Here is a proper chapter! So big big thanks to Quiet Time, thedeejay, ohmyianto, Marian Locksley, L.A.H.H. and gernumblies, who all reviewed the last one despite its shortness.
Unnecessary Complications
It was four o'clock when they finally returned with the weevil. It had been one of the longest chases Jack could remember, and it hadn't helped when Gwen had got a phone-call from Rhys right at the critical point. And he'd seen the expression on Ianto's face when she called Rhys back on the way home to explain and had ended up being invited out for the evening.
Gwen dragged him aside when they got back.
"Look, Jack, I've been trying to get to you and tell you all day. It didn't work with the flowers – Ianto saw me with them and I had to tell everyone they were from Rhys."
"Ok." Jack tried to think of a way out of it. Gwen was biting her lip. "But Owen got the note, didn't he?"
Gwen nodded.
"Well, maybe they worked something out while we were gone. Let's just wait and see, eh?"
"You ok, Tosh?"
Tosh looked up at Ianto. "Yeah. Just some files I need." She thought of some quickly, just to get him to go away. She didn't feel like talking right now. "The ones on the ghost-sighting from last week. They should be on Jack's desk."
Ianto nodded and left, and Tosh breathed a sigh of relief. She was just going to get through today and get home, that was all, and then she could sort her mind out and start acting a little more sensibly. She shouldn't be reacting like this, she really shouldn't.
Ianto knocked on the door, but got no reply. He wasn't really surprised – he'd heard Jack and Gwen talking quietly in a corner together a few minutes earlier, but it was still polite to knock. He sidled in and closed the door quietly, then began hunting through Jack's 'filing system'. Halfway through the second dangerously-stacked pile he found the report he was looking for, and, two sheets above it, a pair of theatre tickets emblazoned with the play title "Much Ado About Nothing" and the date: February the fourteenth.
He put them back and left the room.
Gwen didn't know what to do. Tosh looked so miserable, and she had no idea what had happened or what Owen could possibly have said to have made her like that. And to make matters worse Ianto was behaving oddly towards her too, avoiding her when he could, not really talking to her, giving her empty smiles. And he was acting the same with Jack as well, and she just couldn't think why. Had he found out what they were trying with Tosh and Owen? The worse thing was that because she wasn't sure why either of them were behaving like they were, or why they were acting so coldly towards her, she had no idea what she could do to help them.
What had gone wrong? This had been supposed to work!
Owen whistled to himself as he stood at the base of the Water Tower, waiting for Gwen. She didn't know he was waiting for her, of course, but he was pretty sure she'd come out this way any minute now. And then he'd ask her out. He had no idea where to yet, but to be honest he didn't particularly care much, so long as they ended up back at his flat.
Watching another figure walking towards the Water Tower, he was suddenly positive that Gwen would come out this way.
Suddenly there was the report on her desk, and a mug of coffee next to it.
"Oh, thank you, Ianto."
Ianto smiled back at her, then scanned the room for the others. Gwen must still be with Jack – perhaps he'd told her about… he turned his thoughts quickly away from that one. "Where's Owen?" He asked aloud.
"He's gone." Said Tosh. She realised she had failed to keep the bitterness out of her voice, and then realised she didn't care.
"Oh." Ianto said quietly. He hadn't realised – he'd been too wrapped up in him and Jack to think about how Tosh must feel. That on this stupid, stupid day which society insisted on keeping she must feel it more than any other day. Then, even more quietly, he said "Jack's taking someone else out too."
Tosh momentarily forgot her own troubles as she looked at Ianto in surprise and pity. "He isn't, is he? Oh, Ianto…"
There was silence for a few moments.
"I haven't been out on Valentine's day in years." Ianto said softly. "Not since Lisa died. Jack always told me he didn't do Valentine's."
"I've never had a Valentine's date." Tosh said darkly.
They found they were looking at each other and Ianto found he was smiling genuinely for the first time that day. "How about we change that?"
And then he found that Tosh was smiling too.
Umm… what do you think? Am I going overboard now or do you like it?
