Chapter 7

It had been such a long time since he'd been on a date that he had no real idea where to take a person like Ianto out on a first date. He wanted to go some place that was respectable with exquisite tasting food, but where they could be discrete and seated in private. The thought never crossed his mind that they could go somewhere cosy and cheap, that Ianto would have been more than happy with that.

Jack thought long and hard about where they could dine, so much so that he spent the rest of the afternoon searching for restaurants on the internet.

For five minutes during that afternoon Jack did wonder where Owen and Gwen were. He even thought about ringing them and asking why they couldn't have told him by telephone, but he liked the quiet when they were gone. No shouting, swearing or verbally abusing each other.

After Jack, Tosh & Ianto had had lunch – which had been worth the trip, Tosh had said – Tosh got back to working hard on the translation programme. She even went as far as to put a pair of headphones on her ears, enthusing her to work all the harder. This left Jack free to hassle Ianto, but he didn't, because he was working so hard on finding a venue for their evening event.

Eventually Jack landed on the perfect place. The website was well designed to draw the eye of any visitor, with professional pictures taken from well thought out angles, giving the venue the best light possible. Each table had enough distance between its neighbour to offer sufficient privacy. The lighting was dimmed to create a romantic ambience. There was also an online menu which offered a wide variety of courses and dishes to feed even the most picky of people. Jack had a side thought, he didn't know what kinds of food Ianto liked, apart from take out choices. He was tempted to ask, but Ianto had said he wasn't fussy.

Jack rang the restaurant from the number provided by the website to book a table. He requested that they have a very private table, and Jack would signal when they wanted something, and that there should be a small bottle of champagne sitting in a ice bucket by the table when they arrived.

Once he had prepped the restaurant he turned his mind to logistics and clothing. He worked out that it would take them 45 minutes to get from here to the restaurant, which included possibly getting stuck in rush hour traffic. He'd booked the table for 1900, just in case. He still had to work out how they were going to sort out monitoring the Rift. As Tosh had been here all day, it only seemed fair to lumber the task with Gwen and Owen. They'd had a full day off, and they hadn't even been injured by the creature yesterday, unlike himself.

He rang Owen first. After 5 rings Owen picked up.

"Owen, it's Jack. I need to ask you to cover the Rift tonight. You don't need to come in, but you need to monitor the alarm."

"How come? I text you to let you know I wouldn't be in today."

"Yeah, and I'm telling you that unless you're dead or dying that you're on call tonight. There doesn't appear to be sign of any activity tonight."

"Why can't you do it? You normally do."

"I've got things to do tonight. It's not often I ask anyone to cover the night shift, but I am tonight. Is that okay?"

Owen sighed dramatically, accepting that tonight, he wouldn't be doing anything interesting, in case he got called out.

"Fine!"

"Gwen will be on call too, as she wasn't in today either."

"Really? Know why?"

"No idea. And I don't want to know, but you'll both be working tonight."

Jack hung up on Owen and immediately rang Gwen, before Owen could speak to her.

"Hello.

"Gwen it's Jack."

"Hi Jack. I'm sorry about today. I just couldn't get in."

"I'm not looking for an apology or an excuse. I'm ringing to tell you that you and Owen are going to be on call tonight. I'm busy, and both Tosh and Ianto have been hard at work, so they're going home."

"But-"

"No buts. I'll be transferring the rift alerts to your mobiles at 1800, so be prepared. I've already told Owen that there doesn't appear to be any activity tonight, but the Rift might prove me wrong. I'll see you in the morning."

And so the working day ended.

Tosh had gotten a long way through the completion of her programme; Ianto had managed to get the last of last night's paperwork finished, and got through another box of archive material filed, from the thousands that had accumulated since the beginning of the century.

Tosh had felt a change in the dynamics of the relationship between Jack and Ianto since she'd first entered the building this morning. That feeling had changed even more on her return from procuring lunch. She didn't like sticking her nose into her colleagues business, but she couldn't help it whenever Ianto was involved. She cared greatly for him, and she had to admit that this was possibly the first time she had noticed Ianto's happiness so openly. Normally he kept his head down and got on with his work; bantering flirtatiously with Jack, shooting sarcastic comments back at Owen.

At 1700 Tosh searched the CCTV camera feed for Ianto's whereabouts before shutting it down for the night. She tracked him down, busily alphabetising pieces of paper.

"Hey Ianto. I'm heading home. Do you want a lift?" she asked nonchalantly.

Ianto looked up from what he was doing. He knew she was behind him, as he had heard the familiar female high heel clicking that always accompanied her.

"I'm not heading home til later, but thanks for the offer."

"Doing anything nice this evening?"

"It's not like you to ask something like that Tosh. What do you know?"

"Nothing! Yet, but you could tell me?"

Ianto blushed with embarrassment. He loved Tosh and their friendship, but he didn't know if he was ready to spill that part of himself to anyone yet. It was hard enough that he had had time to think about his sexuality all afternoon being down in the Archives. Expressing it to someone as close as Tosh was to him...well it didn't fill him with happy feelings.

Sensing the hesitation in him, Tosh stepped closer to Ianto.

"Relax. It's fine. Whatever you get up to, I hope you enjoy it. I'll see you in the morning."

"Tosh!" Ianto called as she turned to walk back the way she had come, "Maybe someday soon I'll tell you a secret...if I can get my head fully around it."

Turning she smiled over her shoulder, "I hope it's a secret that brings you happiness Ianto. Night."

"Yeah, night."

For a split second, in his head, Ianto cursed all of human kind who had the ability to get into your head and sense that something was different about you.