Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood and Dr Who, no copyright infringement intended. If you still want to sue, bring Ianto back to Jack first.
Warnings: Spoilers for almost everything except novels and comics. Not beta-read and English's not my native language, sorry in advance for eventual mistakes. Constructive criticism is appreciated.
DW A/N: Veiled references to S4E12 The stolen Earth, S4E13 The journey's end, S6E8 Let's kill Hitler and S6E13 The marriage of River song
Love quarrels and improvements
When Donna and Gwen came back the morning after the black out, they found the hub clean, well organized and utterly silent, therefore they weren't much surprised when they noticed the pack of decaffeinated coffee on the counter of the kitchen. The only positive thing in all of this was the knowledge that at least Ianto was now feeling well enough to actually have the chance to be pissed off at something… or someone.
Since the pack was still unopened, though, they thought that there could be still hope to save the day, therefore they went straight to search for him, praying that things weren't as bad as they suspected. When they finally found Ianto, hidden in the basement-level section of the printed archives with his nose deep into coded files and folders, they had the last evidence they needed to know that something was truly off.
"Morning, Ianto!" Gwen cheered, trying to earn a smile from her subdued colleague. "If you want, since you're so busy, I can prepare coffee for everyone?"
The fact that Ianto actually nodded at her proposal set the girls' disposition from mildly concerned to extremely worried: there was only one thing to do.
Donna snapped her fingers and Gwen disappeared back upstairs to the kitchenette in order to make coffee. While Gwen was busy making the essentials, the curious temp took a chair, turned it backwards and sat on it, resting her chin on the back of the seat and staring at the pouting Welshmen intently.
She waited for Gwen to come back with the coffees and, when her colleague was finally back, she was glad to notice that two rather upset Toshiko and Owen had followed her. When everyone was seated around Ianto's desk and the three that could actually feed themselves had their drink in their hands, silence filled the room, as questioning stares passed among each one of them.
"I sent the men to sleep" Gwen began nonchalantly, guessing that, if no one wanted to be outright in front of Ianto, she could at least share with Donna the bits she had understood from Rhys and Shaun while she was brewing coffee. "Jack has apparently arranged a few camping beds in the interrogation room and in the conference room before storming away"
Donna stared at Gwen first and then at the others, scanning their figure in order to uncover the most significant reactions. The only one who slipped even more forward in his seat, frowning in pure guilt, was Ianto, therefore she faced Toshiko.
"What happened?"
"The Queen called Jack back to London to have a proper report on what happened yesterday" Toshiko began uncertainly. "It looks like the Government used the blackout as an excuse to get the spare power we stored for emergencies and run our back-up generators, so to the already big mess of yesterday night we'll have to add also a probable alien poisoning of whatever circuit used our particular stock. Glasgow said there shouldn't be any problems, considering the small amount of time they had access to our energy supply, but their researches were still incomplete"
"Well, it doesn't seem our problem to handle" Gwen stated unsurely.
"It isn't." Toshiko confirmed quietly. "Glasgow will cooperate with UNIT, but Cardiff doesn't need to be involved. In this mess we're labelled as casualties and Glasgow as consultants"
"So, where is the catch?" Gwen asked again, failing to see where the problem would lay.
"That obviously the Government doesn't want to admit that it is its fault" Toshiko continued to explain plainly. "And now it is trying to pressure the issue of Torchwood inability to do its work, adding up to our long list of to do things also dealing with them to prevent the public to think that we are dangerous… or worse, terrorists"
A serious and worried frown displayed on both Gwen and Donna's faces as they were beginning to get what the problem with their friend could be, but they waited until Owen said its own daily dose of insults towards Ianto, something that they just felt coming, before speaking their mind.
"And obviously with Jack under so much pressure the tea boy had the great idea to say that maybe they shouldn't get on with their partnership ceremony at all! For the second time straight" Owen predictably cheered, his voice dripping with sarcasm as Ianto glared at him. "He got himself one of the loudest scold I've ever seen Jack giving him, or to anyone else for that matter, and then he was sent to do the work he is paid for."
"Jack wants these folders done as soon as possible, so that we can have the full range of data to work with when writing the program that will run the machine to bring their bodies back." Ianto said plainly, biting his lower lip to keep himself from showing how much he'd been affected by Jack's words of before. "He's right, I shouldn't voice my opinion when we're dealing with work related issues. I'm just an employee"
"Ianto, you know that's not true." Gwen cooed, gently taking his hand in hers. "You know Jack is wrong sometimes- Hell, most of the times he is, and even more frequently he needs suggestions. We all have always done that, proof is that lots of times he and I end up fighting too. Also with Tosh, Owen and Donna, if you remember it well. Everything will be fine"
"Yeah, but he can't break up with you!" Ianto argued, pouting even more.
"Well technically he can't break up with you either." Donna pointed out evenly, sipping attentively her coffee. "The very worst he could do is firing you for mixing up personal with private, but even though it was work time he can't blame you for suggesting ways to ease Torchwood schedule"
"Actually if you think about it better, he can't fire you either" Gwen added with a knowing smile, taking Donna's reasoning to its extremes. "Because he would have to fire himself too for the same reason. He took it out on you because you hurt him Ianto, not because you questioned his authority or because the suggestion wasn't proper, this makes him as guilty as you"
Ianto stared up at her, munching nervously his lower lip. "I just wanted to make things easier for him and for the team"
"Yeah, honey" Donna told him, taking his free hand in hers. "But he felt refused. You had just few days to accept the fact that you would get hitched with him, but he must have thought this thoroughly before bringing up the topic to you"
Ianto thought about it for a while, feeling even worse for having his female co-workers fussing over him while dealing with love related problems.
"He was right anyway. I should really finish my work" He said in the end.
"About that" Toshiko butted in. "I did not say anything to Jack since he was already furious with Ianto, but I don't believe it's a good idea to keep trying to get Owen and me back. With all the mess they are putting up for Ianto, what if we were to revive all of sudden? I want my life back, but I don't want to ruin Torchwood trying to get that"
"They are using me as an excuse" Ianto pointed out coolly. "Even without me or you, they will find something else, you can't deny there's plenty. The whole 456 mess is a proof of that. The only difference is that now they are planning to use the press against us systematically, and press means computers, so more information going around the wire to catch. We need you Tosh"
"And between one thing and the other we're still without a doctor." Ianto added as an afterthought.
Owen growled at him. "No one asked your opinion, tea boy, and even now you missed the chance to stay where your salary allows you to be"
Ianto and Owen began their personal battle of glares, that was interrupted only by Gwen's calm statement. "I'm with Ianto on this"
Donna nodded her agreement and Ianto took a moment from his fight with Owen to roll his eyes at them.
"Great, I'm on the losing side concerning personal love matters, but on the winning side concerning work-related issues" He muttered.
"At least you're winning somewhere" Donna pointed out with mirth.
"Well, pros and cons don't matter at the moment since to keep working on our schedule were Jack's orders." Gwen stated matter-of-factly. "We can argue with him and give him opinions or blackmails, but we still have to follow his guide"
Resignedly, Toshiko and Owen nodded and followed Gwen back inside the main hub, leaving Donna with Ianto as she began decoding her part of the folders.
Much time later, also Rhys and Shaun joined them, so they all went back to the original division of partners until it was time for Ianto to phone for the pizza they had decided on for lunch. Even though Jack's coming back before the afternoon was pretty much unlikely, he ordered more anyway, just in case something happened and his boyfriend got back in time to eat with them.
The whole afternoon passed without further delay or news, actually letting the team make some progress along the way. By the time Donna called a pause for dinner with their families and Ianto had her pick a random takeaway coupon, it was already past 8 PM and still none of them had received calls or messages from their boss. Ianto had just finished putting the leftovers away and cleaning everything they had used for dinner, that finally the proximity alarms beeped, signalling to everyone the awaited return of their leader.
Ianto immediately followed him, as Jack leaped steadily up to his office, thanking God that the others were still too busy cooing over their children to actually bother with their boss unless they were called to do so. As if he had timed that -and maybe he actually had- Ianto was there ready to help Jack take off his coat, but his boyfriend, judging from his attitude, either didn't acknowledge his presence or had taken it for granted.
As events turned out, Ianto was really happy to notice that it had just been the second.
"I'm completely worn out" Jack sighed as he let himself fall in his comfortable chair at his desk and stretched like a cat over it.
Ianto wondered what Jack's nonchalance meant and tried to offer him a small smile as he took the decanter of brandy and a glass, filling it up for his boss.
"This will help you relax, sir. There's still both pizza and curry, if you're hungry. Do you want me to warm something up?"
Ianto deference finally broke through Jack's tiredness as he suddenly remembered what had caused it.
"Look Ianto, I'm sorry for what I said. You weren't actually being unprofessional, that was me using work issues improperly"
Ianto shook his head and tried to smile again to him. "I shouldn't have put the partnership ceremony up while we were discussing work"
"You can't stop yourself doing it, if you aren't actually sure of pairing up with me." Jack pointed out sadly, looking away from Ianto to not show him his most pathetic side.
"Jack, you know I want it" Ianto told him warmly, resting his hand on his shoulder.
"Doesn't feel like it" Jack complained, shrugging. "It's the second time in two days you say we shouldn't keep going on with it, that's why I told you off before thinking… I was so afraid of losing you that I almost brought us near a break up"
"Jack?" Ianto took his chance to ask. "Is it true that you thought about it a lot before proposing?"
Jack stared at him wide-eyed. "Why? Who told you?"
"Donna said you got hurt because you had been thinking about it for a long time… I actually thought it was something like the sprout of the moment."
"Ianto" Jack said between embarrassment and amusement. "I understand I'm known to think about the consequences of my actions way after something happens… But you know what means for me immortality and how my love/sex life had been until I met you. It's obvious that I thought about it a lot before asking you. Besides, you can't really believe that the ring on your fingers was bought at the first jewellery I found open before getting back from a rift alert."
Ianto felt extremely ashamed of himself, and looked away from his boyfriend as his cheeks slightly coloured red. Jack looked up at him and shook his head, motioning for him to come closer. As the Welshman obliged, he took a firm grip on his tights and stared at him adoringly, before slowly moving them upwards to get a solid grip on his well shaped cheeks.
"I've run and waited so much in my life, that now I need to have my life back. Will you share it with me?"
Ianto's smile spread naturally on his face this time, and he quickly straddled his lover to capture Jack's waiting lips in a deep and hungry kiss. Tongues entwined and hands roamed desperately over their shirts, as Ianto tried to show with his body rather than with his words how much he wanted to share his life with his lover. He was about to ask Jack to take a moment for themselves and disappear inside the bunker they still kept for emergencies at the hub, when a soft cough coming from the door interrupted them.
When they turned, they found a very embarrassed and very speechless Gwen staring at them awkwardly.
"I-I'm sorry." She said laughing nervously, as a less ashamed Owen fluctuated right behind her over-confident.
"Well, Gwen, at least this time they're still fully clothed!" He laughed sarcastically.
Ianto pushed himself away from Jack, trying to recompose the little bits left of his dignity, whilst Jack simply stayed where he was, looking smug despite the tent showing between his legs completely exposed to everyone's stares.
"Is there an actual reason for you to protect my virtue or you just wanted to say hello?"
"Ehm… Actually, we just sent the kids at home with Donna's family. We wanted to know how it went with the Queen and tell you about what we achieved in the meantime..."
"Oh well, about the last one I'm sure Ianto was ready to fill me in" He smiled sardonically, getting equal blushes from everyone else in the room, Owen included. "But, don't worry, the meeting went fine. It was tiring, but we averted the worst for the moment."
"For the moment?" All the others asked at unison.
"Yeah, but I'd like to speak to the everyone, if we're doing this" He turned his chair to face them and sat properly by his desk. "Gwen, call the others in"
Gwen nodded and disappeared downstairs, soon reappearing along with Donna, Rhys, Shaun and Toshiko. Jack explained in details what had happened the night before and what the Queen had discovered talking with the head of the energy department.
Today, She had convoked, along with him, the same man again, other members of the Government that were supposed to cover basic emergencies such as blackouts and also the prime minister himself. That conference had been what had taken him almost all day, since it had quickly escalated from a disciplinary assembly for the Government to a long list of accusations against Torchwood.
Jack suspected that all the other people involved had actually hoped for such a confrontation, since they were able to present a full and very detailed report on every single accident happened since Jack had become head of Torchwood Three. As Ianto had suspected, his return was only one of the things they were going to distort to their likings. Apparently, they had punctuated Ianto's current condition with various letters over time only because the situation regarding Ianto was what meant to irritate Jack the most.
They had enough luck, though, that Lois had brought with her a laptop through which they had managed to prove the truth of most of the report written by Jack and sent to Her Majesty. In the end, the Government argued that those proofs could have been easily forged by Torchwood, since they were well known to have clearance for most of the data system, and obviously Jack had countered that most of their so called proofs were outright lies.
The assembly finished with no winners and no losers, despite Jack's proposition of mud wrestling with the group of the assistants, but at least the Queen had put the Government under the firm observation of Her chosen inspectors. Moreover, they decided to use Lois to get more information about their plans through a young secretary they had scared to death the night before. The only thing they could do now was to wait and hope that what they had done was enough.
As soon as he'd finished his speech, it was the others' chance to bring him good news: Ianto and Donna had finally finished their decrypting work, Rhys had found an acquaintance of an acquaintance's cousins that could cut him a deal on one of the recommended alloys, and finally Owen had run out of experiments to run on himself and was almost certain to have all the data he needed. Toshiko and Shaun were still working on the project left by Future Ianto, but at least they had gotten somewhere near the logic behind the magnet and how it had been designed.
Toshiko even tried to explain the mechanism to everyone, but nobody managed to follow it -except, maybe, Jack- so she simply gave up.
Eventually, the captain sent everyone to sleep, telling them that as soon as they were awake they would have to keep all working together with Toshiko and Shaun to finally put to good use the data they had been collecting and compose everything together. He put on one of the monitors a long series of documentaries about the evolution of technology in the last ten years to entertain Toshiko and Owen, and then went to sleep himself, bringing Ianto with him in his bunker to resume what Gwen had previously interrupted.
The good night of 'sleep' did good to everyone, so the following days were full of new ideas, practical improvements on the Tosh/Owen problem and, quite predictably, a lot of rift activity and the amount of obviously unforeseen events that had to be expected when a Torchwood Three member wanted to get married or something close to that. Apparently, since two officers were involved this time, things decided to get even worse.
Even though Jack and Ianto still took as a firm point the possibility of having Toshiko and Owen back to normal before their partnership, they had to come to terms with the fact that, since they had organized the double stag party for three days prior to the ceremony, there was no chance to achieve such result before that day. For a while, they thought about moving it to the evening before their partnership, but the rift predictor program sent their plan to pieces as soon as they actually checked the feasibility of it.
In the end, they waited until the day before the stag party, hoping to finish the device in time, but even after days working almost non-stop the machine was still uncompleted. Therefore, Ianto took the situation in his hands and used his supreme abilities to settle everything where it was supposed to be in the smallest amount of time. In less than three hours he had: cancelled the prior arrangement at the night club they had chosen, hired a catering and subverted the entire main area of the hub in order to make room for guests and everything.
Jack made his personal contribution to the event gathering a proper number of male and female strippers, telling them that it was a horror sci-fi themed event and that the alcohol would be free for them. Between the alcohol and the Retcon he was planning to give them, he was sure no one of them would question the presence of two ghost amongst the guests and the hi-tech stuff they would have to hide in the darkest corners and pretend it didn't exist.
Tech-wise, Jack only hoped Martha was right and that the Doctor could really come to his stag party, so he could snatch a consultation on the spot since they would already be inside the hub. Unfortunately, the words the Time Lord had said to the young UNIT medic had been 'Of course I'll be there! I won't miss Jack's stag party if it was the end of the world!', sounding just a bit too close for comfort to what could actually happen that very same day to the unpredictable alien.
Despite Jack and Ianto's fears, however, the party had begun without hassle and, after some time, when already Ianto's new dink-when-nervous habit was about to brush off on his future partner too, finally a familiar bow-tie appeared.
The Time Lord looked around the hub amazed, taking in the huge transitory disco renewal, and then trotted happily to hug Jack.
"Jacky! You have no idea how much I was waiting for you to invite me to this! I knew you would be having a stag party at some point, even before his coming back!" He chirped happily, nodding towards Ianto, who was unappreciatively drinking some blood red cocktail with the same expression of a person wishing to be drinking the blood of the human being in front of him.
"We're both happy that you could made it" Jack said warmly as he freed himself from the Doctor's hug and walked back at his boyfriend's side to elbow Ianto's ribs. "We have a lot of news to tell you!"
"Oh, gods." The Doctor said miserably. "Don't tell me you're pregnant."
Jack laughed and shook his head, whilst Ianto plainly glared at the Time Lord. "Why should it be a problem, if Jack was pregnant?"
"Then you are!" The Doctor stated, staring suspiciously at Jack.
"I am not!" The Captain clarified, hoping to shut the argument once and for all. Aside the little interlude at Alice's, he and Ianto had still not discussed the chance of having children, and being him certain to not want any as much as he was certain that his boyfriend would have liked some at some point, he knew he had better save the yelling for after the partnership and deep in the future.
"Oh, well, that's good." The Doctor said, way more relaxed. "We can't have your 51st century genes creating loopholes through the whole fabric of the universe."
His relaxation turned suddenly into confusion as he saw Jack hiding his face behind his hand and Ianto smirking evilly, since they both knew that she was too close to them to not have heard those words.
"I hate you" A firm womanly voice quipped from behind the Captain, eliciting a even smugger smirk from Ianto as Jack plainly swore under his breath.
Jack stifled a nervous laugh to cover up the awkward moment, and moved aside a bit to do proper presentations.
"Doctor, please meet my daughter. Alice Carter. No, she's not Ianto's."
The Doctor stared at the glaring woman with his jaw open, wondering how to save himself from his gaffe.
"Please to meet you! I'm the Doctor!" He chirped happily, offering her his hand to shake even when she just stared at it like it was dirt.
"So, how would I be a loophole?"
"C'mon sweetheart" Jack tried to mediate between the two, caressing his daughter's shoulders lightly. "He doesn't mean any bad. The Doctor is a good friend"
Alice stared suspiciously at her father with both her eyebrows risen. "Whose friend?"
"Jack's." Ianto answered curtly before Jack could play the friendly companion for him too.
Alice stared pleasantly surprised at her father's boyfriend and freed herself from Jack's light grip to take Ianto's arm.
"Then I'm changing father for tonight. See you later, dad" She said with a hint of challenge to her father, dragging the Welshman away.
The Doctor stared at the scene and patted Jack friendly on his shoulder.
"You could lend him to her, you know?" He proposed, seeing Jack's still dumbstruck expression as he saw his daughter shamefully stealing his husband to be. "You would make her happy and when the time comes you will be getting him back anyway"
The Captain glared at him until the Time Lord guessed to have actually said something rude and inappropriate, so the Doctor innocently showed up his hands in surrender. "Ok, sorry. Alien. Don't understand you. I come in peace?"
"Let's go meeting your surprises" Jack told him tiredly, taking him by his arms and pushing him onwards.
The Doctor let Jack lead him around a bit unsure of what surprise he could expect, but soon his eyes lighted up in joy.
"Martha Jones! You did not change at all!" He leaped out of Jack's grasp, hugging her tightly. She held him back with the same strength, smiling widely.
"You changed a lot, though!" Martha told him, taking in his new appearance. "Still chasing adventures in time and space?"
"Obviously! What would I be doing? Marry and take my parents in law across the universes?" The Time Lord answered back with a so fake smile on his lips that both Jack and Martha wondered for a moment whether or not that had been something that the Doctor had actually done recently.
"Good to see you again, Doc" A deep male voice came from behind Martha, making the Doctor stare up over her head to see who he was.
"Ricky!" The Doctor yelled in surprise.
"It's Mickey" Mickey told tiredly to the Doctor, smiling widely all the same.
"Of course is Mickey." The Doctor corrected himself, gesturing friendly towards him. "Mickey Micketty Mickey!"
"You will need to come and see us at home one day!" Martha interrupted them over excitedly. "I can't wait for you to meet my twins!"
"Twins!?" The Doctor stared at her wide eyed and then he focused on Mickey. "You mean that there's a little Ricky walking around the world?"
"Yes, Doctor" Mickey answered him, trying to contain his mirth. "It's actually a little Ricky."
The Doctor stared at both of them with his mouth open for a while before realization dawned on him and he let out a suffocated laugh as he shook his head amused. "Can't believe you actually named one Ricky"
"Well, you know" Martha explained gleefully. "The name Doctor would have been a little too much unusual."
The Doctor stifled an embarrassed laugh and then turned to Jack. "Great, absolutely astonishing… Fantastic I would have said when I met you! Still hardly a surprise, knowing you guys"
"This was the appetizer, the main course has still to come" Jack answered him with a charming smirk as he nodded a little bit further on Martha's left, where another well know woman stared at them in complete shock. As she wondered if it would be a good time for her to join, the Doctor found himself wondering if it would have been for him a good time to run.
"Donna. Guilt. Noble" The Doctor muttered in panic.
Jack, however, pushed the Time Lord towards Donna at the same time as she rushed over them to hug him. The Doctor needed a few moments to actually realize that it was all really happening, but then let himself go and tightened his arms protectively around her, slightly overwhelmed by the overload of mixed feelings he was experiencing.
"You are an asshole, space-boy!" Donna cried in between her tears, and the Time Lord felt himself smiling at her despite his best judgement.
"You being so blunt have a strange effect on this me, you know?" The Doctor countered, not leaving her for a second.
"Oh, you mean it's finally working?" Donna teased him.
They both ended up laughing, until eventually they parted and the Doctor looked at Jack.
"How is this possible? There was no solution"
"We…" Jack tried to explain with nonchalance. "Had a bit of an unconventional problem that ended up getting Donna involved"
"What!?" The Doctor asked worriedly. "When!?"
"The day after you talked with me and Ianto, actually"
"Ooh…" The Doctor realized amazed. "That's why I lost it, for me this is the day after our meeting"
"What?" Jack asked bewildered.
"Well, I wanted to be sure it was this me at your stag party. It had to be this me otherwise it wouldn't have worked. Let's say it's a personal reason that I need… to show in the face… of someone"
The others pretended to accept his explanation and simply nodded, gaining an elated "Good boys" from the Doctor as a thanks.
"So… You remembered everything?" He asked Donna, who was still looking at him disorientated by the changing in appearance.
"Not exactly" Jack explained instead of her. "She completely lost the memories about the stealing of the Earth."
"So why is she here?" The Doctor asked curiously. "You kept in contact nevertheless? You never met before that time"
"I hired her actually." Jack answered proudly.
"You what!?" The Doctor stared at Jack with an unreadable expression on his face and then looked back at Donna. "But when I saw you last time you were getting married!"
"Oh, but I am married! You thought I would stop working after getting hitched?" Donna countered, and then turned behind her. "SHAAAAUUUN! Get your ass over here!"
In few seconds Shaun appeared obediently at his wife's side, offering his hand to the Time Lord with a kind poker face that could rival Ianto's.
"Then you are the famous Doctor. I saw you hanging about sometimes"
The Doctor took his hand and shook it as if he was in a trance, before turning to Donna.
"But… I thought you wanted a family and all those human stuff like that?"
"And I have them" Donna told him with a smile, hugging her husband's arm.
"With Torchwood?"
She nodded, smiling at him as she tightened her hold on her husband.
"It's good not missing something every time something is actually happening, Doctor." Donna explained. "And working here I feel I'm finally useful, that I can make the difference too. I'm finally happy thanks to chance I got to join Torchwood… And especially thanks to you, who first opened my eyes and lead me to them"
The Doctor stared a little more at her and then around himself to look at all his former companions. "You're happy? You all?"
"Of course we are!" Martha told him, taking Mickey by his arm and tugging him closer to her. "It's true that's a bit dangerous sometimes, but someone has to do it or Earth won't save itself. And at the end of the day we can always cuddle close to each other and enjoy our families"
"And another good point of us doing this work is that whenever you need us you know that we will be here" Jack added, stifling a laugh. "We won't be waiting for you anymore, but every one of us will always find enough time for you when you are in need, Doctor"
"I guess I was making matters worse closing up myself on my guilt, wasn't I?" The Doctor said matter-of-factly, staring guiltily down at his shoes.
Jack this time laughed freely and, as soon as he noticed Ianto gravitating back to him, he snatched his boyfriend by his side, dragging him in his arms.
"I told you we just need a hug" Jack told the Doctor, winking at him and tightening his grip on Ianto.
Gwen, who was staring at the scene from afar, noticed that whatever the Time Lord and his companions had been talking about seemed to finally have ended, so she took her chance to get Rhys's hand and drag him to say hi to him too.
"Are we interrupting something? We wanted to say hello too" She said, smiling widely.
Her smile soon deleted the absolute embarrassment the Doctor was feeling, as he reached out to hug her too. "The time displacem- I mean, Gwen, isn't it?"
Gwen let the Doctor's unrelated comment slide away as Jack had instructed her to do before, and hugged him back tightly.
"Yeah, and this is my husband, Rhys"
The Doctor shook his hand and then focused back on Gwen.
"I'm so happy to see you managed to stay alive, too!" He told her honestly, earning a questioning risen eyebrow as an answer.
The Doctor sniggered, not wanting to spoil too much of his own past adventures, and then patted Jack's back friendly. "So, is there someone else you want me to meet or we can finally see you and your boyfriend dancing around with the strippers? I've never been to a stag party!"
"There's another couple of people I want you to meet actually, but this is personal" Jack said slowly. "And for them I'll have to ask a consultation after the party, if it's not too much to ask…"
"Oh, you invited me only because you needed my help?" The Doctor asked suspiciously and Jack frowned.
"When I asked Martha to get you, I still did not know I was going to have this problem." Jack argued and, after scanning the room to see where they were, he gestured to Toshiko and Owen to come over.
As soon as he saw them, the Doctor's jaw dropped in amazement.
"Doctor, allow me to introduce doctor Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato, computer genius."
The names made the Time Lord look abruptly back at his friend. "What have you done now?"
Jack's frown increased even more. "Why do I always have to be responsible for everything?"
Ianto caressed affectionately his chest to calm him down and, much to his credit, the diversion actually succeeded. The Doctor on the other hand simply sighed and smiled awkwardly at Jack.
"So… How did it happen this time?"
"We have no idea." The Captain admitted. "We think we got why they are not properly alive, though, and maybe we also have a solution. The predicament is that the device is still incomplete and we're are at a dead end"
The Doctor nodded absentmindedly as he scanned the two ghosts with his sonic screwdriver.
"I wouldn't mind getting involved" The Doctor stated eventually. "This sounds interesting"
Ianto had to groan at that. "Of course Owen's situation would be interesting, while mine was simply wrong"
Jack tried his best not to laugh and held his lover tighter, leaving a kiss on his temple.
"What, the toy boy is getting jealous?" The Doctor asked sincerely, not understanding all the implications his question could have.
"Toy boy?" Owen asked interested, getting the Time Lord easily excitable attention back to him.
"Yeah, cool nick name isn't it?" The Doctor confirmed enthusiastically.
Martha looked just a bit thoughtful before stating the obvious. "Toy boy? Where does this come from? I think I already heard it referred to Ianto"
"The General." The Doctor explained seriously. "I mean a UNIT General, not a general General."
"And obviously he had to take only the smartest bits out of UNIT." Ianto complained with more than a hint of irritation as Owen burst out into laughter.
"You will become my best friend if you enjoy making fun of the tea boy as much as I do"
"Tea boy?" The Doctor asked confused and a bit surprised before turning to Ianto. "I thought you were an archivist"
"I am an archivist." Ianto argued glaring at both of them. "I'm also on general support duty and I do research too, since I was Torchwood One"
"Oh, you are from One..." The Doctor half remembered and half considered.
"I thought we told you." Ianto countered acidly.
"One more reason to slightly dislike you." The Doctor considered seriously, earning Ianto's honest hate for that.
Jack moved between the Doctor and Ianto gesturing for both of them to calm down.
"Let's leave the complaining to after the party, alright?" He said with a charming smile that had almost no reaction over his friend and his lover. "I think I saw the strippers already warming up"
The girls disappeared in a flash, and after the initial moment of disorientation, their husbands run after them worriedly. Jack laughed at the scene and then motioned for the Doctor and Ianto to follow the same path.
"C'mon Doctor, let me show you how stag parties are made."
T.B.C.