Sorry for the long wait but this one took a while to write because the words just didn't seem to want to be written and it's so long. Please read and review!

To Return from the Dead

Ianto was cleaning the quiet hub. That was one of the things he had never got used to since Owen and Tosh had gone. With five people it was enough for them all to get on and talk with occasional silence which only really happened when Owen was late in. Ianto missed it all, the conversation, the banter and even Owen's sarcastic comments. The ghostly silence was spooky to Ianto and he had no idea why. Now, with three all the conversation is finished by lunch. The reason the hub was silent at 8am though was because it was early morning and Gwen hadn't turned up and Jack had gone down to set up the archives after persuading Ianto that he wanted to do it himself. Ianto finished cleaning the autopsy room as quickly as he could finding the fact that he was missing Owen slightly bizarre. Although it was a new hub, Jack had designed it as similar as he could and the memories were still in Ianto's head. As he moved on to the next work station he began to wish he had taking more time in the autopsy room. The next work station which Gwen had taken up was more or less in the same area as Tosh's had been. When he surveyed the desk Ianto realised he had been avoiding going near it for the past two weeks since he had last cleaned it. Ianto quickly swept all the mess on the desk into the black bag he was carrying, not caring if he had swept some of Gwen's possessions into the bag. He swiftly moved on to his coffee machine baring new memories as the old one had blown up with the hub.

Ianto was getting more worried about how long Jack was taking to set up the archives. Ianto knew it had been a bad idea to let Jack go down instead of him. Ianto wished he had gone down instead and avoided all the memories which had recently returned to him. He finally came to the decision to go and find out what was taking Jack so long after he had finished cleaning the new coffee machine, which Ianto had to admit, he preferred to the old one. "Ianto!" Ianto jumped as Jack's voice suddenly filled the room. He turned round to see Jack running up the stairs with Gwen. Both were happy and had obviously got over mourning the death of Owen and Tosh. He frowned and could have sworn he hadn't heard the alarms of the door as Gwen had entered.

"Yes sir?" Ianto returned the call.

"We're going employee hunting!" Jack beamed. "You got any suggestions? No family members though." Ianto's mouth fell open as he thought about Rhiannon. The last time he had spoken to her had been as he had walked to his death. When he returned he hadn't even thought of checking in on her. He didn't even know if she thought he was dead. "Ianto?"

"Oh, no sir," Ianto spoke quickly hoping neither Gwen or Jack would ask why he was suddenly behaving differently. He didn't really care if they did notice. All he wanted to do was go and see her. To check she was okay. He hadn't even thought to ask if Gwen and Jack had stopped the children being taken by the 456. Ianto's stomach lurched at the thought of turning up at his sister's house and not being met with children's laughter.

"Okay, we're going to get going. Do you want to come?" Jack invited Ianto as he and Gwen reached the door.

"No thanks sir," Ianto said, trying as hard as he could to sound casual. Jack left after that but Gwen lingered behind, looking at Ianto suspiciously. Ianto returned the look with a smile and Gwen left quickly after that. He then waited five longs minutes before hurrying out of the door praying that Jack and Gwen had done their job instead of mourning over him.

-TW-

Ianto stood outside the familiar looking house of the Davies' family and let out a sigh of relief. From outside the door he could hear the familiar voices of David and Mica who Ianto guessed were playing on one of the many games consoles in the house. Ianto took a deep breath before knocking on the door, praying that no one had informed them that he had died but the reaction he got when Rhiannon answered the door told him all he needed to know. Rhiannon had looked at him as if he was a ghost. "Ianto?" The name came out as a whisper as if Rhiannon was testing the name out.

"Rhi," Ianto returned the tone but with a smile instead of a look of horror. Suddenly, before he could do anything Rhi grabbed him and pulled him into the house and pushed him into the kitchen as Johnny, David and Mica appeared at the top of the stairs. Ianto listened as Rhiannon sent Johnny, David and Mica to the park. He felt rather disappointed that he wouldn't be able to see them but if they thought he was dead he understood that Rhiannon would won't answers before she revealed the news to the kids. Ianto looked up sheepishly as she entered the kitchen.

"You're not dead?" Rhiannon stated as soon as she got into the room in a stronger voice than when she had seen Ianto a minute ago. She walked over to the sofa and sat down.

"I'm afraid you haven't got rid of me that easily," Ianto joked, trying to cheer Rhiannon up as he followed her to the sofa and sat down himself.

"This is not funny Ianto," Rhiannon snapped and Ianto sighed as in inevitable happened and Rhiannon began to ask questions. "Some woman called Gwen came round here and told me you were dead, and to me she seemed like an honest woman. She told me you died saving the world. Don't tell me it was someone else Ianto because I had to go and confirm it was you. I went to your funeral so you better answer me this. What the hell is going on?"

"I'm going to sound crazy," Ianto warned her. He stopped for Rhiannon to give him any encouragement but she stayed quiet. So Ianto continued. He knew this had been coming and had prepared most of what he was going to say in the hasty car ride over. "Well it all started when I moved to London for that job I told you about."

"The sudden out-of-the-blue account job?" Rhiannon asked.

"Yes," Ianto confirmed. "You see-"

"It wasn't an account job was it," Rhiannon cut in.

"No," Ianto admitted. "I went to work as a junior researcher for an organisation called Torchwood London which was where I met Lisa. Then that Cyberman situation occurred and she was killed." Ianto didn't want to explain the complete story of what happened with Lisa as the wait between then and her final death had been painful for her.

"Why her?" Rhiannon asked softly.

"The Torchwood Institute was at first created to combat alien threat," Ianto continued to explain. "Torchwood London became too public and messed about with the alien equipment they had allowing the Cybermen to get through into our world from the void. As Torchwood London had alien equipment the Cybermen set their base up there and took Lisa for conversion." Ianto decided to move on to the next part, not wanting to remember the Battle of Canary Wharf or Lisa for any longer. "That's when I came back to Cardiff as Torchwood London had burnt down I had no job left so there was no point in staying in London." Ianto had to change the story a little as it had been Lisa who helped to persuade him to join Torchwood Cardiff. "I also found out that there was a Torchwood here in Cardiff so after some persuasion I joined up. It was different to Torchwood London with less people and we fought the aliens to help people in the city. After three years of working there, two of my colleagues died. Then when we were investigating the children thing about three months ago I died myself while trying to threaten the 456." As Ianto was speaking, Rhiannon's mouth had fell open at everything Ianto had said.

"So how are you here now?" Rhiannon asked slowly, almost cautiously as if she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the tale.

"My boss is immortal and when I was dead I was told that the person he admitted his love for would be given immortality too," Ianto explained. He was rather surprised. Not only was Rhiannon taking the immortality serious but he was managing to talk about the short time he spent being dead. "So I went back for about five minutes and here I am."

"You're… immortal?" Rhiannon asked hesitantly, as if she didn't want to know the truth.

"I don't know," Ianto admitted. "It's either that or I have another shot at life."

"How long ago did you return to the Earth," Ianto was surprised at how well Rhiannon was taking the information in and smiled but that smile disappeared when he realised what she had asked. It was going to sound bad if he told her it had been around three months but he had just admitted loads of impossible things to her. Wouldn't she be glad he was admitting a more usual thing? Though Ianto had to admit forgetting about a sister for three months isn't a normal thing.

"Three months," Ianto mumbled, hoping Rhiannon wouldn't quite hear him and think he said a month. Though a month was bad it wasn't as bad as the three months he had been running around Cardiff to wrapped up with Torchwood to think about his own family.

"Three months!" Rhiannon exclaimed but Ianto wasn't listening as Rhiannon went to ramble. His phone had just gone off and he had received a text from Jack summoning him back to the hub. Ianto turned and walked out of the room and Rhiannon ran after him. "Where are you going?"

"I've got to go to work," Ianto answered, signalling to his phone which he still held in his hand. "I'm sorry for not visiting you in the last three months. Tell the kids I'll see them later." Ianto turned and walked out of the house towards his own car which he had brought as he didn't want a repeat of the incident which had happened the last time he had gone to see Rhiannon.

"I'm not sure I want to tell them you're alive," Rhiannon called after him. "At the rate you're going with this alien business you'll be dead again in less than a month." Ianto had frozen when she had mentioned him being dead again and turned to look back at Rhiannon who turned and went back into her house. Ianto sighed and got into his car, suddenly aware of what he had done.

-TW-

Ianto was unaware of the sirens blaring as he walked through the cog door. His thoughts were still on Rhiannon's horrified tone just before he had left. It had been that moment that Ianto realised why both Torchwood London and Jack had told him to make up a cover story. It had also been that moment that Ianto realised how lucky Gwen was that Rhys had taken it so well. Even when Gwen and Martha ambushed him and Gwen explained Martha would be stepping in as doctor until they found a more permanent employee, Ianto barely paid any attention and continued to walk towards Jack's office. Gwen and Martha left him by the stairs up to Jack's office which Jack had moved up to the second floor when they had rebuilt the building. When Ianto finally reached Jack's office, he stopped and knocked before entering. "Ianto, have you met Martha again then?" Jack had looked up from his desk when Ianto had entered.

"Yes sir," Ianto answered. He opened his mouth to continue but Jack was already speaking.

"I'm thinking of asking her to stay permanently," Jack said as he leant back in his chair. "What do you think?"

"It's your decision sir," Ianto shrugged.

"I suppose so," Jack agreed before Ianto could say anything else. "Though I'm not sure-"

"Sir!" Ianto cut in, speaking louder than he had meant to. Jack instantly stopped talking and looked up at Ianto. "I've done something stupid. When you were out looking for new employees… well, I went over to my sister's house and told her everything."

"What?" Jack exclaimed and sat up straighter in his chair, more alert. "How did she take it?"

"She took it well until I mentioned her telling the kids I'm still alive," Ianto answered. There was silence for a minute as Jack tried to think of a solution.

"We have a small amount of retcon in the archives," Jack finally suggested.

"No," Ianto disagreed. "I still want her to know I'm alive sir."

"Then all we can do is make sure she doesn't tell anyone about us," Jack decided. "You did tell her not to say anything didn't you?"

"Yes sir," Ianto nodded. "I sent her a text when I got back here." Ianto felt more relaxed now and after he and Jack spoke some more he turned and left the office, deciding he had better talk to Martha after he had basically ignored her earlier. He found Martha and Gwen by the workstations and they seemed to be looking for something. "Is everything alright?" Ianto asked as he reached them.

"My phone has gone missing," Gwen explained as she continued to move things around, desperately searching for the phone.

"Where did you put it?" Ianto questioned.

"On my desk," Gwen shot back and Ianto assumed she had been searching for her phone for a while. He suddenly remembered sweeping all the clutter off Gwen's desk earlier that day before he had gone to visit Rhiannon.

"It's in that bin bag over there," Ianto pointed to the black bag dumped by his coffee machine and watched as Gwen half ran over to it. Ianto turned to Martha who looked pretty happy that she didn't have to continue to look for Gwen's phone. "It's nice to see you again."

"You too," Martha smiled.

"I'm just going to go and check out the new archives," Ianto told Martha as he saw Gwen find her phone in the black bag. "I'll be back up later." Ianto turned and hurried out of the room towards the archives. Talking to Martha had reminded him of Owen and Tosh. Ianto was beginning to wish he had stayed dead.