ACT OF KINDNESS: The previous instalment was supposed to be the last, but I have been asked to continue. So here goes. Set just after 'Meat' season 2. This IS the FINAL CHAPTER. Some Fluff.
Thanks to those who have read and continue to encourage for that is the greatest gift of all.
'Between the conception and the creation between the emotion and the response falls the shadow.' (TS ELLIOT)
'April Is The Happiest Month'
Ianto picked up a tray and stood patiently in the cue in his favourite café. It wasn't a day off, he'd just decided to take one, regardless. He wasn't in the mood to see Jack after the public humiliation of Jack practically declaring his love for Gwen in front of the team. Ianto was left reeling. Yesterday evening he had hid himself from Owen and Tosh in the archives, his face burning with shame after Gwen had run out of the Hub to join her fiancé. Ianto had then snuk out of the Hub and ran home to the flat he shared with Jack only just managing to keep his tears at bay until he was in the front door and it was slammed shut behind him. Later last night Jack had come home looking for him, ready to apologise, pleading for forgiveness at the his own stupidity. A bitter row had ensued leading to complaints from the neighbours and Ianto fleeing their home at 3am to get away. Jack fucking Heartless had done it again and Ianto just hurt so much again. All because of Gwen bloody Cooper wanting her own way. Why did she believe that she was the only one who was above the rules? Jack just caved, like he always did when she wanted something. The trouble was Ianto didn't hate her for it, he hated Jack. He gazed into the space in front of him lost in his anger.
"…….Mr Ianto Jones?"
Ianto was jolted out of his reverie by a touch on his arm and a soft Russian accent.
"It is Mr Ianto Jones, isn't it?"
Ianto looked up into the most amazingly green eyes and shy smile; a man, a good three inches taller than himself and holding out a long slender hand in greeting. Ianto cautiously grasped it.
"You seem to have the better of me. Mr?" He replied rather awkwardly. He realised a moment too late that he was blushing.
"I am professor Ivanovitch Rodchenko of the University of Moscow, Professor of Archaeology and ancient history. I would like to buy you a cup of tea, if that's alright?"
Ianto just gaped at him still holding the beautiful hand he nodded in agreement.
"Earl G….."
"Earl Grey, black with a teaspoon of New Zealand manuka honey." Ivanovitch finished for him with a flourish.
Ianto's eyes narrowed with immediate distrust and he with drew his hand. "How the hell do you know that?" Only Jack knew that.
"Lets say you and I have a mutual friend. Find us a table and I will join you presently."
Ianto hesitated for a moment but his curiosity got the better of him. He nodded and shoving his hands into the pockets of his battered jeans.
"All right." He went off.
Ivan joined him a moment later with a tray and two drinks. He took the seat opposite Ianto, the café window behind him giving view to a blustery spring day. Ianto took his tea and stirred it feeling very uncomfortable under the stranger's intense gaze.
"Well Professor?"
Ivanovitch settled himself into his chair and took a sip of his hot chocolate.
"You are different to how I imagined. He said you'd be wearing a suit for a start!"
Ianto was about to drink some his tea, but he lowered the cup a little and glared.
"Jack sent you?" Anger welled up inside him and he lurched up to his feet at the same time as slamming the cup down onto the table spilling the contents. Ivanovitch quickly reached out and grasped his arm, vice like. But Ianto caught sight of a desperate look in the man's clear eyes.
"Please Ianto, wait. It is not what you think. Please I have come a long way and I only get one shot at this, please. It is important you hear me out."
The tone seemed genuine enough and Ianto finally relented and resumed his seat. Ivanovitch nodded his thanks, and then started to speak.
"Sometimes I am so afraid I feel like I am drowning in my own despair. I can't hang on. I want to walk away or just give up and die because I love him so much."
Ianto's face went white and his jaw dropped.
"You put those words into your diary at 11pm last night, am I correct?" Ivanovitch asked.
"How could you possibly know that?" Ianto was shaking with….well he wasn't sure what.
The Russian reached across and laid a hand out on the table top in front of him.
"I want you to listen to me Ianto. To trust me because I made a promise to a dear friend and his soul depends on it. Please."
Reluctantly Ianto nodded.
Ivanovitch leaned in a little to close the space between them.
"I have come from the year 4387. As I said I am an archaeologist, born here in New Wales, part of the Russian Consortium. We have been excavating the old Torchwood facilities and my friend has been over seeing the excavations. We found your diary, which documents this very conversation. We found the vaults and the morgue. No one had been down there for a thousand years. It was staggering. My friend, for him it was a revelation, an act of closure to the darkness he had lived through for so many years."
Ianto continued to gape, fascinated, disbelieving and terrified all at once.
"You found me?"
Ivanovitch nodded. "Your body was in the morgue, well what was left…remarkably well preserved really."
Ianto winced.
"Sorry. The point is, in this time, now, my friend was known as Jack Harkness. I've known him most of my life. He introduced me to my wife, babysat our children and….." A shadow passed over his face. "Yes well…they are gone now." He heaved in a deep steadying breath. "He gave me the strength I need to carry on, to find being able to live again."
Ianto almost smiled. "He has a habit of doing that.
Ivanovitch nodded and took a restorative sip of his almost cold drink.
"As I said. We found your diary. We read it. It was so hard and yet so helpful for him and he made me understand who my best friend really was. Your Jack. It healed him. Which is why I am here. This meeting of ours is documented, a fixed point in history that had to be made to happen. We both knew this….."
Ianto was struggling to keep up with this fantastical tale.
"So, what did you do?"
"There are things I need to explain to you first."
"Go on."
"Your Jack. I know him as Ianto Jack Jones. He was a friend of my Father's. They both looked after the Torchwood Archive Preservation Fund. Ianto had been waiting to excavate the Cardiff sight for centuries but had to wait for the radiation levels to drop down to a safe limit. He is the truest friend any one could have and for an immortal man he is quite the sanest person I have ever known. He often spoke of you, his 'Welsh Boy'. The one who saved him."
Ianto couldn't believe what he was hearing. Ivanovitch looked sad. "He said he was always lost with out you and when we found your diary it was like some one had given him his soul back. You should've have seen it. I wish you had. He loved you so much that when you died he took your name because he couldn't bare the thought of never hearing anyone speak it again. That's how much you meant to him. It is also why I am here."
Ianto was too stunned to reply as he wiped the water off his face from the tears he didn't notice let fall.
"We fixed the Rift manipulator so I could come and deliver this message. It's a one shot. This is the only time you mention such an encounter in your diary and my name is quite clearly stated."
Ivanovitch slid what looked like a thick parchment across the table to Ianto.
"It was murder trying to find some paper. We couldn't be sure you'd be able to read anything electronic from my time. Please read it. I don't know what it says but Ianto was insistent that I give it to you today, timelines and all that. It's why he couldn't come back himself."
Ianto stared at it then back at Ivanovitch, the implications of everything finally sinking in.
"How long do I have?"
"I can't tell, but your life will not be a long one." Ivanovitch looked at his watch. Ianto recognised it as his own, the one he was wearing now, proof?
Oh God, he's really telling me the truth.
"I must leave. My window for departure is about to open. I am honoured to know you." He stood and reached out his hand. Ianto shook it.
"Thank you."
"You accept the truth of things. You see the universe with open eyes Ianto Jones. He was right to love you as much as he did." He turned and walked away.
Cariad,
My beautiful Ianto. How so much I want to see you again, but it cannot be. You know the rules about time as well as any Time Lord would. I have missed you so much over the centuries and it is only now that the blackness of your absence has started to lift.
Your bloody diary, Jones. I left it with you in the morgue unread. I just couldn't look at it, not then. I've had to wait so long to hear your words, but it has been worth it because now I can see again.
I never told you how afraid I was. I always wanted to protect you and keep you safe from the madness. But it was you who kept me safe, made me see the world with better eyes and you always took away my pain.
Owen rightly pointed out that I could be such a twat sometimes. I know I hurt you so many times. But you never lost faith in me, never doubted your own love for this stupid idiot you chose to give your life to.
I would've given anything to grow old with you, but some things are never meant to be.
Don't ever lose faith Ianto Jones. Keep looking at the world in that wonderful way. Things will be good for us. I promise you.
I'm breaking the rules here I know. But right now I know how much you are ready to give up and I can't allow that to happen. I will give you a better life.
I still have the picture of us from Gwen's wedding. Yes she will marry Rhys and so you know….God knows I shouldn't tell you this….But you and I are her daughter's God Parents. I trust you to keep this close to your heart, but you need to know.
I love you Jones Ianto Jones, always have and always will.
Jack.
Ianto sucked in a steadying breath as he stepped through the roller door. He pulled off his coat and hung it up then went straight to the little kitchenette to make everyone's coffee. To his horror Jack was there, attempting to operate the new very expensive coffee machine. The moment he saw Ianto he jumped back from it, a guilty expression on his face. Ianto froze, taking in the look on Jack's face and decided he was going to have a little fun.
"You've broken it haven't you?"
Jack took another pace back but ended up against the fridge. He was already in enough trouble with the young Welshman as it was.
"Sorry. I've been awake all night. I was getting desperate." He waited for Ianto to yell at him, or pout, or SOMETHING. But Ianto's expression remained calm and unmoving. Jack was rather unnerved.
"About the day before yesterday…."
"It's forgotten."
Jack kept going. "I am so sorry…..I was just…just…"
"Being a twat, I know. You do it so well Jack." Ianto replied patiently.
"Yan?"
Ianto smiled faintly his ocean eyes bright. "You can be a royal pain in the arse, in every sense. God only knows some days I could kill you. It's ok about the other day. I know you were only trying to protect her. I love you, so it's ok."
Jack's jaw dropped. "You what?"
"I said I love you, so I forgive you. Just leave the coffee maker alone. Will you?"
Jack rapidly regained his composure and reached forward he pulled Ianto against him. He clasped his hands at the small of Ianto's back effectively holding him there.
"Did I hear you right?"
Ianto's smile widened, just a touch. "It takes me ages to fix that damn machine after you've be……"
"Ianto Jones, stop teasing me." Jack was looking very serious now.
Ianto slid his arms around Jack's waist. "You're the one who teases Jack. Biggest flirt in the sola……"
Jack leant in and kissed him tenderly, deeply and the two them just lost themselves in the contact. It felt like the best forever that Ianto could ever remember. They finally broke apart, lips still touching.
"Wow." Jack murmured. "You meant it didn't you?"
"Yes Jack. I meant it." Ianto pulled back to look at him in the eyes. Jack had such amazing clarity in his eyes. "I know our lives are……" He lost the words for a moment. "What ever happens Jack. I am here for you. You saved me in every way it is possible to save some one. Maybe one day I will do the same for you."
Jack just looked shocked, a flash of worry etching across his brow. "What happened Yan? Some thing has happened." He pulled Ianto into a bone-crunching embrace and buried his face into the younger man's soft hair. Ianto relaxed into it.
"That's nice. You should do that more often." He commented contentedly. "Nothing happened Jack. I just realised that my life is too short and yours is too long and we don't have a lot of time."
If it was at all possible Jack held on even tighter and Ianto held him in return.
It was Gwen who found them like this completely absorbed in one another. She turned away and crept out of the little space, a massive smile on her face. It was some time later before Ianto appeared at her desk with a cup of hot chocolate. She accepted it with a big smile.
"Ianto, sit with me?"
A little apprehensively he pulled up a chair and did as she asked. Gwen fussed with a few things on her desk, looking rather nervous, but finally she turned her big eyes in his direction and smiled a wonderful heartfelt smile. Ianto was a little taken aback; she had never looked at him like that before.
"I owe you an apology Ianto." She said quietly.
"I don't understand."
Her smile faltered then came back as she searched his eyes. "It doesn't matter, the why. Just accept it please."
He nodded. "Then thank you."
She touched his hand. "I am so lucky I have Rhys. I didn't really appreciate it until the other day. I love him Ianto and it's taken me some time to work all that out. You and Jack."
Ianto stiffened slightly.
"You and Jack. You're good for each other and I am happy for you, really happy for you both. I now I've been a bit of a cow. Please forgive me."
Ianto was a bit gob smacked but he felt there was nothing that he had to forgive her for all the same. "There's nothing to forgive, but I do if that helps."
Her smiled widened and she fluttered her dark lashes. "May I ask a favour?"
"Anything, if it's in my power."
"Would you help me with the wedding arrangements? I mean I know I am being a bit cheeky and everything, but you're the only friend I have with any taste…… and I'd really."
Ianto burst out laughing very loudly and Gwen followed suit, more out of relief than anything.
The laughter eventually settled down. "I'd be honoured. Thank you Gwen."
Gwen was shaking her head. "Don't thank me yet. Have you ever organised a wedding before?"
Ianto shook his head. "No, but I think we can have a lot fun with it, don't you?"
Gwen hugged him tightly and slowly Ianto hugged her back.
FIN
AN: Thanks, hope the final bit isn't too mushy but I wanted Gwen to figure out whom she should be with without being mean to her.
