I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!
So sorry it has been so long but i'm back now.
Um usual disclaimers i own nothing but the plot all that.
Enjoy and please review if anyone is still interested in the plot that is.

"Ianto? Are you there?"

Ianto touched his ear piece. "Yeah Jack?"

"I thought I sent you home hours ago, why are you still here?"

"You did but since when do I listen? And if you honestly thought I would go home, why are you trying to find me?"

"Good point. Where are you anyway?"

"Archives."

"Of course you are… but you're going to have to give me more details than that, I couldn't find a sex foot yellow canary down there."

Ianto cleared his throat slightly.

Jack gave a bark of laughter. "Is there really a six foot yellow canary down there?"

"Not technically… it's red. It's in long term storage, it was found twenty years ago. How do you not know about this? You spend more time here and have been here longer than anybody else. You should go meet him, he can hold up interesting conversations sometimes, but he is a giant flirt. So you'll get along fine with him."

"Ianto, has anyone ever told you that you lack the ability to lie?"

Ianto smiled. "Come on Jack admit it, I had you going if only for a while."

"I admit nothing. So are you going to tell me where you are?"

"I'm in the very first section just as you walk in, the most recent files."

Ianto sighed as the ear piece clicked off. He picked up the file he was reading before Jack rang and looked over it once again. There was no point putting the file away he knew jack would work out that something was wrong, he also wouldn't fool himself into thinking he wouldn't tell the captain all.

Ianto felt two arms around his waist and a head on his shoulder. "What's wrong?" Jack asked as he placed kisses along Ianto's neck.

"Why would something be wrong?" just because he knew that he would eventually tell Jack, that didn't mean he would make it easy for the older man.

Jack rested his chin on Ianto's shoulder. "Well, for one, the only time you act all creepy and hide away down here in the dead of night is when something's wrong. Two, your back is so stiff that I'm fairly certain that a crow bar would snap in half if I hit you with one. Also you get this cut little frown on your forehead when you're upset." Jack traced the lines with a finger.

Ianto smiled at how well Jack had come to know him, but said nothing.

Jack moved his hands up Ianto's back and neck massaging out the knots and tension, for twenty minutes he worked in silence as Ianto's head fell forward.

"So have I earned myself an explanation yet?" Jack asked wrapping his arms around Ianto again. "Or do I have to become a slave for a month?"

"Tempting." Ianto put the file he was holding into Jack's hands then went to lean against the cabinets.

"This is the file on that kid, the only one to survive the ghost makers. Why are you looking at this?"

Ianto closed his eyes, and rested his head against the cabinet. "He lost his whole family Jack, everyone he loves and everyone who loves him. His mother was an only child and her parents died in a car accident last month. And his dad's family don't even know he's alive, they lost contact years ago. He's going to grow up without anyone. I just can't stop thinking about what he will be like in ten, fifteen years, will he remember his family at all? Will he feel unloved? Or will he always know that people cared for him? Will he be well balanced and happy? Or will he be angry and resentful.

"Well… what were you like?" asked Jack. "When you lost your parents?"

"I still don't remember mam and tad that well, they died when I was fourteen so I still have a fare few memories but for some reason, not a lot. But they didn't help, not really." Ianto was only vaguely aware of Jack leading him away from the archives. "I just ended up being angry and resentful anyway. For so long all I could do was hate them. I actually hated them because they left me, I just wanted them to come back or at least take me with them. But hey never came back for me.

"But the point is, this kid… he probably won't remember his parents, he's too young for any solid memories. He will probably go through a heap of different therapy sessions, but then, so did I. Therapy only works if you actually want it to work, if you don't you'll just end up hating everyone. This kid will probably be 'normal' in a year maybe two, but what happens when he hits puberty Jack? What happens when he gets to the age where he NEEDS his parents?

"If only I could have stopped the ghost maker in time. If I hadn't have let him get the flask, they would all be fine. But I couldn't Jack, I wasn't good enough. I let him get the flask and I let them ALL die." Ianto had started to shake.

"No Ianto, oh god no, you can't think like that." Jack led Ianto to the sofa and sat down next to him with his arms around the Welshman. "Thinking like that will get you no where. If you weren't the amazing investigator that you are, we wouldn't even have known about the night travellers. Remember that saving one soul is one hundred times better than loosing them all."

Ianto collapsed onto Jack's shoulder and cried for what felt like hours. When the sobbing subsided and Ianto's breathing had become even again, Jack said. "Ianto, I've wanted to tell you something for awhile now, and I really need you to know. I love you Ianto… Ianto? Did you hear me?" Jack looked down and saw that Ianto was actually asleep. 'Fuck' Jack thought to himself. 'I finally tell him the bloody truth and he's not even awake.'