. So, would you rather play strip poker, strip gin, or strip war?"

Ianto briefly smiled before the realization that he and Jack would never play some silly, but sexy game again hit him. No sexy laundry, no sexy cards – Ianto was glad he had the night off. He had to get out of the Hub where everywhere he looked he could recall memories of sexy Jack.

"A few people from my book club are meeting for coffee beforehand," Tosh said putting on her jacket. Ianto hurried down the last few stairs from Jack's office to help her.

"And I'm guessing that would include your handsome moderator, Steve," Ianto said.

"It might," she replied impishly. She squeezed Ianto's arm. "Are you okay?"

Ianto hated that question. Sometimes he felt like people had been asking him that his entire life. The problem was the right person never asked at the right moment. He knew Tosh was sincere and somehow that made him hurt in a different way.

"I'm fine." Ianto hoped his tight lipped smile didn't look too pathetic. "I'm just looking forward to getting out of here for a few hours."

"I thought you had the overnight tonight," Gwen said slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"No, it's all Owen tonight. Where is he," Ianto asked scanning the Hub.

"He left as soon as you were patched up," Gwen said setting her bag down. "He said he'd deal with the Craglor tomorrow." She exhaled loudly. "Look, don't worry about it."

"I can stay," Tosh said quickly. "I didn't have a turn this week."

"No," Ianto said keeping Tosh from removing her jacket. "We read that God awful book and rehearsed what you're going to say so Steve will be dazzled by not only your beauty, but your literary insight. I didn't suffer through that for nothing!" And he had suffered. It had been one of the worst books he'd ever read. He'd come up with two separate arguments for Tosh to make. One was what he truly thought of the literary dung hill in the hopes that Steve was bright enough to hate the book and another that was better fiction than the novel singing its praises in case Steve was a moron and loved it. He was going to be very angry if Tosh didn't get laid after all their work.

"Yeah, Tosh, you should go. I can stay," Gwen said. Ianto could detect a large hint of sadness in her tone.

"No," he said, "you have been waiting all week to hear all the gossip from your friend's trip."

"It's only Trina," she replied. "She's just going to spend the evening telling me how incredibly drunk she got and how many men she slept with on the ship."

"And you've been dying to live vicariously through her immoral Mediterranean tour! Seriously, go and I expect both of you to bring me back stories that will curl my hair." Ianto made a shooing motion to the women and they did take a few steps away.

"Your hair is getting a little long," Gwen said smiling.

Jack's voice saying, "Looking a little shaggy, soldier," whispered inside Ianto's mind. He chose to smile wider and ignore it.

"As long as you're sure," Tosh said. "I could take over after the meeting."

"Hopefully, you will be very busy after the meeting," Ianto said with a smirk. "I was going to spend the evening doing laundry. You both have plans with actual people!"

"We should call Owen and tell him to come back," Gwen said.

"No," Ianto said getting tired of the sound of the word from his mouth. "I was out of line earlier. This is his way of getting even. I'll apologize in the morning. I apologize to both of you now." Both women assured him he didn't need to apologize, but he shook his head. "I was completely unprofessional. I'm sorry. Now - go! Enjoy yourselves and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Thanks, pet," Gwen said leaning up and kissing his cheek.

"Thank you, Ianto," Tosh said pulling him down and kissing his other cheek.

"Now stop that or I won't want you to go," Ianto said taking a step back. The women waved and walked out the cog door.

Ianto collapsed onto the sofa. The cuts on his back hurt and he was glad. The pain was the only thing keeping him focused. Part of him hoped the Rift was quiet, but another part yearned for a distraction. Feeling like the Phantom of the Hub, he made his evening rounds of cleaning and feeding.

For better or worse, it had been a quiet night. He was able to make a dent in his archiving backlog and updated the Craglor entry including new photos. He even made it to bed at a reasonable hour. He didn't sleep well, however. Every time he turned onto his back a sharp pain would wake him. Ianto was tempted to take some pain killers, but worried they would keep him from hearing an alert. If he was honest with himself, and who is, he would admit part of it was him punishing himself for his behavior. He couldn't believe he'd punched Owen. When did he lose control? His worries he was failing Gwen, disappointing Tosh, and needing to apologize to Owen weren't conducive to sleep either.

So walking to the main area of the Hub wearing his jeans and mock turtle neck Ianto wasn't feeling at his best. He noted it was only a little after 7 so he knew he had some time before anybody came in. He wasn't sure how he was going to do it, but he knew he had to keep his mask in place. Beyond his meltdown yesterday, Tosh had noticed something was wrong. That was unacceptable. It was so difficult without his suits. They'd become such an integral prop to his performance he couldn't help but wonder if he'd been wearing a suit the day before if he'd been able to let Owen's comment roll off his back like he usually did. He decided it was too early without coffee to get philosophical about clothing.

He knew something was wrong as soon as he walked in. All the lights were on. He always turned the lights off when he was here alone. A brief surge ran through him. Had he been wrong? Had Jack come back? He whirled around the Hub looking for signs of life. His eyes stopped at the boardroom. He saw movement.

As quickly as his hopes were raised they were dashed. Gwen came out of the board room and he saw Tosh and Owen, who looked like death warmed over, sitting at the table. He'd checked the monitor. There hadn't been any alerts. It had been the quietest night since Jack, well, in a while. Fear that the computer in his room had malfunctioned gripped him.

"Good morning, Ianto," Gwen said smiling.

Ianto knew it had to be bad. She was smiling that smile he knew she thought was reassuring. He wondered who had ever told her that.

"Morning, Gwen. Is there a problem? I wasn't expecting anyone for another 2 hours or so," Ianto said smoothing down his turtleneck.

"No, no problem. We're just having a team meeting." She smiled that smile again.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize. I'm sure I didn't have it on my calendar," he apologized.

"Oh, well, you see, Ianto, we didn't exactly invite you." She smiled a little wider.

"I see," Ianto said.

"We're almost through," she said. The silence of yesterday hadn't been quite this oppressive.

"I was about to make my morning coffee. Should I bring some to the team," Ianto asked.

"That would be wonderful, Ianto. Thank you." She continued smiling and Ianto turned to walk to the coffee machine. It looked like today wasn't going to be any more his day than yesterday had been.