Part Four

Ianto watched Martha and the Doctor talking quietly as she explained whatever it was she was working on to him from the landing above the medical bay. They'd been locked away in the small room since they had arrived that morning. The Doctor was leaning in close to Martha, looking carefully at what she was pointing to on the computer screen and occasionally asking questions. He hated to interrupt, but Jack had sent him down here for a reason.

"Martha," he said, "Jack says he needs to talk to you about something…important."

"Oh," Martha said, turning around, "Ianto, I didn't hear you come in. What does he need?"

"He didn't say," he admitted, "Just that I should send you to his office for an important meeting and show the Doctor around the archives for a while."

Martha frowned, but turned to the Doctor. "I need to see what Jack wants. Maybe we can get lunch later."

"Work must come first," the Doctor agreed. He wasn't happy with this turn of events but if Jack did need her for something work-related, he couldn't interfere and besides, it would give him more time to get to know Ianto Jones.

Martha finished with the notes she was taking on the tests she'd run on the Weevils overnight and left the bay to find Jack. Ianto walked down the steps and picked up the two coffee mugs on the counter before turning his attention to the Doctor again. "I just need to drop these in the sink and we can go downstairs. Is there anything in particular you'd like to see?"

***

Jack looked up from the papers he was shuffling around his desk and smiled when Martha walked in. "Is the Doctor with Ianto?" he asked.

"Yeah," she responded, returning his smile. "He said you wanted him to show the Doctor the archives."

Jack shrugged, "I don't really care what he shows him, just wanted to make sure neither of them are anywhere near the office." Jack turned to his computer and typed for a second before he found the two men on the CCTV. "Just making sure they're where they're supposed to be."

Martha frowned this time, confused. "Why does it matter where they are?"

"I think I figured out what was going on yesterday with Ianto and the Doctor."

"So did I do something…" She was curious about the Doctor's odd behaviour but at the moment she was really more concerned about why Ianto had seemed so distant. She truly liked him and couldn't think of a single thing she'd done to upset him.

"No," Jack answered, immediately reassuring her. "Ianto adores you. It had nothing to do with you, not for him anyway. The Doctor though…well even that isn't about you, not completely anyway."

"Jack," Martha groaned, "Just tell me. I do have some work to do downstairs and I'd like to have some time to visit with the Doctor if possible."

"Right, sorry. Ianto isn't angry with you; he wasn't trying to avoid you at all. He was trying to keep me away from the Doctor and the only way to do that was to avoid you himself so I'd have to spend time with you."

"He wanted to keep you away from the Doctor?" she asked," Why? The Doctor came all this way to visit you."

"That's exactly why," Jack admitted. "And I don't think the Doctor is here to visit me."

Martha raised an eyebrow in question. None of this was making sense. Ianto didn't want Jack to talk to the Doctor? Did he take the whole 'Torchwood's number one enemy' thing seriously? Surely after seeing what the Doctor did with the Daleks he must realize that he wasn't an enemy. And what did Jack mean the Doctor wasn't here to see him? He'd called him, said he needed to meet with him.

"Do you remember when we first met? What I told you and the Doctor about what happened after he left me behind?"

"You went back too far and had to live through the whole twentieth century, all the time waiting to find him aga…oh, God," she said, her hand covering her mouth in surprise as she realized what had happened back then. "You left Ianto behind to chase after the Doctor, didn't you?"

Jack nodded, and sighed. "I didn't even tell him I was leaving. I heard the TARDIS and I left. Then when I came back I couldn't tell anyone what had happened or where I'd been and…"

"And then you left again when the Doctor needed help," Martha said. All the pieces clicked into place. "He thinks the Doctor is here for you…not to visit, but to take you away."

"Yeah," Jack agreed. "At least I think that's what was going on. He said it wasn't you and him he was trying to keep apart. Which brings me to the Doctor."

"He was with me. How could you have figured out what he wanted?"

"That's really the issue," Jack said, "He said he was here to see me, that he didn't even know you were in Cardiff, and certainly not at Torchwood, but he hasn't spent five minutes alone with me. He's only been interested in you."

"So?"

"I don't think he came to see me," Jack explained. "He knew you were here, Martha. He came to Cardiff for you."

"That's silly," she insisted. "If he came to see me, why not just call me directly and admit he knew I was here?"

"And say what? That he didn't want you here? That he thought you were sleeping with me? That he loves you?"

"You think that's what he's doing? Why he keeps interrupting us all the time?"

"Do you have a better suggestion?" Jack asked.

She shrugged. She didn't, and it all really made sense. Both men had been acting kind of territorial, she thought, remembering the way Ianto had kissed Jack when he and the Doctor came to pick them up after they caught the Weevil. She also thought about all the questions the Doctor had asked about Jack that had seemed odd to her last night. Jealousy made it all so clear, well, not really. Neither man had a reason to be jealous. She wasn't interested in Jack…. not really. Maybe back when she'd first met him, but now they were friends. They'd bonded over their love of the Doctor and over the memories they had that they couldn't share with anyone else. She'd gotten over what had been no more than a crush and Jack had Ianto. Jack loved Ianto, but Martha was pretty sure he didn't tell the other man so often enough.

"So we need to sit them down and talk to them, then?"

"Well," Jack said, leaning back in his chair and grinning at her. "That would be one solution, or we could try something else."

"What did you have in mind?" she asked. She wasn't going to agree to anything without hearing his plan because, knowing Jack, it was going to cause more havoc before eventually reassuring the two men.

***

The Doctor examined the small object in his hand. He hadn't seen anything like it before. He could make guesses about its origin, but he couldn't be sure, nor did he have any idea what it might be used for. He truly did wish he'd been able to be of more help with the unidentified alien tech that Ianto had shown him. "I'm sorry but I've never seen this before."

Ianto shrugged. Jack had suggested seeing if the Doctor could identify anything in their rather large archive of unidentified objects, but so far he'd only been able to help with a few things and make guesses on a few others. "It was worth a try, I suppose," he said with a sigh.

"So, Ianto Jones," the Doctor said, putting the object back in the box it had come from and turning his full attention back to the other man. "Why did Jack offer Martha a job here?"

Ianto frowned, not sure how to answer. Jack had offered her the job because she was good doctor, a friend, and they needed to replace Owen. "After we lost our last medic we needed a new one, and when Jack returned after…when he came back to us, he had Martha with him."

"You didn't wonder why? Where she'd come from?" The Doctor asked. Jack had just shown up with a new employee and no one questioned it. That seemed odd. "Just a complete stranger, out of the blue like that."

"She wasn't a stranger. Martha's helped us out before. Just last year she helped with an investigation."

"Still, that Jack would just hire someone new without talking to you and Gwen, that must have seemed odd."

"Not at all," Ianto answered, "Jack's in charge, hiring is his decision."

The Doctor frowned; this wasn't getting him anywhere. Ianto didn't seem at all surprised or concerned that Jack hired Martha without any notice. Had Jack and Martha seen more of each other than he'd realized before he'd offered her the job? Had they been involved since that year…since Martha had left him behind? But Martha hadn't mentioned that when he they'd travelled together just a few months ago. She'd told him about Tom but never even mentioned Jack. "Martha worked with you before, you said?" The Doctor asked. "Were she and Jack close then?"

Ianto watched the Doctor carefully. He didn't understand all the questions about Martha. Why would did it matter that Jack hired Martha? "They had obviously known each other for some time," Ianto answered slowly, not sure what the Doctor was asking. "They spent a lot of time locked in his office talking."

"A lot of time alone, then?"

Ianto nodded, eyes widening as he caught on to what the Doctor was asking him. The Doctor thought Jack and Martha were…The Doctor was jealous of Martha. That's why he kept interrupting them, and why he was asking all the questions about their relationship. He thought Martha was going to keep Jack away from him. It was an interesting turn of events and he wasn't sure what to do with the information, but for now he decided it was unwise to tell the Doctor he was wrong. "Yes, I had the distinct impression they shared something important that they weren't going to let the rest of us in on." Not a lie exactly. There was definitely something that drew Martha and Jack together and neither of them wanted to discuss it with anyone else; it just wasn't anything sexual or personal. Still, there was nothing wrong with letting the Doctor draw his own conclusions.

***

"They're on their way up," Jack said, glancing at the computer screen.

"Jack are you really sure this is a good idea?" Martha asked. "I don't want Ianto to get hurt, and what if you're wrong about the Doctor? He's never even so much as given me a second glance before and you're so sure he's jealous of you because he…"

"Trust me," Jack answered, walking around the desk to stand near her. "He loves you, even if he doesn't realize it yet. As for Ianto…I won't let him get hurt. I just want him to realize he's the only one I want, that I won't leave him again, and that he should talk to me, not brood, when something's wrong."

She kissed him on the cheek as she wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "If Ianto or the Doctor gets hurt I won't forgive you."

"I wouldn't forgive myself if that happened," he admitted, returning the hug, "I won't let either of them get hurt, I promise. Just remember what I said, get Ianto to do something with you tonight. It doesn't matter what. Play on his feeling guilty about making you think he was mad at you yesterday if you need to."

"I'll do my best."

Downstairs, both Ianto and the Doctor watched the couple upstairs in surprise. The Doctor was amazed that Jack would be so open about his relationship with Martha right here at work, and he realized it was going to be even more difficult than he thought to separate them. While Ianto's eyes were narrowing in suspicion as the surprise wore off. Jack and Martha's hug itself didn't surprise or concern him, really. But Jack had said he needed to discuss work things with Martha, alone. That had been odd in itself, and now they were hugging. That wasn't work-related. Jack was up to something, and Ianto wanted to know what it was. Was he planning on leaving and was telling Martha first? Ianto glanced over at the Doctor with a frown. It was possible, but if Jack had made that decision already, why was the Doctor still concerned about Jack's relationship to Martha? Clearly if he was leaving with the Doctor he'd made a choice…