Chapter Seven
His eyes focused on the screen on the cell phone-like device he held in his hand. Jack turned to the left, then the right then forwards. Looking up he tried to match the landmarks around him with the information on the screen. He could see he was in the circle of standing stones. Backtracking he made his way towards a small group of trees, and the blip reappeared. It must be small whatever it was, the good thing was it was not moving it was such a tiny trace he would never have been able to track it down. The small circle on the scanner screen thickened and the beep got louder. He must be right on top of it. There was only one thing for it and he got down on his hands and knees and started to search around the fallen debris under his feet. It had been raining so it did not take long for the knees of his trousers to become soaked and blackened. The debris was mix of dead leaves, food wrappers of one sort of another, bottle tops, and ring pulls. The beep got louder as he searched around with his hands and came across what looked like a small flattered marble. It became hot in his hand and he almost dropped it. "Got ya," he said with glee as he rubbed it against his fingers cleaning it up. He stood up brushing the debris from his trousers.
He looked at his watch, and cursed, three hours he had spent looking for what amounted to rubbish. Moving out of the trees he looked around to see where he was. He knew he was in Bute Park, but he had not really paid much attention to exactly where his location was. He focused on trying to recall where he had parked the SUV then he remembered it was on the far side of the park. The scanner beeped again and he turned if off then placed it into his coat pocket along with the object when he felt a pressure in his chest. He closed his eyes for a moment as he felt his heart race and he caught his breath. The only time he felt like this was when he was around Ianto, but he was not here now. Much more of this and he would need a medical from Owen, he thought as his heart pounded. So what the hell was it this time? He felt in his coat pocket and pulled out the small object and found it had become smoky, maybe this was causing it, not quite the rubbish it appeared to be.
Turning he started to make his way across the park, and as he passed a small café he saw a crowd around an open area with various marquees and tents, with long trestle tables stacked with books. The place was packed as he recalled the book fair poster in Ianto's shop. He wondered if Ianto was here today when he saw him. His back was turned away from him as he sorted through the boxes of books on a trestle table. He pulled back not wanting to let himself be seen. He watched for a while just enjoying seeing him move trying to carry an absurdly large number of books as he bit his lower lip, from table to table, he knew he should move on but found he couldn't move.
He had kept to the letter of their agreement and only spoke to him at the shop, and it was the hardest thing he had ever done. Over the past weeks they had had some astounding conversations at the book shop, some times for hours. He had on several occasions come close to asking the young man to join him for a coffee but something stopped him every time and he knew exactly what it was, he didn't want to ruin the time they spent together. When they were talking to each other, all that existed was Ianto, and he lost himself in the sound of his voice and his presence. He was scared of destroying the equilibrium between them, but he wanted more. He had dreams of just holding him close and feeling his arms around him, but would his selfish need for this man cause Ianto to reject him as he had in the past? Even now the memory of his words and disdain hurt, and he felt his heart flutter, maybe, just maybe he closed his eyes as he listened to his feelings, and the strange connection between them, as a book fell from the stack Ianto was carrying and he found himself stepping forward.
twtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtw
Struggling to hold on the stack of books he had found over the past few hours Ianto moved towards the cash register. 'My arms were clearly bigger than my common sense' he thought as one dropped on the ground. He had spent hours sifting through the boxes at the Bute Park book fair and had found a large number he had on his list filling customer orders. It had been a toss up to making several trips back and forwards to his car or just managing in one go. The rain forecast looked like it might be right for once and he had decided to get as much done as he could before the rain that was threatening turned into the promised down pour.
"Let me get that?" He heard a voice say as he tried to bend down and pick it up.
"Thank you," Ianto said as he looked up to see who had helped him and his felt stomach flip as Jack placed the book back on the top of the pile in his arms.
"You seem to have quite a few, let me give you a hand?" Jack offered keeping his face and voice neutral.
"I'm think I can manage," Ianto said hesitantly as he saw Jack take breath.
"Look I know I'm breaking the rule, about speaking to you outside the shop, but you look like you could really use a hand," Jack said as he put up both hands. "I can offer both." Several moments passed as Ianto just looked at him. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to help," Jack said letting out a sigh trying not to allow the disappointment he felt show on his face as he started to turn away.
"Yes, of course, thank you," Ianto said after a moment's hesitation as he saw the look on Jack's face and cursed his own stupidity, of course the man was only asking to help.
On hearing the invitation Jack took several books from Ianto's arms and they headed to the register.
"Look I know this is out of order, but could I buy you a coffee?" Jack asked as they unloaded the books in the book of Ianto's car, "There's a nice little café here in the park…"
"I found that book you were looking for," Ianto interrupted as he handed a small volume to Jack who took it reverently turning it over in his hands.
"Ianto, I don't know what to say, thank you," Jack said turning to the first page ran his eyes over the contents page then closed it. "You know I am going to enjoy reacquainting myself to the delights of this book, how much do I owe you?" he said putting the book in his coat pocket as he started to pull out his wallet.
"No need Jack it cost me all of two pounds," he told him shaking his head.
"That doesn't seem fair," Jack pointed out "I mean you put it on book lists, and gone out of your way to find it."
"Well, I tell you what," Ianto said after a few moments of thought as he looked into Jack's eyes, "Why don't you buy me a coffee and we'll call it even," he added as he saw Jack smile gently. Locking his car they headed over to the small café by one of the many ancient stones circles that were strewn around the park.
Watching as Jack went to put in their order Ianto wondered what the hell he was doing. He swore he would never do this. He gave the captain ten out of ten for persistence 'And if this was a change of tactics…' He admonished himself he could sense no hidden agenda here, all the man was doing was thanking him for finding a book. He had to admit Jack had certainly cleaned up his act and he now enjoyed it when the captain,' Jack' he corrected himself, came into the shop. The man was good company; it was like when they were talking he became lost in the conversation. Sometimes Jack just popped in to talk or ask his advice about something, but that was in the shop it was a professional relationship. So why did he feel so conflicted here in this public place and all he was doing was having a cup of coffee? He smiled cautiously as he accepted the offered cup as Jack sat down opposite him.
"Well this is the last thing I expected to be doing today," Jack started as he saw Ianto raise an eyebrow.
"I must admit you were the last person I imagined would come to something like this," Ianto remarked as Jack nodded.
"I was on call this weekend and the Rift alert went off, and indicated something came through," Jack told him.
"Anything dangerous?" Ianto said looking around as Jack shook his head. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the small flattened marble that was now clear and placed it on the table.
Picking it up Ianto examined it.
"It took me hours to find and it's junk," Jack told him.
"Junk?" Ianto repeated as he handed it back
"Junk!" Jack told him as he placed the object back on the table.
"How did you manage to locate it?" Ianto asked thinking of how difficult it would be to find so small an object.
"With this," Jack said as he pulled what looked like a large cell phone from his coat pocket and handed it across to Ianto.
Turning it over in his hand he studied it. "How does it work? " He asked as he examined it.
"I'll show you," Jack said as he moved his chair around next to the young man and demonstrated how to turn it on. The screen turned on showing a grid made of green lines.
"Now press the button on the bottom with the wavy line on it," he indicated as Ianto followed his directions as the grid filled with what looked like a mass of intersecting red lines.
"Woh," Ianto said as Jack now placed the small object in the center of the table.
"If you press the button with the triangle, it should show the position of the object," Jack advised him as Ianto did as instructed.
A small orange dot appeared on the screen as Ianto chuckled.
"What?" Jack asked as he saw and heard Ianto's reaction.
"Like I know where the object is, how would you work out where this was from this?" he indicated the lines on the small screen.
"That's why it took me three hours and eventually I had to resort to crawling around on my hands and knees," Jack told him as Ianto handed the scanner back.
"Now that's not standard Torchwood equipment," Ianto told him.
"Sometimes the Rift delivers useful objects," Jack told him as he saw Ianto pick up the object and found it warm in his hand and turn a deep pink. He handed to Jack quickly where it now began to vibrate hum and turn a deeper pink.
"You know you could have the equivalent of an intergalactic mood stone, like you buy as a souvenir somewhere," Ianto added.
"Three hours, on my hands and knees, ruined a perfectly good pair of trousers for a mood stone," Jack agreed laughing.
"Tell me about the book?" Ianto asked as Jack placed the detector and the object back in his coat pocket.
Pulling out the book from his other pocket he turned in around in his hands, "I had friend called Estelle. She died a while back and I recalled the first time I ever saw her was on a bench and she was reading this book," Jack explained. "I was always teasing her about her love of romantic novels. You know the type where the hero always gets the girl and after trails, tribulations and misunderstandings everyone lives happily after," he added as he saw sadness momentarily cross Ianto's face.
"Well one very rainy afternoon I was teasing her and she challenged me to read it," he added as Ianto raised his eyebrows. "I have to admit I found it hauntingly poetic," he said quietly. "It's the only romantic book I have ever read and when she died I remembered how we first met. When I was clearing her house I tried to find it but she hadn't kept a copy," Jack said turned the book over in his hands.
"My girlfriend Lisa had a love of those, Mills and Boon books," Ianto told him.
"Mills and Boon?" Jack asked.
"She had boxes of the bloody things. I thought that was bad enough then she bought herself an e-book reader and she decided that she would see if she could download a few, and what she thought was a couple of titles turned out to be about 2000, filled up almost the entire memory," he laughed then realized Jack may never have heard of them.
"Mills and Boon publish romance stories, hundreds of titles a year. Lisa's favorite plot was where some unlikely couple started out disliking each other, then through a series of events fall in love. Then one or the other would have some terrible past, and the other would help them through it. They always ended getting married and having a baby. Happy ever after. I asked her once what the attraction was, she told me they were easy to read and had a guaranteed happy ending, but what she liked most of all was the fact that the couple overcame all possible odds and still made it."
"Sounds like Lisa got a lot of enjoyment out of them," Jack said.
"They made her very happy," Ianto told him. "And do you know what's so stupid? I still have that e-book reader …" he trailed off.
"It's sometimes the smallest things that are hardest to let go of," Jack told him.
"I sometimes find myself reading the odd story," Ianto told him. "Sorry getting a bit heavy," he added after a few moments passed.
"You must miss her very much," Jack commented.
"Two year's anniversary of the attack on Canary Wharf coming up and each day it slowly gets easier. To begin with it's like this sharp stone in your chest, you feel the pain all the time but slowly the edges wear a bit, it hurts but it's not so immediate. It's been hard to let go because all I have left of her is this pain I feel," he pointed to his chest as he let out a deep breath and looked at Jack who was watching Ianto speak. "You know you are the first person I have spoken to about this," he shook his head in surprise as if he didn't quite believe he was sitting here sharing this with Captain Jack Harkness of all people.
"Life's not a romance novel," Jack told him. "Sometimes there are no happy endings."
"You got that right," Ianto told him honestly as Jack began to speak "I remember this one time…", Ianto sat back to as Jack began speak
"…and then she's chasing me down this alley way, she was so fast. I should have guessed something was wrong because no woman I've ever met can run in six inch heels. Any way I realized I had taken a wrong turning because I had come to a dead end. I cursed and turned around. I had no time make my escape because she morphed into this dark blob. It came to me she's not chasing me because she's angry I made pass at her boyfriend, I'm lunch. Within a blink of an eye I'm seeing the world through black-currant jelly, and I have this horrible sensation, all slimy and gooey…" Jack shuddered in remembrance as Ianto laughed wondering how Jack got out of this scrape , he heard a clatter , they both looked up to see a woman clearing the table.
"We're closing," she told them they turned around as they saw the place was empty and the staff where taking in the chairs and tables.
Looking at this watch Jack realized they had been here all afternoon, as he stood Ianto joined him.
"This was good yeah," Ianto said looking intently at Jack.
"Thank you for today," Jack told him.
"No thank you," Ianto replied as he stood not wanting to leave as he noted Jack's reluctance was as great as his. "This is a public place," Ianto declared.
"It is that," Jack said not sure where this was going.
"Well there are a lot of public places around Cardiff I imagine that we might run into each other," Ianto told him as he saw Jack face light up with understanding.
"As it happens I will be in a public place tomorrow around 11.30 AM. Every Sunday I have brunch at the Bay café near the wharf, you never know we might run into each other, "he said smiling.
"We might yet," Jack told him then hesitated. "Of course but we might miss each other?"
"Well it is a public place and you have Torchwood and all that, I would understand," Ianto told him.
"Can I see your mobile phone?" Jack asked as Ianto handed his over.
"Tell you what," he said as he pulled out his own mobile phone and began to add some numbers. "If something happens then, I'll send you a text," Jack said as he handed Ianto's phone back
"Great," Ianto said as he put his phone away.
"Where's your car?" Ianto asked not wanting to leave.
"Over there," Jack pointed in the opposite direction to the car park.
"See you then," Ianto said disappointed he couldn't walk with him to where he had parked his car. He left and headed towards his own car. Jack stood and watched him until he was out of view. This has been an afternoon for the record books, Ianto had learnt more about him in one afternoon than all his lovers combined in a century. And Ianto had shared something deeply personal, while he had sat here he had just listened, really listened and as he did he had felt so at peace. He wished he could fully understand why he felt this connection to Ianto and for once he pushed the thought aside.
'What did it matter' he told himself, 'Tomorrow, rift willing, Ianto would be there waiting for him and he could spend a few more hours in his company.' He turned towards the SUV. 'Had the man just asked him out on a date?' He asked himself as he suddenly realized what had occurred, he turned and smiled then made his way across the park.
