Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood, no copyright infringement intended. If you still want to sue first bring Ianto back to Jack.
Warnings: Spoilers for almost everything except novels and comics. Not beta-read and English's not my native language, but beta-tested anyway by SOY.
Epilogue
Reddish-yellow dust began gathering at the centre of the Torchwood hub in the 26th century, but before someone among the employees could go and see what was happening, a flash of energy exploded, making everyone hide behind the safe areas and cover their eyes. When the light drove out though, four fuzzy figures appeared.
As if on cue, the time-teleport tracer began blipping frenetically and Gwyneth had to run to her computer station to finally make it stop. As soon as everything was quiet again, the three youngsters of the newly teleported group stretched their limbs and made their way to their desks, whining at the thought of the reports that they had to fill, but Ianto simply stood there waiting with a thoughtful expression on his face, as he had been transfixed in the same place where he had reappeared.
Jack intercepted his children to reassure himself that they were fine, congratulated Mark on his good work in keeping all the non-immortal ones alive, and then finally placed himself right in front of his husband, expecting some sort of reaction from him. Seeing none, he decided to approach the matter from afar, trying to follow the usually successful 'Jones method'.
"We could use some coffee, Ianto."
Ianto barely acknowledged him and instead he took great care in avoiding his gaze completely.
Needless to say that the 'Jones method' never worked for him, no matter how many times he tried, so he seriously had to think about how he still tried after all those centuries to make people get his point by beginning the discussion from a completely different topic. He was beginning to suspect that the ability that made his husband's family successful with that was simply genetic.
"Yes, sir." Was all Jack could get from Ianto as an answer, until the Welshmen actually moved to the kitchen corner to get the promised coffee going. The captain followed him with his eyes, unsure about how to react to such an unexpected behaviour. He exchanged quick looks with the others, but they all shook their heads and shrugged.
Having no other options, Jack decided to follow his husband as quietly as he could. Once behind him, he tried to fold him into a sweet embrace, but all Ianto did was jump lightly at the contact and shorten the distance between himself and the coffee machine, successfully escaping Jack's hold. The captain sighed completely frustrated, giving up any pretence of subtleness to go for the more frank approach that usually served him right.
"Talk to me, Ianto. I thought we were way beyond this."
"This was before."
"Before what?" Jack asked plainly, his voice deep and dangerous.
Jealousy, anger, denied arousal, confusion, fear, guilt for not protecting Ianto from dying for the fifth million time. They all mixed together giving his voice an eerie inflection that cut though Ianto's façade.
Ianto turned to stare at him, nervously licking and biting his tightened lips as he fought with his own guilt in order to confront his husband.
"I drugged you, Jack. I left you asleep and alone in the bloody countryside. I abandoned you again."
Ianto had to look away, feeling the remorse devouring him slowly but inevitably, even when his hands searched for the necklace under his shirt. He hoped it could give him a little more comfort, but instead a new wave of shame assaulted him and he hastily removed it and handed it back to Jack.
"You should have this back." He said, his voice breaking. "I-I ruined everything."
Jack stared at him with his mouth slightly open, realizing that no matter how much stupid the problem was in itself, for Ianto it was quite real and he had to work cautiously there.
He took a deep breath and licked nervously his lips, then he tried smiling as reassuringly he could as he took the necklace from Ianto's hands. As his lover tried to let it go though, Jack enclosed both the ring and his hand in his own.
"This is yours Ianto, and you haven't ruined a single thing. What you did today is already my past, I already told you I forgave you everything, didn't I? What we built together began from there."
"Yes, and despite what we built together until now, I did that to you!"
"You did nothing bad to me Ianto! Gwen and Rhys found me after a couple of minutes and the drug didn't erase the way you made me feel anyway. You worked years to perfection that particular amnesia pill and you did it for me! So that I could remember about you even if I ended up discovering more than I bargained for."
Ianto shook his head at Jack's calm words and tried to free himself from his lover's grip, but failed miserably. "If I didn't let you know too much, you wouldn't have needed the retcon!"
"Then that is my fault to be honest." Jack admitted in the end.
Ianto raised an enquiring eyebrow and he finally had enough courage to stare again up at Jack's hurt and guilty eyes. The captain let his hand go, taking the ring and showing it to Ianto on his open palm.
"I'm quite sure I began doubting you for the first time looking at this ring. I felt I had already seen it as soon as we had it customized, but it didn't click until now. I can easily guess what would come through my mind seeing this, and this is my fault, now I know, because… Well, I left it there for me to see it on purpose. I knew I would have noticed it, and…"
Jack lowered his eyes, not daring to look at his husband in the eyes as he searched the best words to put his thoughts in. "I… I just wanted my past self to take his distance from what is mine."
"Are you trying to say that you were jealous of yourself?" Ianto asked incredulous, a mischievous grin lighting up his eyes against his best judgement.
"I'm good enough to eat, am I?" Jack flirted, finally gaining a short lived laugh from Ianto. "A younger and more broken version of my fabulous self… I knew you wouldn't resist me."
Ianto's lips tightened in some sort of acknowledgment of Jack's words and took again the ring in his hands studying it closely.
"So you married me and gave me this ring only because you knew I would be unfaithful. That's nice to hear after five centuries of partnership and fifty years of official marriage."
Jack took Ianto's hands back in his own and waited until their eyes met before speaking again.
"Don't be silly. I know I was always supposed to set the trap now, I didn't back then! And I proposed to you to truly prove to everyone that you were way more than a blip in time, Ianto Jones. No matter if we have five minutes, five centuries or five billion years, I don't want you to ever die doubting my love for you, never again. And…"
Jack had to took a deep breath, searching inside himself the courage to continue "And I'm so bad at it, Ianto. Even now that we are condemned in the same way, I fail miserably at it. I can't help it. But this ring, this ring is meant for you, so that you know who bounds me to this planet or whatever colony, station or satellite we elect as our home, and that I will always come back to you, no matter where I go."
"So, what about what you just said?" Ianto asked, both glad and confused by Jack's confession.
"Well, I meant that I could have simply asked you to let me keep the ring until you came back instead of turning it in a necklace. That I did on purpose, because you would have to at least be half naked to have him seeing it."
"We did nothing, Jack. We just made out, with a bit of fooling around."
"Even if you got into his pants it wouldn't matter, Ianto. I'm sure I needed that, I've always be one for physical approaches."
Ianto took his time to think about his words, and he was still staring guiltily at his ring, when Jack decided he had enough. He took the necklace and put it back forcefully around his husband's neck, but he didn't let go of it. He kept the pendant tightly in his hand and reached under his own shirt to take out the companion ring on his own necklace to let them hang one near the other.
"You think we've been cheap to recycle the same bands for our first commitment when we had the proper wedding?" Jack said with a thoughtful expression on his face and a cunning smile on his lips.
Ianto laughed, relaxing visibly, and then smirked at him as he closed the space between them.
"I didn't believe you when we did the civil partnership and I didn't believe you when you actually proposed after the children were born, so what was the point in having a new pair made? You don't do marriages."
The thoughtful expression morphed in a fake deeply offended scowl in front of Ianto's amused stare.
"Ianto Jones, how dare you not knowing that you are a man among billions. I'll let you know that no matter how much I hated the words couple, marriages, monogamy and stuff like that, whatever I can do to show you my love I will do it for you."
Ianto leaned in for a quick peck on his lips and smiled at him.
"I actually think the rings were just too proper to have a new pair made."
"You remember what's written inside mine?" Jack teased, sensually tugging his husband closer so that their hips bumped together.
"Don't know the Boeshane dialect." Ianto answered lightly, trying for a deadpan even though the corner of his lips was twitching upwards against his will.
"And I don't speak Welsh…" Jack frowned. "You know I meant whether you remembered the meaning, not if you can read it."
Jack glared still smiling at Ianto, knowing the man was having him on, and he let his ring fall back on his chest as he let a small kiss on Ianto's one. "The man I'm coming back to."
Ianto smiled back and took Jack's ring in his hand resting his closed hand on his heart. "The man I came back for."
They rested their foreheads one against the other and kept staring at each other few more seconds before leaning in again for another heated kiss that was inappropriately interrupted by the biip of the coffee machine. Jack growled, but let his husband go fetching the mugs and pour their black drug in them before it cooled down.
His eyes lit up happily though when a steaming cup of coffee was held right in front of him.
Jack took it and drank the liquid greedily, hardly containing a moan as the flavour spread in his mouth. Then he followed Ianto through half of his tour around the base to bring happiness to his co-workers, stopping right next to the stairs leading to his office.
Ianto joined him with his own mug right after he finished delivering all the others' and leaned on the rail next to Jack.
"You know," Jack said with a hint of melancholy in his voice. "While you were away I thought a lot about those four years in which you were dead. It was a really dark period for me. Like the sun had stopped shining."
He met Ianto's eyes, finding them sad and understanding even thought the Welshman was trying his best to smile at him.
"The death of a lover could do that to you." Ianto said warmly, trying to lighten up the mood, and he felt way better when Jack smiled back at him.
"Yeah, but you know what?" The captain replied, leaning dangerously in his husband personal space. "I'm happy it was just an eclipse that, yes, darkened everything, but just for a short while."
Jack embraced his husband firmly, almost as if he feared that Ianto could magically disappear if he didn't hold him tight enough.
"If my sun had stopped burning altogether this soon…" He continued with barely enough voice to be heard. "I don't know where I would be now."
Ianto felt his heart melt inside his chest and cupped his lover's face with his hands, leading the man towards him. Their lips met for a brief kiss, a sweet reminder that they were still here together, that no future of loneliness was near them at all. It soon morphed in a more passionate one, with tongues asking for access and then clashing together in a sinful dance, mirrored by quick hands intertwining in their hair and gripping pieces of clothes desperately as their mugs laid abandoned on the nearest staircase step.
When they parted, they were both flushed and out of breath, their eyes lost in one another's, as if they were trying to make sure everything was real and not an illusion.
"I should go back to work too, those files with the results of last week tests on the new planets ready for colonization won't archive themselves." Ianto said, trying to resist the urge to bring his lover into the archives with him to have the captain take him hard on his desk. It was not his fault he was married to a walking aphrodisiac after all.
"Wait a few more minutes?" Jack argued, smiling as he read clearly in his lover's face why he was so keen to go back to work. "Tosh just went to get lunch."
Ianto's brow arched in complete distrust as a frown spread on his face. "You let Toshio Harper handle the lunch? None of the men we had in the team from that family managed to be sensible when ordering."
Jack simply grinned.
"That's why I sent him to get it and prohibited him to just order something in. Void travelling did nothing to Owen's genes, not even when diluted through generations."
Ianto snorted and went back to his coffee.
"At least Owen realised by himself he was a twat ordering under the name of Torchwood."
Jack laughed and made himself comfortable against the rail, as he himself retrieved his mug.
"Now you see why I hired you back then? And by the way, I know you were happy to have he and Tosh back just in time for our commitment ceremony." He drawled, poking Ianto on his shoulder.
"Might have misjudged things."
Jack laughed loudly at Ianto's uptight remark, and half chocked on his own coffee.
"Speaking about travelling…" He trailed off. "Looks like the Doctor might need my help sometime next week."
Ianto simply glared at him. "Next week. You have a meeting with UNIT representatives on Cheam. Interplanetary transplant rings any bell?"
Jack put his now empty mug aside and clapped his hands together in front of him, giving his husband a pleading look.
"Man the fort for me?"
Ianto shook his head and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
"As I always do. And as for you, just know that usual warnings apply," Ianto clarified with a subtle glare. His husband made him a military salute, his face the clear picture of fidelity. "And tell him that if he takes you away for more than five months like the last time, I'll drag him into a threesome."
Jack held the scowling Welshman tighter in his arms, laughing.
"I love you. And you said that same thing the last time too, but we never followed through." He pointed out light-heartedly.
Ianto raised his eyebrow in challenge. "Oh, yeah, but this last regeneration is quite good looking."
"What have I done to you." Jack said dramatically, faking exasperation.
"Ate too much 51st century guy. Something must have passed through."
"You're evil." He countered. "You fooled around with my younger self and all the while I was stuck here with Toshio preening himself! Of all the kids, you left me alone with him! You know how much he likes complaining when he doesn't get it his way."
As if on cue the alarms beeped and the cog door opened to let inside a scowling Asian looking men in his thirties. He let the bags with the take-away on the first available surface and stormed to the couple of husbands.
"So, you're back to base." Toshio said matter-of-factly, resting his hands on his hips in a way that eerily remembered them of Owen. "And I'm the only one who didn't see a single bit of 21st century."
Jack sighed. "If your identity was discovered it would have been quite difficult to explain."
"I don't look like my great-great-grandfather or great-great-grandmother or whatever they were in that century. Steven is the exact copy of Ianto and Gwyneth is the exact copy of Gwen! I've seen her photos!"
"Yes, but Gwen was alive and I was in front of them." Ianto tried to mend in without much success. "Your ancestors are still officially dead for another couple of years.".
"But-"
"Officer Harper." Jack stated in his most professional tone. "Stop complaining and bring the food in the conference room. That's an order."
Toshio scowled, but followed the orders nonetheless.
"Scary." Ianto commented with mirth when the Asian man had disappeared inside the conference room.
"Stop it." Jack warned him with a smile and a slap on the butt. "Let's go have lunch. Then we can ground Alice and Steven for dying, betting and calling me mum, and we can go back hoping that the next rift activity will give us only a couple of weevils to escort back to their new planet and not another alien invasion. We had two last month, and the fact that one was supposed to be a way of greeting doesn't mean we still didn't have to put up a fight."
Ianto considered Jack's words as he put down his own mug, shrugged and followed him upstairs.
"Just another day at Torchwood Three in the 26th century." He said with a sigh.
And there was no other place he'd rather be.
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THE END – ECLIPSE ON THE LOST LOVERS
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Thanks to all the reviewers and who favourited and followed this story!
A/N: The sequel will be Tainted Souls. Even thought it will be strictly in the Torchwood-verse, some characters of the main series will be included, so you I'll probably post it as Torchwood/Dr Who crossover. I have some KKM fics to update before that, but it won't take too much to be online, because I'm almost completely satisfied with all the chapters. I hope you enjoyed the story and that you will keep following it through the sequels!