Chapter 4: ParTay!


Ianto had been back at work for about a week when Toshiko began to notice anomalies on the weather scanner. There were sudden examples of extreme weather which had her worried. She assumed that there was a problem with the program and at eleven PM, hours after everyone else had gone home, she was close to screaming in frustration. Out of nowhere Ianto appeared, in a pair of smart trousers and a deep red shirt but without the tie waistcoat or jacket he used to wear.

"Tosh, you need to take a break. I was just about to feed Myfanwy if you wanted to help?"

Tosh took of the glasses she wore when spending a large amount of time at the computer and stood even though she was still a head shorter than the tall archivist.

"Sorry Ianto but I really don't think she likes me. While you were gone I used to leave her food when she wasn't there. The first day I took it up to her while she was sat in the nest and she nearly took my arm off."

Ianto laughed. "Come on. There's nothing to be scared of." He took her hand and led her up the thin metal stairway to where the Torchwood Pterodactyl made her nest. Toshiko stayed firmly behind Ianto, holding on tight to his shirt which he couldn't help but chuckle at. She was surprised that the "food" he'd brought up was actually several large bars of Tesco dark chocolate.

"You feed her chocolate? Is that even safe?"

"Well I don't do it all the time, but if you're worried that she doesn't like you then I'm sure she'll love you after this." He broke up one of the bars and placed about half of it broken into squares on Tosh's hand. The Pterosaurs chose this moment to return to her nest and upon smelling the chocolate, turned to Toshiko and proceeded to eat the treat out of her hands. Surprisingly, when Tosh angled her hand to allow the creature to feed she didn't find herself missing an arm, more that Myfanwy was managing to get all of the chocolate without once grazing the small woman's hand with her teeth. When the chocolate was gone, Toshiko beamed up at Ianto who was now stroking the back of Myfanwy's head with the hand which wasn't holding the shopping bag. He laid the rest of her food inside the nest, some meat already covered in her special sauce and the rest of the chocolate bar, then led Toshiko down the stairs to the ground.

"Thanks for that Ianto. I needed to distract myself from this damn program, I think it must be broken. It keeps showing extreme weather patterns on clear days. I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

Picking up her handbag and jacket, Ianto led her out of the HUB. "In the morning I'll help you compare it to data from the local and national weather database and we'll see what the problem is, but right now it's about time we both headed home."

Tosh responded with a "hmm." She was dead on her feet and swayed into him as she struggled to remain standing, it had been an exhausting day of weevil chasing and it seemed that Tosh had been more tired than she thought. Being the gentleman that he was Ianto offered to drive her home.

When they arrived at Tosh's house Ianto saw her in then was about to say goodnight when he remembered something.

"I'm having a bit of a house-warming tomorrow night. I just moved in to my new flat and I'm having some people over if you're interested."

"Okay, who's going to be there?"

"My sister and her kids and I was going to ask the team tomorrow." Tosh smiled sleepily up at him and nodded her head. Ianto kissed her forehead and walked back out of her living room ready to see himself out.

"You can turn off your alarm. I'll let Jack now you'll be in late tomorrow."


Ianto loved his new flat. It was on Falcon Drive, in an area which overlooked the bay. It was a serious change to his last place, modern while the last flat had been Victorian, spacious while his old flat was long and narrow and it had a spare bedroom which Rhiannon had assured him that she would be putting to use by having the kids stay over to give her a night off occasionally. Possibly the best part was that he could see the Millennium Centre from his window, and it literally took him five minutes to get to work in the morning, removing the need for a car. Ianto had never liked owning a car. In London it wasn't worth it as you spent half your wages fuelling and taxing the thing only to sit in traffic and end up late to work anyway. It was a necessity when he lived at his old flat because of the distance it was from the city centre, but after he had moved he was more than happy to give it to Rhiannon as she would get more use out of it.

It was 7:25 and he had told everyone to arrive around 7:30. Most of the food was already laid out on his table – as his dining room wasn't big enough to seat the entire team plus Rhys, his sister and her two kids he had laid it out like a buffet with plastic plates to minimise clean-up. There were plates with pizza, various types of rolls and half of the table was covered in desserts and drinks. In the kitchen there was a huge pot of chilli bubbling away to be ready about eight.

At 7:30 on the dot, there was a quiet knock on his door, and before he even got it open he new that that knock belonged to Tosh. She greeted him with a smile and a plant. It looked like a bonsai but it was blue with an orange trunk. Holding it up to him, she stepped across the threshold.

"It came through the rift while you were away. It was half dead, but I was looking after the plants and I thought that you might like it."

"It's gorgeous Tosh. It'll go well in the living room. Why don't we go look for a spot?"

Ianto had barely had time to take Tosh's coat and he hadn't even closed the door when a young girl with a mass of red curls came bounding around the corner and launched herself into a hug with her uncle. Mica had been the last of his family to really trust him after he came back from such a long absence. The girl was an extrovert, but extremely observant and a good judge of most situations for a six year old.

"Uncle Ianto! Thank you for my dress!" Ianto had bought her the red tartan dress she was wearing because Rhiannon had one just like it as a little girl. Rhi had loved that dress and had worn it until their mam had thrown it out because there was no way it would fit any more. If Mica got half of the use out of this dress that her mother got from hers then it was well worth the money he paid for it.

Rhiannon and David arrived abut a minute after Mica, evidently they had opted to walk up to the building and hadn't run to the front door like crazy people. Within ten minutes everyone else had arrived, everyone that was except for Jack.

Ianto had set David and Owen the task of choosing some music, and within five minutes the pair had gotten into a playful argument over bands which David was informing Owen were "old and boring."

Everyone else was in the living room. It was large and Ianto had pushed the coffee table to the side of the room, creating a larger space. Rhiannon had quickly located his Wii, which he was almost embarrassed to own, and within a minute of setting it up everyone was engrossed in one of the dancing games. Tosh had taken off her heels to play and she and Rhys held the controllers while the others either watched or joined in in the background.

Eight o'clock rolled around and there was still no sign of Jack. If he waited any longer to serve the food then the rice would end up ruined so he decided to push ahead. Though, it kind of hurt that Jack was the only member of the team not there. He thought that the older man had forgiven his betrayal, or at least was on the way to forgiving him but him not turning up when Ianto had been so sure that the team had accepted him back again made him doubt himself and re awoke the old feelings of worry that he had about Jack not trusting him.

The night was a huge success. Rhys was introduced to the team and perhaps would now be a little less hostile towards the job Gwen ran off to in the middle of the night. Rhiannon was glad to see that Ianto had some friends at work. She was worried about him for a while there. Owen, though originally pissed that he was missing a night of prime drinking/pulling opportunities, seemed to genuinely enjoy himself. He had taken a shine to Mica after she explained that when she grew up she wanted to be a doctor...or an astronaut...or both.

While all of the adults seemed to enjoy the drinks Ianto had prepared – he just so happened to be a master of cocktails as well as coffee owing to a bar job while he was at university – it seemed that Ianto and Tosh both had a few too many by the time the night was over. Gwen and Owen found it hilarious that the two quietest members of the team were suddenly talkative and extremely competitive at the wii dance game. At one point Tosh had tried to push Ianto over, causing him to lose points for an entire chorus while he righted himself.

But no matter how much fun they were having, none of the Torchwood team could deny their surprise and disappointment that Jack hadn't turned up.


The next morning Ianto Jones was rudely awakened at 5am by his work alarm. After scowling at the beeping, flashing device designed to be as irritating as possible he was about to pick it up and throw it at the wall when he heard a groan from beside him. He hit the snooze button and turned in bed – immediately regretting the action when his stomach protested – to see Toshiko Sato, half asleep, wearing one of his t-shirts and curled up next to him. He stared at her confused in his half-woken state and she opened her eyes, blinking away the sleep. She put a hand to her pounding head and looked at Ianto in shock. She could see that he was bare-chested and she didn't recognise the t-shirt she was wearing but it smelled the same as the sheets she had been lying under so she could only assume that it was Ianto's. What she couldn't remember was why she was in Ianto's bed, wearing his clothes, with the worst hangover she'd had in years.

The pair avoided each others eyes as they got out of the bed, Ianto nearly falling out as his legs were tangled in the sheets. Despite their situation Tosh couldn't help but giggle, it was infectious and a minute later they were both laughing uncontrollably. They managed to arrange who is taking a shower first through a series of hand gestures and minimal conversation. Ianto quickly irons the outfit Tosh had been wearing yesterday so that she could wear it to go into work and change into the clothes she kept there once they arrived if she wanted. He waited for her to come out of the bathroom then indicated where her clothes were and told her to get anything she wanted from the kitchen while he went into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. Seven minutes after he went in he walked back out, in a clean suit with his hair done and was ready to go aside from shoes.

After they officially had nothing left to fuss over, Tosh and Ianto were forced to face the giant elephant in the room. Tosh sat down on a stool by the breakfast bar facing Ianto.

"So, erm, last night..."

The Welshman, despite looking a little green about the gills turned a light shade of pink.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I really don't drink and I just-"

"No, no it was my fault I have no idea how it happened."

"Well we kind of..." The next word was said in unison and caused both of them to crack up again.

"SNOGGED."


The night before

Ianto's guests had been slowly trickling out for the last half hour, it was after midnight and David had to carry his sleeping sister into their cab. Everyone's goodbyes had mainly consisted of a "great party Ianto" and Rhys had even asked him for the recipe for the Chilli he had made. At 1 AM, the only people left standing were Ianto and Tosh, who had decided to have one last dance off on his Wii game before he called Tosh a cab. It was going well and they were both going for high scores when Tosh slipped on a small puddle of beer caused by Owen's dropped can earlier. The Nylon of her tights didn't create much friction on his laminate wood floor and she was resigned to the fall she was heading into when Ianto tried to catch her around her waist. Drunk as he was though, he had ended up falling with her and they landed in a heap on the floor, Ianto's arm underneath Tosh.

Rather than putting his weight on top of the small woman, he rolled and Tosh rolled with him. She ended up on top of him giggling like a schoolgirl.

Neither of them knew who started it or why it happened but suddenly they were kissing, and kissing led to touching, and touching led to hands being in places they really shouldn't be. Ianto let out a moan and the two of them froze, realizing what they were doing and who they were with. Two seconds later they were sat a few feet apart on the floor, bright red and completely sober. After a few tense minutes Ianto decided to break the silence.

"So erm. We have to be at work in a few hours. You should just crash here."

"Okay."

"Fine."

"Right then..."


At 6:30am Ianto and Tosh walked through the door to the Tourist Office, Ianto unlocking it and holding it open for Tosh. He offered to make her a coffee and power up the HUB while she set up her computer so they could get started analysing the weather data they had collated yesterday. Tosh wasn't usually in this early so it wasn't strange for her, but Ianto found it odd that the HUB lights were on at this time of the morning. Usually, the only thing illuminating the cavernous base during the teams off-hours were the emergency lights and the light from Jacks office. In order to keep Torchwood's energy use as low as possible so that when they used their own generators, they were barely visible on the city power grid but it meant they couldn't run on full power 24/7 or they'd burn out the temper-mental generators

Tosh headed straight in the direction of her desk. Ianto put on some coffee. While he waited for it to brew, starting his stopwatch so he could time it to exactly six minutes and thirty seconds, he walked around the HUB looking for evidence of his boss. Jack moved like a ninja so Ianto knew that he wouldn't hear him moving around, but as Ianto headed towards the captain's office he saw that that was the least of his problems.

In the medical bay, lying on the autopsy table in a manner that suggested he had once been sitting, lay a deathly pale Jack Harkness in a pool of his own blood. The sticky red substance covered the floor of the entire area and there was no way that he had survived that much blood loss.

"JACK!" Ianto was at his side in an instant, he checked for a pulse and was rewarded almost instantly with a steady, rest rate heartbeat. His fingers at the older man's throat caused him to stir from is sleep.

"hmm...I think I'm in heaven, are all of the angels as pretty as you Ianto?"

Ianto smirked. "That's harassment sir. If you're okay I was about to make some coffee. I'll bring you something to eat as well. The last time you lost this much blood, you were anaemic for days after. If you want I could set up a transfusion kit. I'm type O."

"I'll be fine, but I could die for a cup of your amazing coffee."

"Very funny sir."

"I thought so."

Back in the kitchen and he heard Jack wash down the autopsy bay with a hose. An advantage of working in a place which is entirely underground and mainly tiled is that blood cleans up easily, which with Jack around is pretty important. When his six and a half minutes were up, he poured the coffee and took Tosh her cup first then took Jack's down to him, as he turned to leave Jack called him back.

"Ianto?"

"Yes sir?"

"I'm sorry about last night."

"I think being dead counts as a good enough excuse for missing my party Sir."

"S'pose it does, did I miss anything good?" Ianto blushed and Jack flashed Ianto his trademark smile and knew that he was forgiven. He'd never met anyone that the smile didn't work on...now time to find a shirt that didn't have weevil claw slashes down the back.