"Yup," Sherry said as she stood up. The cat meowed in protest and ran off under a table somewhere. A screech could be heard overhead and Ianto looked up.
"It can't be," he said, peering intently.
"It is," Todd said. "Myfanwy's still here. We don't know how long her species lives, but obviously without natural predators it's a long lifespan."
"Amazing," Ianto said. He sat back and smiled. For some reason, finding that Myfanwy was still around was a comfort. It made him feel like he wasn't alone. He accepted the mug that Sherry gave him. "Thank you." He held the mug up and inhaled the aroma. Hopefully it tasted halfway decent. He was pleasantly surprised as he took a sip. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Okay, I'm beginning to feel a bit more human now."
A chuckle made him turn his head and he saw the medic approach. He fished out the access card and gave it to the other man. "Hi, and thanks."
"Anytime, mate." Gwri said. He sat on the floor next to the sofa. "I see you've found the coffee."
"Yes, thank you. I was afraid that no one drank it anymore," Ianto said. More and more he felt a little bit more normal as he saw that things hadn't really changed all that much from what he remembered. "If it didn't exist I would have had to kill myself from despair."
"Oh, don't say that," Julia exclaimed. "I just put you back together again."
"No worries, because there's still coffee," Ianto said.
"This place would grind to a stop without it," Gwri said with a grin. "We've never get anything done." Ianto smiled down at him.
"And you'd never stay conscious," Rob said with a smile. Gwri stuck his tongue out at the other man.
"What would you like to do now?" Julia asked and Ianto turned to look at her. "If you want, you are more than welcome to come home with any of us. Give you time to get used to life in the twenty second century." She could see from his eyes that he wouldn't take her up on the suggestion.
"No thank you," he said as he shook his head. "I wouldn't want to impose on any of you and I still have some unfinished business here." He turned and looked towards Jack's office.
"Still want to strangle him?" Gwri asked and Ianto looked down into the other man's smiling eyes.
"Yes, but what good would that do?" Ianto asked. "He'll just come back to annoy me." Gwri grinned at his comment. "No, as much as I would like to, I can't fault Jack. If it were reversed, I would do the same for him." He looked back up thoughtfully. "Might as well deal with it now." He stood up and Sherry took the mug from him. He left the group seated around the sofa and headed across an old and familiar path.
Jack had obviously been watching what had been going on, and he left his office and met Ianto half way. He looked apprehensive, not sure what Ianto had decided. Ianto stopped and looked at him. Jack looked mostly unchanged. He wore the same outfit that Ianto had always known him to wear. There was a bit more grey around his temples, but other than the lines of worry on his face he looked the same.
Jack watched him anxiously, not sure what the younger man was going to say to him. He started to open his mouth and stopped as Ianto raised his hand to stop him. He waited to see what Ianto would do.
Ianto felt all eyes upon him. It was obvious that the group behind him had heard their argument earlier. He didn't know how much they knew about him, but at the moment he didn't really care. He waited a moment, drawing out the suspense that obviously Jack was feeling. When he felt that had gone on long enough he took a few steps forward until he was directly in front of Jack. He stared into his eyes and saw the pain and regret in Jack's eyes. Reaching up, he cupped Jack's face with his hands and leaned in for a kiss.
Jack carefully wrapped his arms around Ianto and held him for the first time in over a century. When Ianto pulled back, he gently brushed away the tears that were rolling down Jack's cheeks. He heard a soft sigh behind him and couldn't hold back a chuckle. Obviously their audience approved.
"Are we okay?" Jack asked softly. He reveled in the feeling of Ianto in his arms again.
"Yeah, we're okay," Ianto said and rested his forehead against Jack. "I just needed some time."
"I'm sorry," Jack said. That was the only refrain which had been going through his head since Ianto had first walked away from him.
"This is not over, we still need to talk. But it's okay for now," Ianto said. Jack nodded and Ianto pulled away before turning back to the group. "You have a good team here."
"Always do," Jack said as he surveyed the group seated a short distance away from them. "Okay people, show's over. Get back to work." They started to break up and go back to what they were doing before Ianto had returned.
Ianto watched as they moved back to different places before he slanted a glance at Jack again. As the pterodactyl screeched overhead he looked up. "Good to see some things haven't changed."
"Want to say hello?" Jack asked. Ianto nodded. "Let me go get her treat for you." Jack walked back up to his office. Ianto took the time to survey the room around him. In some ways the configuration hadn't really changed, though a close look at the technology showed that there had been a lot of advances over the past one hundred and twenty five years since he had last seen it. He had a lot of unanswered questions and he planned to have a long chat with Jack about it so he could catch up. The sound of a shoe on the stairs behind him let him know that Jack was returning. A bar of chocolate appeared before him as Jack held it out in front of him.
"Coffee and chocolate. Good to know that some things haven't changed," Ianto said as he took the large bar from Jack. A chuckle met his comment and he moved forward to the other side of the water tower where there was enough room for Myfanwy to land on the floor. He unwrapped the bar as he passed Todd's station. The young man gave him a wink as he nodded to him. Jack remained where he was and just watched.
Once he was in the open area he whistled. All movement from the team stopped as they looked in his direction. The screech of Myfanwy's call sounded louder as she circled above him. He tilted his head back and watched her as she drifted on the air currents. She seemed to be moving in some sort of intricate pattern, clearly agitated. He waited patiently as she swooped downwards before soaring upwards again. It had been a while for her. After a few turns she landed on a girder and crooned softly. He waved the chocolate, knowing she'd be able to smell it. She squawked and canted her head to one side. He smiled and whistled softly again. She took off again, swooped around a couple of times before landing a short distance away from him.
"Hello there," Ianto said fondly. She looked absolutely the same to him, and he marveled that she had survived for so long. She waddled over to where he stood, looking as awkward as ever out of the air. He held out part of the chocolate bar and she crouched down so that she was below his hand. She tilted her head and opened her mouth as if she were a baby bird looking for food from a parent.
Ianto heard a soft exclamation behind him as Sherry murmured something about never having seen her do that before. Ianto lowered his hand and dropped the piece of chocolate into Myfanwy's mouth. She lifted up her head and swallowed it before repeating her action again. He stepped closer to her and stroked her beak as she crooned again to him. Bit by bit he fed her the large bar until it was gone. Once it was, she butted her head against his chest before moving off and leaping up onto a bar that would give her enough room to fly again. Once she took off he stood for a long moment, watching her.
"Wow," Sherry said softly from somewhere behind him. He turned and absently folded the empty wrapper in his hands. "I've never seen her act that way around anyone like that before."
"We go back a ways," Ianto said quietly. He turned to her and smiled. "There's always a surprise or two lurking around here." She nodded and took the paper from him. He wandered around the room, getting familiar again with everything. He had an odd sensation of two images of the Hub overlapping one another. The one he remember as if he had only seen it the day before and the one he was standing in now. While it had certainly changed, even in the time he had worked there (necessary changes due to structural collapses after Abbadon and that issue when the government tried to blow the Hub up,) there were some things that had remained the same since it was first built. The same dirty walls from the old subway system were still there, and he saw that they still had a hot house of some kind in the level above him. He walked around the perimeter of the room, taking it all in.
He stopped abruptly when he saw the painting of the Welsh dragon still on the wall. Tosh had painted that. He remembered the night when they were doing rift duty and she had pulled out her paints and started painting. He smiled, happy to see that it had survived the years. He felt a hand on his shoulder and leaned back against Jack. "I'm glad you kept that." Jack rested his chin on Ianto's shoulder.
"It's so Welsh, how could I not?" Jack said softly, his voice pitched so that only Ianto heard his comment.
"A symbol of Wales painted by a Japanese woman," Ianto said, his smile expanding as he chuckled. "Definitely a keeper." He felt Jack nod.
