6
"I know Rhia, I'm just sayin …."
Jack stopped walking and stood outside the room, listening as Ianto huffed at someone and then stepped around the frame to look into the little office.
"Rhia! I am not trying to buy your affection, please." Ianto begged down his phone, "If the boy needs the money for the trip I would like to pay."
Ianto's shoulders sagged in defeat, "OK. I know. Of course Johnny is a good man. OK. I love you too. Goodbye then."
Ianto ended the call and then leaned against the little sink as he cursed a blue storm into the cool air.
"Nice" Jack said, making him jump with a little squeak for added value.
"Jesus Jack!"
"Everything OK?" Jack asked as he leaned back against the doorframe, watching Ianto shoot his cuffs to hide his irritation.
"Just Rhia, my … my sister." Ianto stammered, then he shook himself like he sometimes did like a mental reset.
"Was wondering if there was coffee before you went home, it's quite late ya know" Jack pointed out and Ianto nodded. "Just us."
"That's why she rang, thinking I'd be at home already" Ianto walked down to the hub with him and soon they were sitting on the sofa sipping their coffee.
"Tell me" Jack asked softly.
"Not tonight." Ianto said flatly.
"Come on, just one. Any one, even one you told me already." Jack begged and Ianto rolled his eyes as he let his head fall back.
"In a previous life, I had a daughter. And my gorgeous Sammy, she was Sammy's, the little girl. We met through a mutual friend and Sammy had this little newborn babe and it was just screaming on the floor, everyone stepping over it and this voice yells, 'is anyone picking up my bloody baby' so I did. Little blue eyes, dark wisps of hair and a pout to rival Marylyn Monroe."
Jack sat back with interest as this was a life he had ever been told, a new story from the depths of Ianto's imagination.
"Sammy was a breath of fresh air and we knew within days really, we were in love. Of course Sammy's family hated me. My sullen ways, my Goth style dress sense and my uncanny ability to silence the baby with a tap of my finger to her chest." Ianto smiled softly as he seemed to think of the next part of his story, "Anyway. She was about …six? Seven? A real little spitfire and my queen. Sammy and I had been fighting. Nothing bad, just the usual. Garbage. Redecorating. Sammy's family hating me… you know The usual."
Jack snorted softly and then waited, knowing Ianto would start again if he waited.
"Then I was called away for work. I was gone three days and came home late at night, cold hungry and fed up. I just wanted Sammy and a peek at our princess in her bed, ya know?"
"I remember the house was so dark. Still and ... it seems so big all of a sudden. As I stood there, I knew. I just knew." Ianto snorted sadly and Jack watched as he grimaced, "There had been an accident. A hit and run. Sammy was gone."
"Jesus."
"The family had been in and stripped the place, everything was gone, even my stuff." Ianto was whispering now, "My little princess…gone too."
"I looked for her, for years and when I finally found her she was a sullen teenager who hated me. Believed the lies the family had told her and she believed I had left because Sammy had died. That I couldn't wait to be shot of her. I begged her, I showed her the letters I wrote, the cards I sent to Sammy's parents, all returned unopened. Still, I was wrong. All these years and my little girl sneered at me as she called me a godamned freak."
Jack flinched at the word and turned to say something, but saw a lone tear rolling down Ianto's cheek.
"She barely knew me, didn't care." Ianto wiped viciously at the tear as if it offended him, "I could have skinned myself alive at her feet and she would still say I never did anything for her. Her own kids not allowed to know who I am … telling them I'm her brother, not her father least they know …. Sorry. I'm saying too much here, this isn't a story to tell. I better go."
Jack thought of Alice, Stephen and his own desperate hunt for his little girl and then looked at Ianto with horror.
How did he know?
Was this a test?
Using his own past in a story to tell him that he knew about her?
Jack exploded from the sofa, slamming down the half empty cup. "I think you should go now."
"Sir?" Ianto asked with open confusion.
"I said, go. And I don't ever want to hear that one again!" Jack snarled, "If you really didn't want to tell me one you should have just said goodnight instead of this fucking game!"
"Fine!" Ianto rose and raced for the door, pulling his jacket for the stand, then he turned to face Jack.
"Maybe I shouldn't tell you anymore" he said sadly, "Maybe you shouldn't ask anymore. Not if you don't like some of them."
"Maybe you are right" Jack roared, "Maybe you should stop talking such shit to me! Or maybe I should just take your fucking head off!"
Ianto fled, up into the night and Jack was left feeling strangely defeated.
How the hell did he know about Alice?
And why had Ianto reared back as if struck before slipping away.