The intrigue and action starts to pick up a little from here... there's not much 'action' til the end, but there's alot of Jack's past and relationship convolutions thrown about cos of John's presence! I haven't read this story through for a while, and I remember not liking it much once I'd finished, but it's really growing on me!

I hope you like it guys! Thankyou all for the comments :)


Chapter 3

They walked in silence to the SUV, apart from John, who was happily chattering away about a sexual encounter this reminded him of.

Just like Jack used to be, Ianto thought, his teeth gritted. He continued to walk to the driver's side door as Jack shoved John roughly in the back seat. Before Ianto could climb behind the wheel, Jack grabbed his arm.

"I promise you, Ianto." Jack said sincerely, looking at him carefully. "I promise you that I'll explain everything that I can to you once he's gone. Once he's back through the Rift, we'll talk."

Jack rested his hand gently on Ianto's cheek before climbing in next to John, the look of affection that had been on his face gone in an instant as he faced their captive. Now his features were hardened and scowling in distaste. Jack refused to give John any ammunition to rile his lover with.

Ianto too had lost all sign that he'd just allowed himself to be vulnerable for Jack as he pulled his door shut and flipped the key in the ignition.

"What exactly will these things do if we don't catch them all?" Jack asked in a cold voice, his eyes fixed on the road through the windscreen and Ianto's eyes in the rear-view mirror alternately.

"Oh, they'll tear the city apart in their confusion." John said casually, looking out of the window as the lights and cars sped past them, leaving orange and red streamers in the dark sky. "They're expensive though, been in that family for decades. Almost irreplaceable, so don't even think about killing any of them."

"Like I would." Jack snapped at him.

"Once upon a time, Jack," John turned to look at him saying his name with heavy sarcasm and humour, "You wouldn't have thought twice about it."

Jack's eyes were fixed on Ianto's in the mirror, but his gaze hadn't left the road, he gave no outward sign that he'd heard anything. Jack knew that he had though - he could tell by the slight tightening of the muscles in his arms as he increased his grip on the wheel.

The rest of the journey was quiet. Ianto hadn't said another word and Jack had stopped answering John's questions, leading to John giving up asking them. Instead, they all brooded separately about different things, though they were all interlinked.

John sat quietly and fumed at Jack, wondering what had possessed him to stay in such a hell hole. What could possibly have happened to make him such a different person? He wanted his 'Jack' back, he wanted the man he'd fallen in love with all that time ago.

Right now though, he wanted nothing better than to break his rehab once again and blow Jack's brains out once and for all.

Jack was staring ahead of them and silently cursing John for showing his face here. It had been over a hundred and fifty years for him and he'd changed so much. He wasn't proud of his past, it wasn't the person he was today. He could only pray that Ianto knew that – deep down he knew the young man did, for Ianto had an uncanny ability for seeing the real people beneath the layers of persona and the lies.

Ianto had always seen Jack for who he really was – for better or worse.

Ianto didn't think about anything in particular – he didn't curse anyone, didn't pray for anything, didn't wish for any other situation. Ianto just resigned himself to a long few hours, at the least, of this repulsive man's company. He wanted Jack to himself - the past few days hadn't been long enough to make up for all those weeks apart.

There was still so much he needed to talk to Jack about, so much that he needed to understand if they were going to make things work between them.

Only now, there was even more. Ianto knew it, Jack knew it and apparently John did too. Ianto knew that whatever 'John' said about Jack, whoever the man that 'John' knew was, he wouldn't be the same person Ianto had grown to love and respect – Ianto's Jack was so much older and wiser than he had been before he'd met the Doctor. Jack had shared the story with him one night as they lay curled up in bed.

Ianto clung to the fact and gritted his teeth as he pulled up in the secret car park, Jack hauling John roughly from the SUV and through the hidden door, Ianto following them quickly. John let out a constant stream of snide remarks about the passage way until Jack pushed him through a door and out into the Hub.

"Whoa." John said, stepping out of the tunnel and looking around him. "It's roomy, I'll give you that. Your taste in interior design hasn't got any better, though. What is this, sewer chic?"

"Weapons." Jack said, uncuffing John's hands and moving round to stand opposite him now that the door was sealed, taking each item as John handed them over, passing the two guns and the katana to Ianto. "And the rest."

"Oh, you know me, I'm a two-weapon man." John replied silkily, smirking temptingly at Jack, who just raised an eyebrow in disapproval.

"One pistol strapped to each leg, laser knife beneath left elbow… seventeen small explosive charges in the lining of his coat." Tosh said from her desk, having run a scan the moment he walked into the large room.

"Slipped my mind." John said with a scowl, pulling the various other pieces of weaponry and handing them to Jack, who placed them on a tray Gwen had approached with. Ianto dumped the three weapons he was holding and headed down to the vaults, Jack pulling John along by the elbow. "Do I get the grand tour then?"

Jack shot him one of his most charming smiles and John frowned, walking into the room and then past Ianto, who was holding a large metal door open. Before he could turn round and run in the opposite direction, Ianto had slammed the door closed and Jack was twisting the lock shut.

They left the room to the sound of John's indignant yells and curses, Jack slipping his hand into Ianto's and weaving their fingers together.