A/N: I'm so sorry about the delay. I had written this some time ago, but I had to go back and edit some stuff, but then I didn't have as much free time to do it as I would've liked to. Really sorry, guys. Anyway, here is the next chapter. There's a bit of a cliffhanger at the end. I'll try and post the next chapter next week or something. *crossing fingers* Anyway, enjoy!


Ianto waved Sarah goodbye from the flat's entrance, as she went away in her car.

He ascended the stairs to his flat. Opening the door and taking his shoes off as he entered, he saw a shadow standing in his living room. He sighed.

"I thought you would've learnt some manners by now. One important rule: do not break into other people's homes; they'll probably get mad."

Jack shrugged. "It was cold outside and I got tired of waiting."

Ianto rolled his eyes and took his coat off, hanging it by the door.

"You could've left. That would've saved us all this trouble and I would've been feeling so much better now that I wouldn't have to put up with you," he said as he sat down on the couch.

Jack pouted at him. "That didn't come from your heart."

"No, Jack. It came from my mouth. Didn't you hear what I just said?"

He shrugged as he sat down beside Ianto.

"You should let your heart speak every once in a while." He casted a flirtatious glance at the man sitting by his side. "I would love to know what it thinks about me."

"Oh, would you like me to tune in right now? Let's see... Hmm. Yeah. All I'm getting is that you are an annoying bastard. Good enough for you?"

Jack smiled. "Your sarcasm does wonders to me, Mr. Jones."

"What do you want, Jack?"

Jack's smile dropped upon sensing Ianto's seriousness.

"A girl... uh..."

The Welshman raised his eyebrows.

"I don't think I can help you with that. Sorry," he answered as he got up from the couch.

"What was her name? Hmm... Oh! Sarah Goodman, if I'm not mistaken."

Ianto stopped dead in his tracks.

"Now, that rings some bells, doesn't it, Mr. Jones?"

Ianto gulped before turning around, his face a pure mask of calm.

"What do you want?"

"I want to know why she was trying to get into our servers."

He stood up and walked around Ianto, as a predator would do with his prey. "You were having dinner with her not long ago, if I'm correct, so you probably know what she wanted."

The Welshman shrugged. "I know she didn't get anything."

"I know that too, Mr. Jones. I only hire the best. Toshiko knows what she does and she keeps us from getting people infiltrating our databases and getting all the information they want to use it against us in some way later."

"Leave Sarah out of this. She doesn't know a thing."

"Doesn't she? I don't know... They do say it's better to be safe than sorry. See, I don't want to risk her spreading the word. Did you tell her about us?"

Ianto chuckled darkly. "And what would I tell her? That you're an organisation pretty much like the one I used to work for that was supposed to protect people's lives and yet it destroys so many? That because of you my girlfriend died?" He laughed humourlessly. "Or maybe that, because of you, her brother now knows where I am and where work and threatened me?"

Jack suddenly froze upon hearing the last bit of information. "Wow, wow, wait a second. What did you just say?"

"He found me, okay?"

"What? How?"

"I don't know. How am I supposed to? Besides, that's what Sarah was trying to figure out. Apparently he's been calling you guys at Torchwood Three. That's why she was messing in your business."

"Thankfully, Tosh knows better than to let someone just search through our stuff. God knows what she would do with the information she might have stumbled upon."

"She wouldn't use it against you," Ianto assured him.

Jack sighed.

"Well, I don't take all the calls and it's not very often we get a civilian to call our home base. I'll ask my team. I'd also like to keep an eye on you. I don't know what this guy wants from you, but you seem to be a nice person, therefore I'm gonna do my best to keep you safe. Even if that means I'll have to follow you around 24/7, either you like it or not."

"Now that would be one of your dreams coming true, huh? I do have a say in the matter and having someone like you follow every step I take is not on my list of acceptable things, sorry."

Jack grinned. "Whatever you say, I'd still follow you if I deemed necessary. But I wouldn't mind at all, Jones. By the way, my tech expert wanted to meet you."

Ianto frowned at the sudden change of direction in their conversation.

"What?"

"My tech expert. Toshiko."

"You're going to start introducing me to your team? Jack, I don't want to make friends within Torchwood again. I just want all of you out of my life as quickly as possible. And I would prefer to keep my memory intact, so the less I know about you lot, the better. I appreciate you not having me killed when you found me, but that's it. We're not going to be friends nor am I going to be part of your team. I'm done with Torchwood in every way possible."

Jack just looked at him for a moment before he spoke.

"You know, I'm not even asking you this for my benefit. I think I pretty much get that you don't want me in your life with you always pushing me away and talking me like this every time I try to get closer to you, but Tosh is a completely different person and I personally think it's the least you could do after what she's done for you."

He walked in front of Ianto so he could see he was being serious about it, no more joking around.

"As far as the friendship thing, would you rather have me meet you in some coffee shop and then become friends with you?"

Ianto scoffed. "That's a better way than stalking me, threatening me and then, after realising I'm really not all that dangerous, trying to worm your way in by flirting with me."

Jack tilted his head and narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, that would have been way more pleasant but, as you know now, the first time I heard your name, it came associated with the words "Cybermen material", "dangerous" and "must be killed", so sue me if my approach wasn't all warm and friendly. But I'm trying really hard to make things right, okay? And that's not something I do often and you're not helping either. We're going to help you with your dead girlfriend's brother."

Ianto sighed and looked down as Jack continued.

"Meanwhile, you could at least give us the benefit of the doubt. We're not bad people; we're just doing our jobs. And we're nothing like your old Torchwood. If after all this is over, you don't want anything more to do with us, then fine, we'll leave you alone and never bother you again."

Silence took over the living room as Jack waited for Ianto's reaction and the latter thought about what Jack had just said.

After a moment he looked up and nodded.

"Okay. You were right about a few things."

Jack raised his eyebrows as he waited patiently for something more solid and clear than that.

Ianto sighed. "I agree to meet your friend Tosh."

The Captain grinned and his whole face lit up with excitement.

"I could totally kiss you right now."

Ianto raised his hand in front of him to prevent Jack from coming any closer, a look of disgust in his face.

"My God! As if I'd let you do such thing! And you'd totally get punched for it, mind you."

"Just keep in mind that kisses are meant to be stolen and I'm gonna have my chance with you," he said, winking at Ianto and making him roll his eyes in response.

"So when and where will I meet this lovely friend of yours?"

"Well, you know that working for Torchwood makes it kind of hard to plan something into the future, but if things are calm enough, maybe I could pick you up and introduce you to my team, show you our base..."

Ianto held up a hand, interrupting him.

"Stop right there. I agreed to meet her, not the whole family just yet."

"Okay. I'll pick you up and we'll have lunch or dinner together."

Ianto went back to the couch.

"You should probably call first, if you're not sure it'll be lunch or dinner. It's not like I can just leave anytime I want."

Jack smirked.

"Oh, I see. You didn't call me because you wanted me to take the first step, is that it?"

Ianto sighed and closed his eyes, leaning back on the couch.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer. I'm just too tired to bother right now."

Jack looked at the tired young man and decided to help release the tension he could sense emanating from his body.

Upon feeling Jack's hands massaging his shoulders, Ianto quickly opened his eyes and moved away from the couch.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked as he threw him an accusatory glance.

He took a step back and put his hands up.

"Hey, I was just trying to help you relax. I wasn't gonna try anything else, I promise."

"You promise..." He chuckled. "And you expect me to just trust you after everything that's happened since you entered my life?"

"You say that like it was that bad of a thing. It could've been much worse, if you remember the reason I met you in the first place."

Ianto sighed and sat down on the couch again.

"I know. I'm sorry." He leant against the back of the couch and closed his eyes. "No funny stuff there."

Even with his eyes closed he could tell Jack had an enormous grin on his face.

"Now, isn't that just mean?"

He couldn't help but chuckle at that.


Ianto woke up the next morning at 6am, hearing his alarm clock ringing faintly. Taking a look around, he found himself wrapped in a blanket while lying on his couch.

He must have been really tired because he didn't remember Jack leaving nor did he remember getting a blanket and deciding to sleep on the couch that night.

Yeah, that must have been Jack's doing.

Getting up, he decided to get on with his usual routine before going to the University, all the while thinking about what Roger could do to him once they met again.

He shivered as he set his foot on the University entrance, knowing now that Roger could be by the window at his place, planning the next move against Ianto in his plan of revenge.

Ianto knew he shouldn't underestimate him. And the fact that he didn't, just made Roger look all that more dangerous to him. He knew he was capable of something really awful if he wanted to and since he actually got the MI5 and even Torchwood to believe Ianto was someone they needed to get rid of, just made that even scarier for Ianto.

Still, Ianto wouldn't go down without a fight. He was innocent and that was all he needed right now to keep him sane and focused on more important things. Roger said he'd let him know in advance when the time would come and they would meet again for the last time, in his words.

It was only later that day that he remembered he'd promised Jack he would meet Toshiko, and that was when his mobile rang.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Jones, it is so nice to hear your voice."

Ianto rolled his eyes.

"Jack, I need to go back to work if I still want to pay for my studies and home, so if you could please be quick."

"My... That sounded kinda dirty, you know? Anyway, me, you and Tosh are gonna have dinner tonight. We'll pick you up after 9. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, sure," he answered almost automatically.

There was a silence on the other end and then Jack spoke.

"You're not gonna bail on me, are you?"

"I'm a man of my word, don't worry."

"Good. We'll see you later."

"Sure. Bye."


"Tosh?"

She looked up from her computer.

"Yes? Is it time already?"

Jack nodded as he picked his coat from the hanger.

"Yeah. We should probably get going."

"And where are you going, again?" Gwen asked, as she crossed her arms and watched them prepare to leave.

"I'm going to introduce someone I know to Tosh over dinner," Jack answered with a smile on his face.

"Yes, but where? I mean, what if we need to pick you up if we need help with a case?"

Owen watched from the doorway to the autopsy room, his eyebrows rose, waiting for another argument to start between Jack and Gwen.

"You and Owen are very capable of taking care of things on your own. Besides, we'll take a car with us. If you need something really important, just call us and tell us where to meet you."

That seemed to silence Gwen's protests. Toshiko waved them goodbye and Jack just nodded.

Just as he was about to leave through the cog door, Gwen ran to him, making Owen roll his eyes and get back to his work.

"Jack! Will you be back afterwards?"

Jack sighed. He was getting tired of this, but he really didn't want to argue with Gwen about this right now.

"I don't know, but I don't want the two of you to wait until I get back. Just make sure to direct any alert to my mobile phone before any of you leave."

"But I..."

"Good night, Gwen. I don't want to see you here when I get back."

When he got outside, Toshiko was already waiting for him inside the car.

"Sorry. I just couldn't stand there and hear yet another argument. That's like the only thing you do now."

Jack chuckled.

"Sometimes I feel tempted to let her win the argument just so I can leave."

That earned him a good laugh from Toshiko.

"I just don't understand what happened that set this whole thing in motion. You argued, yes, but you always managed a way to show her that, whatever happened, in the end you would always be the leader and the one who always got the final word. And she just had to accept it."

Jack sighed as he started the car.

"I think I got tired of fighting." He eyed her and chuckled before turning his attention back to the road in front of him. "And you know plain well what made all this happen to begin with."

Toshiko looked at her hand currently sitting in her lap.

"We don't have to talk about it..."

"I made a mistake. I did it even though I already knew what the consequences would be. The blame is on me," he replied honestly.

"You know what they say: it takes two to tango."

"Not in this case. Not when I was the only one thinking clearly at the time and still managed to mess it all up. I knew I'd break her. She didn't deserve to get into such a thing," he said as he gripped the steering wheel.

Tosh hesitated for a moment, but then decided to go for it, saying it in a quiet voice.

"Neither did Rhys. He loves her so much and yet..."

Toshiko could see the tension in Jack's body language. She could see his tightened jaw and the way he tried so hard to hide the shame for what he'd done to this wonderful man that wanted nothing more than a girlfriend with a normal job.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"No, no. There's nothing to be sorry about. I like having someone like you around me. In fact, I think I really need someone like you nearby."

He smiled at her, as the tension in his body started to dissipate.


They got to the University entrance a little earlier than 9 pm. They got out of the car and wrapped themselves in their coats as they leant against the side of the car, waiting for Ianto.

"Now we wait," Jack said as he crossed his arms.

Toshiko smiled.

"What?"

"Nothing," she answered, still smiling.

He turned to her with a frown.

"What's with the smile?"

She chuckled. "You kinda like him."

Jack's eyebrows rose.

"Who? Him?" he nodded with his head in the direction of the University's gate.

"Yes, him! You should see your smile when you told me he'd agreed to meet me."

Jack frowned. "That's nonsense. He's just another human being." He could see she wasn't buying this. "Really. I just... Empathize. I can't be 100% sure, you know that, but so far he seems like an ordinary guy that messed with the wrong man, back in London."

She shrugged. "If that's what you believe to be the true reason you seem to empathize with him..."

"Of course I do!" Jack answered back, indignantly.

"I'm just glad that you found someone nice who may turn out to be a good friend later. He seems to take your mind out of Gwen and all that stuff."

And again he was tense with a faraway expression on his face, in his mind cursing again for his mistakes. Ones he couldn't go back and change.

"Hey," a voice interrupted his thoughts.

They both turned to look at Ianto, who was approaching them, observing Jack's face carefully.

"Well, hello, young man. Allow me to introduce you Ms. Toshiko Sato. Tosh, this is Ianto Jones."

"Nice to meet you," Ianto said as he shook her hand.

She smiled. "Likewise. It's nice to finally meet the often mentioned Mr. Jones."

Jack sent her a deadly glare while Ianto looked at him with a frown on his face.

"We should get going," Jack said as he turned to get into the car again.

Ianto tugged on his sleeve and Toshiko, seeing this, got into the back of the car, deciding to give them a moment alone.

"Yes?"

Ianto looked somewhat nervous.

"Are... Are you okay?"

Jack frowned.

"Why do you ask?"

Ianto shrugged.

"You had this look on your face. I could sense there was something wrong."

Jack smiled, but Ianto could see it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"I'm gonna be fine. Everyone makes mistakes and I've had my share of those. Sometimes they catch up with me."

Ianto nodded in acknowledgement. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Just keep doing what you've been doing so far. It's been helpful and you didn't even know it."

He quickly got into the car, avoiding any more questions from Ianto.

Once they were all set, Jack drove them to the restaurant.

While Toshiko and Ianto were busy with small talk, talking about likes and dislikes, Jack was silent the whole trip.

Every once in a while Ianto would cast a look at him and wonder what happened to Jack that made him seem like a whole new person.

He also wondered what he meant with what he'd said before getting into the car.

For a moment they were all silent and Tosh observed quietly from her spot in the back how Jack wouldn't tear his eyes from the road while Ianto occasionally looked at him, probably trying to decipher the mystery.

"We're here," Jack finally said as they got to the restaurant.

They asked for a more private table, away from others. Torchwood business was confidential after all, even if this was more of a social than a professional meeting.

"So you're in charge of the computer and other technical stuff?" Ianto asked Tosh as they waited for their orders.

"Yes. I'm the geek in the team."

"There's nothing wrong with that. I'm a bit of a geek too, so I can't really blame you."

They all chuckled.

"Tell me you don't have any problem with a dashing hero like me," Jack chimed in.

Ianto chuckled, happy that the Jack he met was still there. And at the same time wondering why the hell he'd be happy to get the cocky bastard personality back.

"I do, if they're cocky. That totally ruins it for me."

Toshiko laughed at Jack's expression.

"Well, he is dashing. You have to give him that."

Ianto pretended to be deep in thought.

"Yeah. I'll let you win this one, Captain Harkness."

Jack grinned at Ianto.

As their meals arrived and they started eating, they fell into an easy flowing conversation.

They talked a little more about their families, music tastes and favourite books, pets they had had in their childhood and some of the most impressive jobs they had to do, either inside or outside of Torchwood.

Ianto laughed when Tosh mentioned a time Owen – which Ianto came to know as the doctor in this team – had to take care of Myfanwy (a pterodactyl – or pteradon? He would think about it later) and things didn't go too well for him.

"Oh, please! He was stinking for days! He even asked me to run a search on my computers for some alien soap that would take that bad smell away."

"That's something I would've loved to see."

"Yeah, Owen has a strong personality and..." Tosh stopped, musing.

"He acts like a complete bastard that doesn't know when to shut up sometimes," Jack concluded.

"Yeah. That's why we find these situations overly amusing. You should meet him someday."

Ianto suddenly looked at the glass in his right hand.

Tosh frowned and looked at Jack only to see him observing Ianto, before he turned to her, closed his eyes briefly and shook his head slightly. Tosh nodded; afraid she'd done something terribly wrong after everything seemed to be going so well.

She got up, which made both man look up at her. She smiled.

"I'm going to pay the bill, using Jack's money, of course." Jack smiled. "And then I'm going to the ladies room, before we leave."

As soon as she was out of sight, Jack spoke.

"I didn't tell her anything, I promise. We had an agreement and you can believe me when I say I didn't break it."

Ianto sighed, twirling the glass of wine in his hands.

"I know. But I'm feeling pressured. There are so many things in my head now that I don't even know what I should think about first. But I can assure you that meeting the rest of Torchwood Three is not at the top of my priority list."

That gave Jack some hope.

"But it is in your list, right?"

Ianto looked at him with a hopeless expression. "Jack..."

The captain reached out and put his hand on the Welshman's wrist.

"I know. The pressure. Sorry. I guess I just..."

He stopped to think about what he was going to say and decided to keep it to himself. He didn't know what was about this Ianto Jones that made him act like this.

"Jack?"

He looked at Ianto, who had a questioning gaze upon him.

"Yes?"

"What were you saying? You sort of stopped mid-sentence."

Jack removed his hand from Ianto's wrist and cleared his throat.

"Oh, nothing."

Ianto was about to say something else when Tosh appeared and Jack couldn't have been happier she interrupted that conversation before it went somewhere he really didn't want to go.

"Are you ready to go, boys?"


After taking Toshiko home, Jack drove back to Ianto's flat.

The trip was made in silence, with both men lost in their thoughts.

Once they reached their destination, both of them left the car and walked towards Ianto's flat.

Reaching the door, Ianto unlocked it and turned around to bid Jack goodbye, only to be interrupted even before the words were out of his mouth.

"May I come in for a bit, please?" Jack asked with a pleading look on his face.

Ianto looked down and silently nodded, opening the door further so they could get in.

Jack immediately made his way to Ianto's living room.

Ianto took his time taking his coat off and collecting his thoughts. There were so many things running through his head at that moment that he felt like his head could explode at any given moment now.

He ran his hand through his hair as he summarized some of those events that kept crossing his mind: Roger's threat, Sarah's curiosity about Ianto's real work, Jack confronting him about Sarah's attempt to hack into their system and then worried about what Roger could do now that he knew where Ianto worked – maybe even where he lived! – , meeting Toshiko, the faraway look on Jack's face, Tosh trying to get him to meet the rest of the Torchwood Three group and now Jack wanting to come in and, what, talk to him?

'What does he want now?'

He took a deep breath and went to the living room to see what Jack wanted.

When he got there, Jack was sitting on the couch, his elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands.

On the small coffee table were two glasses of whisky. One of the glasses was almost empty. Ianto deduced that was Jack's.

"Jack?"

He looked up and smiled, but Ianto could see beneath that masked fake smile.

"Hey. I found this. If you don't mind, I felt like a couple of glasses of this would make me feel somewhat better."

Ianto looked at the second glass and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, that's for you. It's not my second glass. I was hoping you could accompany me, even if just for a glass," he explained, shrugging.

Ianto sat down beside him and observed him worriedly as Jack took the glass and drank what was left of the liquid in his glass.

"I have to go to work tomorrow, Jack."

"Just one, please? I won't take up a lot of your time, I promise."

The Welshman sighed, clearly defeated.

"Okay, but only one drink. And you have to tell me what's gotten you so secretive today," he said as he took a sip of his glass.

"Secretive? I work for a secret organization; I'd think being secretive is part of the job."

Ianto scoffed. "As if! Everyone around here knows where Torchwood Three is based, even though they really don't know what you do."

Jack frowned. "Really?"

"Yup. If you go outside and start asking around, you'll find that most people think you're just another kind of police whose quarters are based on the Cardiff bay." He laughed at Jack's expression. "Don't worry. They really have no clue about what it is that you really do. You're safe, I guess."

"Thankfully. It's better this way."

The Captain poured more whisky into his glass and drowned it all in one take.

"Wow. Easy there, Captain! What's going on with you?" Ianto asked, concerned.

"I did something I knew was wrong and in no circumstances should I've done it. Yet I let it happen anyway."

"What?" Ianto asked, clearly confused.

Jack stood up and started pacing around Ianto's living room, the young man following his every move with his eyes.

"She didn't deserve this. She thought she wanted this but, in reality, she could never handle it. And she's happy with him. God, he doesn't even know what was going on back then." He looked at Ianto. "But I stopped now. I found a way to stop it from happening. In fact, I really don't want it to happen again. Ever. Not only for them but for me as well. You sort of got my head out of it. I..."

Ianto closed his eyes, trying to process the information, and stood up.

"Jack, stop, please. You're not making any sense and you're just making me feel dizzy with your walking around non-stop. Who is she? And him? And what was it that stopped happening?"

Jack stopped and looked at him.

"I... She's someone from my team."

"Uh... Gwen, was it?"

"Yes."

Ianto yawned. "I'm getting a bit tired. What does Gwen have to do with this?"

Jack gulped. "You should probably rest. I'll let you be."

"But you didn't tell me what happened!" he argued, yawning again.

The older man looked sadly at him.

"We'll talk about it later. You should really rest now and I should go back to the Hub."

He went to the door and Ianto saw him stop as he reached for it, looking at the floor.

"Jack?"

Ianto saw him take a deep breath, turn around and make his way back to him.

Before he could say anything else, Jack put his hand on the back of Ianto's neck and kissed him softly.

And Ianto let him because, truth be told, he was too shocked to react in any other way.

"I'm sorry. It's for the best," Jack said as he broke the kiss and then hurriedly left.

Ianto felt even dizzier and more confused than before, so he decided to lie down on the couch.

Before he closed his eyes and before he could fall into a deep sleep, he could swear he could see the remains of something dissolving in his drink.

'Damn.'