WARNING: SWEARING. I apologize if it offends anyone, but it fits Owen's character, so I'm not changing it. Cheers!
"You brought a PTERODACTYL back? What the FUCK are we going to do with a pterodactyl?" The way Owen was shouting made Jack think that he wasn't very happy.
"Well I was thinking we could keep it," he said casually, shrugging out of his coat.
"Where the hell are we going to put it? And you better not expect ME to take care of the damn thing!" Owen roared.
"Owen, calm down. The way you're carrying on, you're going to bring the pterodactyl out of sedation," Tosh said.
"We have enough open space in the hub, we can make it a den at the top and let it fly around. As for who'll take care of it," he said, walking over to the hooks to hang up his coat, "I was thinking our new employee could take care of it. He seems to be a bit of an expert on pterodactyls. At least he knew the like dark chocolate."
"What new employee?" Owen was still shouting.
"Who are you talking about, Jack?" Suzie asked.
Tosh looked at him exasperatedly. "Jack, you didn't."
"Yes. I did."
"Why?"
"After reconsidering, I think he has good qualifications for the job." He turned and faced them, crossing his arms. "Do any of you have anything to say about that?"
"We don't even know who you're talking about," Owen complained.
"Well Tosh sure seems to." Suzie looked from Jack to Tosh quizzically.
"His name's Ianto Jones, and he's a former Torchwood One employee. He was employed there during Canary Wharf." Tosh reported while still looking at Jack.
"He… he was at Canary Wharf?" Owen had finally stopped yelling, Jack noticed happily.
"And from the looks of it, he lost his girlfriend there."
"Shit." Owen was at a loss for words, but when this happened to him, unlike the others, who kept their mouths shut, he simply went to his rather large reserve of curse words.
"So… you hired him because you felt bad for him?" Suzie was still trying to get it.
"No, I hired him because he's had experience with Torchwood and I think he would be a good addition to the team. And he's cute."
Owen groaned. "Oh, LORD. Can't we ever escape from it?"
"Not while you work for me," Jack grinned cheekily. "Now, help me get this inside, and then you guys should get home. We've got a new person to introduce to the team tomorrow."
After a great deal of difficulty, the team finally got the pterodactyl inside and up to where its designated perch was. Tosh insisted on setting up a few programs to run overnight, but after that, Jack found himself alone in the hub with only the unconscious pterodactyl and the aliens in the vaults to keep him company.
He didn't need sleep, really – he supposed it came with being immortal – and although he had a bed he would go back to every night, he really wasn't in the mood just then. He needed to do something. He walked up to a computer that he was sure Tosh didn't have some program or another running on that he could risk screwing up, and pulled up personnel files.
He clicked the option for starting a new employee file and began typing. EMPLOYEE NAME: IANTO JONES. DATE OF BIRTH: 19 AUGUST 1983. He realized how little he knew about the man, and decided to leave the rest for Ianto to fill out himself. With that, he delved deeper into Ianto's old file, reading up about him.
From the looks of it, he had never been on the field, but only dealt with research and archives. He hadn't had any major breakthroughs or accomplishments. In other words, there was nothing extraordinary about him. And yet, there was.
Jack shook his head. He didn't know why he thought so, but something made him feel like Ianto was different. That he was special. He wasn't sure what it was – was it the way he walked? The way he talked? Maybe it was the cool way he took everything. The only time Jack had seen him lose his composure at all was when he was lying on top of him, and when he slunk out of the warehouse.
Jack thought about that moment. "Why did I want to kiss him?" He murmured, looking at a picture of the serious-looking youth on the computer. True, he was attractive, but—"Why?" Jack had gone from thinking he was one of the most annoying people on the planet to wishing that he had taken the initiative to lean forward that extra little bit and kiss him.
Was it just that he had been caught up in the moment? It was true that alien hunts gave him a rush like nothing else, part of the reason that he loved his job so much. And also, if he had a gorgeous Welshman lying on top of him, he couldn't imagine very many scenarios where he would be upset by that. But why him? Jack hardly knew the guy. Granted, he hardly knew any of the people he ever hooked up with in bars, but that was different. Ianto was different. But Jack couldn't place his finger on why.
Jack got the feeling that it would be hard to find someone who could rival Ianto's ability to hide his emotions. Even though he barely knew him, he could already tell that Ianto was extremely experienced at hiding emotions. He didn't believe that the youth really felt only what his face showed. From the looks of it, the man had a very carefully made mask that had been created, most likely, over the course of several years. But why? He glanced back at the file, the two words jumping out at him again. Torchwood One.
It was true that the experience had probably scarred Ianto beyond belief, but was that all? Somehow Jack doubted it. But there was no way he could prove it.
In a very melancholy mood, Jack began to peruse articles and records about Torchwood One, their experiences, and their fall. Yvonne Hartman – Jack snorted. As leader of Torchwood Three, he'd met her and talked to her over the phone countless times. He hadn't been overly fond of her, and he could read people well enough to know that she had about the same opinion of him. She'd been a people person, but that didn't mean she'd been a pleasant person. They'd butted heads over many issues, and the ghosts had been one of them. Jack had said he didn't want to be a part of the project, he had felt that something was wrong, but he had known better than to try to argue with Yvonne. When she made up her mind about something, there was no changing it. So he'd pulled Torchwood 3 out of the operation.
"And look where it led her," he whispered sadly. He took the fact that he was crying with surprise only because he hadn't realized. He didn't find it surprising that he was crying over her. She might not have been the best person, but… "No one deserves to die like that." He'd been disgusted that Torchwood had such a bad reputation after the incident. The public was already wary, and a world invasion didn't help any. It hurt that anyone who knew that Torchwood One was behind the incident would automatically connect Torchwood Three to it as well.
"We're nothing like them!" His fist slammed down, rattling some pens in a cup near the edge of the desk. His fury at them scared him. And it was also ironic. I try so hard to remove myself completely from Torchwood One, and then I hire a former employee, he thought to himself wryly. He blinked at stared at the screen, before quitting out of the search with a vicious click from his mouse. He walked away from the computer, breathed in deeply, and let it out, composing himself. He grinned. "Hmm. New employee tomorrow… I should really come up with an initiation ceremony one of these days."
A/N: meh, it's okay. This is a kind of filler chapter, I wanted to tell most of the first day from Ianto's point of view (we'll see how that turns out…) but yeah. I didn't really have a plan when I started this chapter, so I hope it all makes sense. Don't know when I'll get a new chapter up, but hopefully soon! Thank you all for reading and reviewing! I appreciate it!
