"Why do you bother having a coat rack, if you don't use it?" Ianto picked up the coat and smoothed the wrinkles in the brown fabric before carefully re-hanging it properly on the rack by the door.

The Doctor tried, he really, really tried not to stare at the amazing young man before him. "What?!?"

"Things need to be taken care of, looked after… if you want them to last, that is." Ianto moved away from the rack and up the ramp.

The Doctor waited as Ianto slowly looked around him. After a moment or two longer he blurted out, "Haven't you noticed… anything?"

"Maybe." Ianto's tone remained neutral. "What, exactly, was I meant to be noticing?"

"The Tardis…" The Doctor motioned wildly about.

"Yes, sir. It's very nice." Ianto looked about him and moved towards the central column.

"Yessss, but…" The Doctor waited. Ianto only smiled at him in reply. "C'mon!"

"Doctor?"

"It's… bigger on the inside!"

"Yes, yes it is." Ianto ran a finger along the railing and wondered how long it'd been since someone had given her a proper cleaning.

"Everyone always comes in, takes a look, goes back out, comes back in and says 'It's bigger on the inside!'"

"Yes, well, I would have thought that were obvious and didn't bear commenting on. If you prefer… Would you like me to…? I could go out, come back in again…?"

"Oh you are an impossible man, Ianto Jones."

"I've been called that before."

"I bet you have." The Doctor grinned, "I have someone here I think you'd like to see."

The Tardis was one step ahead already.

An image drifted though Jack's mind as he lay on his bed, fitfully trying to sleep. The same old nightmares were battling for dominance in his weary brain. There were several different horrors, different versions, but they all ended the same way: loosing hope, loosing meaning, loosing Ianto. The new image, however, persisted. It pushed back the nightmares one by one until only it remained. Jack sat bolt upright in the mussed bed and stared at the wall. If only it could be truth. If only. A thought glided through his thoughts. "You were right. The Doctor does like him."

Jack was through the corridors of the Tardis and into the control room before he realized he'd even left his bedroom. His eyes frantically scanned the room before locking on its only inhabitant. The Doctor stood at the center console, hands in pockets, and grinned at Jack madly. "Hullo Jack."

"Oh… Doctor… I thought…" The disappointment was evident as Jack's shoulders sagged and he looked as crushed as a man could be.

"You know what you need, Jack? Good cup of tea. Mind, can't think of anyone who could use a bad cup of tea… But anyway! Where was I? Oh yes, tea!"

Jack noticed the pause, the strange lilt in the Doctor's voice and looked up again. The Doctor was still grinning wildly, but he was now looking behind Jack, to the door. Heart racing, not daring to hope, Jack spun around. It couldn't be. He blinked his eyes hard, fearful of opening them, Jack took a deep breath. He opened his eyes. It couldn't be. Jack Harkness didn't believe in ghosts. It couldn't be.

Ianto Jones stood holding the tray of tea things and stared at the vision before him. It couldn't be. Sometime in their long conversation over milkshakes and coffee, the Doctor surely would have told him that Jack was aboard. It couldn't be. Oh to hell with that, it was. Jack! Suddenly the Doctor was taking the tray from him and Ianto broke out of his stupor. Three running steps and he was in Jack's arms and being swung off his feet and around in circles. At least Ianto hoped he was being swung around in circles… but that would account for the dizziness he was currently experiencing, and the spinning of the room and all.

The kiss. The kiss was definitely real. No one else, real or imagined, ever kissed this great. With that, Jack finally allowed himself to believe. He stopped spinning Ianto and reluctantly stopped kissing him long enough to sink deep into the blue of his eyes, "How? No wait! I don't care how." He kissed Ianto again, just to make sure. Definitely not a ghost. "Ianto? Is it really you?"

"Yep." Ianto smiled that little quirk of the lips that sent Jack wild. He was kissed soundly again for his efforts. "Why? Did you miss me?"

Jack grinned, really grinned, for the first time in longer than he could remember. "Yes. Yes I did." He pulled Ianto's forehead forward until it touched his own. Hands resting on the slender hips, Jack gazed deeply into Ianto's eyes, "I love you too. I should have said, before. I should have said lots of times before. But I-"

"Shhh," Ianto placed a finger on Jack's lips. "Just as long as you can say it now… and from now on." He replaced his finger with his lips. Jack moved his hands around to grasp Ianto and draw him tightly up against himself.

"Ummm, just so you know," the Doctor called. "I'm still here. Hello."

Jack never broke his gaze from Ianto, "You did this, didn't you Doctor?"

"Ummm, yes. Yes I did."

"So all that rubbish about time lines, changing history?"

"Still applies, I'm afraid."

Jack tore his gaze from Ianto's eyes and glared at the Doctor, "You can't have him back. You gave him back to me and there is no way you're taking him away again. I don't care about paradox. I don't care about any of it. I won't let you. No way!"

The Doctor admired Jack's… enthusiasm, even if it was just a little on the wrong side of threatening. "Relax, Jack. I'm not taking him away from you. But there are some things about Ianto Jones that you need to understand."