Ianto drove him to the airport the next day. They were silent, despite everything that they might want to say to each other. As they were approached by someone who drew Jack away to whisper something in his ear, Ianto heard Jack reply, "Give me a minute." He walked back over to Ianto, who held out his arms. Jack embraced him like he would never see him again. For all Ianto knew, he might not.

"Jack," he said suddenly. "Jack, I love you."

"Don't!" Jack begged. "Please, Ianto, you sound like you're saying goodbye."

"Well, we've never said it before," Ianto said, frustrated. "Jack, we've been together for a year and a month, and neither of us had said it once. Please, just…"

"Mr. Harkness, we have to go," the person who had spoken to Jack said apologetically.

"Just a minute."

"Now, Mr. Harkness."

Jack cast Ianto a desperate look, full of contrition and sorrow. "I have to go," he whispered. "Goodbye."

Ianto's tears wouldn't fall from his eyes as he watched Jack go. He couldn't even say it once, he thought bitterly. Not even once.

The drive back was even more difficult than the one than there. Ianto just couldn't think of the house as home anymore. Not without Jack there.

There was no word from Jack for two whole weeks. Ianto realized that he didn't quite know what to do with himself without Jack anymore, but soon fell back into the routine of waking up, opening up the coffeeshop, working all day, and then falling asleep. Although that, too, was difficult. He had gotten accustomed to not sleeping alone. Then, two weeks later, at nearly midnight, his phone rang. It wasn't a number he recognized.

"Hello?"

"Ianto!"

"Jack?!" Ianto tightened his grip on the phone, sitting down in one of the chairs around the kitchen table heavily. "What–"

"Oh my God, Ianto!"

"Jack, what's going on?"

Jack was crying. Ianto could hear it over the speaker, crackling through the phone line, sounding almost like static. "Oh, God, I miss you."

"Jack, talk to me," Ianto said firmly, trying desperately to hold himself together.

"I finally convinced them to let me call you, let you know that I was okay," Jack sobbed.

"Are you?" Ianto asked, unconvinced.

"I'm fine, now. It's been a long two weeks–don't ask me what I'm doing, please."

"I won't. Are you saving the world, though?"

Jack let out a small laugh through his tears. "Sort of, yeah."

"It's funny," Ianto told him. "I used to imagine that I'd fall in love with someone who saved the world, a superhero or some such nonsense, and that they'd teach me how to help them and we would fight evil together." He spoke quickly. He wanted to tell Jack this, but didn't know how long they would have. "But I'd always imagine, you know, that we'd be fighting crime, or aliens, or some such shit, and that we'd be doing it together. Nothing like this."

"Nothing like this," Jack agreed. "Ianto, I'm going to have to go soon."

Ianto's heart sank. "Okay."

"But I'll try and see if I can get them to let me call you every week, okay?"

"And how many weeks until you're home?"

"I don't know. I'm sorry." He sniffed loudly. "Goodbye."

"Wait!" But Jack had hung up. Ianto set the phone down on the counter, crying softly, and went to bed.

Exactly one week later, the phone rang again. Ianto recognized it as the same number as before, though when he had tried to look the number up, he hadn't found anything about it anywhere. "Jack?"

"Hey, Ianto."

"You sound so tired," Ianto murmured, concerned. "Are you getting enough sleep?"

"No," admitted Jack. "But I'm okay. Just hearing your voice makes me okay."

Ianto almost smiled. "Well, I'm here."

"How are you?" Jack asked.

"I'm doing alright," Ianto replied. "I miss you. But I don't think that the coffeeshop has ever had so many customers. Don't you even worry about me. What about you?"

"I think we're getting closer to me being able to come home, but nobody knows for sure." There was a slight pause. "Talk to me," Jack practically begged. "Ianto, it's so lonely here, please just talk to me."

"Okay, okay, shh," Ianto soothed, worried. "I'm here. Let's see. I told Rhi and Johnny and the kids that you were away for work and we weren't sure how long it was going to take, so they aren't worried. Obviously, I haven't told them what sort of work, and they haven't asked, so everything's fine." He thought for a second, hearing Jack's anxious breathing on the other end of the line. "There've been increasingly stupid customers who try to order things from the shop. I mean, the menu's posted about twenty places around the store, you think they could say something that was at least written on the menu," he babbled. Jack laughed softly. Encouraged, Ianto went on, sharing customer stories that were certainly exaggerated if not entirely made up.

"Thank you," Jack said sincerely, after several minutes. "I have to go."

"Call me again next week, if you can."

"I'll try my hardest." Jack hung up.

But Jack didn't call the next week, or the week after that. Ianto started to get extremely worried. He needed to know that Jack was safe, but there was absolutely nobody for Ianto to look for to ask about him. He tried calling the number that Jack had phoned from himself, but it immediately beeped and a smooth, machine generated voice said, "This number is not in service. For more options, press–"

"Fuck," Ianto muttered. Another week went by, still no word from Jack. Every time the phone rang, Ianto would grab it and look desperately at the number, but it was always either a friend, Rhiannon, or a sales call. Eventually, he stopped answering the phone altogether and just went to work and came home, driving himself mad with worry and fear. He knew that Rhi was getting worried about him, as her calls were getting more and more frequent, trying to get him to talk to her. But Ianto never answered. He began to think about what would happen if Jack never came home. Would Ianto ever be able to move on? Would he ever learn what Jack had been doing all this time? It seemed as if the answer to both questions would be no.


I'm so sorry about the wait! I got really distracted, was out of town all weekend, was sick, and had late rehearsals for the past two days. But I am back now, and here is the next installment! I promise that it won't be another two weeks before the next one. 3 Send me a review telling me what you thought, and I'll love you forever. Many thanks and much love! ~Clare