Cali carefully climbed out of the bunk, trying not to wake the boys. She was just about out when an arm snaked around her waist pulling her back down to the bed.
"Where are you going?" Jack whispered into her ear.
"To get to the shower before anyone else. Go back to sleep." She said running her hand through his sleep tousled hair.
"Eh, who needs a hot shower?" He said tightening his grip around her waist.
Cali rolled her eyes, "Jack if you don't stop you're going to wake Ianto up."
"Mmm, I'm already up, and I agree with Jack; who needs a hot shower?" Ianto mumbled against her shoulder.
An hour later all three slowly made their way from the bunk, thoroughly awake and regenerated for the day.
"Now can I take a shower?" she asked sarcastically.
"Mmm, why don't we join you?" Jack said with a smirk.
"Because other people will want to take a shower sometime today." Cali said with a laugh. "Don't you ever stop?" she asked giving his shoulder a playful punch.
"Nope." He said trying to pull her against him again.
Cali laughed pushing at him, "Ianto will you tame this maniac already?"
"That would be like taming a weevil." Ianto said before lifting her out of Jacks arms and tossing her over his shoulder.
"Ooh, I like that view." Jack said moving closer.
"Oh god, will you two put me down?" Cali demanded with a laugh, taking a swat at Ianto's rear.
"Oi, put the girl with a concussion back on her feet." Owen yelled as he exited the Med Bay.
"You heard the Doc, put me on my feet." Ianto gently lowered her to the ground.
"Since when do you listen to Owen?" Jack said as they exited his office.
"When it gets me what I want." She said grinning over her shoulder. Cali stopped with a small smile on her face when she saw that Tosh and Andy where still asleep. Tosh was curled up on the couch and Andy was propped up against it, his head was resting back on the cushion. Her eyes darted over to where Gwen was standing, emotions were washing over her face. They went from shocked to amusement and finally settled on something that closely resembled jealousy. Cali nearly growled at her collogue as she stalked past her heading to the depths of the Hub in search of a hot shower.
When Cali reemerged twenty minutes later, Tosh and Andy had woken up and were helping Gwen and Owen to hide the bedding from the night before in a corner of the board room, as Jack helped Ianto with breakfast. Cali wondered over to the kitchenette, perching herself on the counter.
"Morning." Ianto said handing her her normal fix of hot chocolate with a dash of espresso.
"Mmm," She breathed in the welcoming aroma coming from her mug, "and now it's a good morning."
"What is going on between you and Gwen?" Jack asked turning to look at her.
"What do you mean?" she asked distractedly taking a sip of the liquid gold.
"I mean the tension. There is enough to cut through the cog door and get us all out."
"She made a comment yesterday that pissed me off." She said with a shrug.
"Which was?"
"She started getting all territorial about Andy, demanding to know what was going on between him and Tosh. Frankly I don't think it's any of her God Damn business." Cali replied feeling her eyes go cold.
"I see." Jack said with a sigh, "Cali, Gwen is funny that way about relationships; however one thing I can say is she never ruins a relationship other than her own."
"Yeah well, sorry if I don't want to see Owen get hurt either." Cali said sliding off the table, "I'm heading down to the gym."
"Be careful, you do still have a concussion." Ianto said as she walked out.
"Yes dad." She replied rolling her eyes.
She had just started a sweat breaking pace on one of the tread mills when Tosh came in.
"So I hear you and Gwen are at ends." She said stepping onto the treadmill next to Cali and set it to a brisk walk.
"She sticks her nose where it doesn't belong." Cali considered turning the speed up on the treadmill. Her mother's words were ringing in her ears, 'you aren't running hard enough if you can still talk.'
"She doesn't mean anything by it." Tosh said. "Sometimes when Gwen says something it's because she is trying to understand this world we live in. Even after everything we see, she still believes in the fundamental thought that everything and everyone is good and that there is a clear distinction between right and wrong."
"Yeah I guess you're right." Cali said with a sigh. "It just bugs me is all, must be my strict military upbringing." Cali said sending her friend a smile.
"So you Jack and Ianto seem to be getting pretty domestic." Tosh said with a smile.
"I don't know if you can describe Jack Harkness as domestic."
"You know what I mean, Cal you spend more nights at Ianto's with Jack than you do at the flat."
"No I don't." Cali said, surely she didn't.
"How many days have you spent in your own bed in the last two weeks?" Tosh challenged. It wasn't that she didn't like Cali living with her; she just knew that her friend would be happier if she lived with the two men she loved.
Cali turned the thought over in her head, "Four." She answered realizing that Tosh was right.
"Have you ever thought of just moving in?"
"I don't want to impose." Cali said as she jumped up the treadmill feeling that the tension from stress had left her muscles.
"You wouldn't be imposing, and she does have a point you do spend most nights there." Ianto said from the doorway. He held two water bottles in his hands.
"Yeah?" She said walking over to grab one for herself and tossing the other to Tosh.
"Why not?" He said.
"Okay." She said with a smile before talking a few big gulps from her bottle.
The rest of the day was calm. The team spent most of the morning cleaning up their work stations and catching up on paper work. After lunch Tosh and Ianto wired up a DVD player and a projector while Owen Jack and Andy moved the table to the far side of the board room. Cali, Tosh and Gwen went to retrieve the rest of the bedding from the archives. They spread everything out on the floor of the board room and all settled down to watch the classic movie 'Aliens'. After a picnic style dinner, they all sat around and played board and card games, laughing and joking around. Around one am. Jack, Ianto and Cali made their way down to the bunk, curling around each other before falling into a deep, blissful sleep.
The next morning Ianto woke up before the other two and lay listening to their shallow even breathing. Soon he could hear Jack wake up, his breath caught slightly as he stretched the sleep from his muscles.
"So did she tell you what we talked about yesterday?" Ianto asked.
"No, what?" Jack asked sending him a frown.
"She's going to move in."
"Makes sense, I mean she practically lives there as it is."
"That's what I said." Ianto said with a chuckle.
"Will you two morons shut your yaps?" Cali asked turning to bury her face farther into the pillow.
"Nope time to get up." Jack said landing a light swat on her rump causing her to let out a small yelp before sending him a glare. Soon all three had climbed from the bunk and were ready to start another day locked in the Hub. This day was much like the one before, only this time for about an hour everyone hit the gym and the gun range. Cali could feel the cabin fever filling her friends and was glad that they would all be able to leave that night around seven thirty and for some reason she felt the need to go play in the bay.
"Who wants to grab a pint down at the pub when this bloody place lets us out?" Owen said as they all settled down to watch the second installment of 'Aliens'.
"Sounds good to me." Jack said looking over at Ianto and Cali who both nodded their agreement.
"I'm in." Andy said, glad that the Torchwood team had so readily accepted him into their folds.
"Sure, could be fun." Tosh said with a smile.
The movie ended around six thirty, and the team started gathering the supplies they had used and all helped to bring them back down to where they had been stored. Jack and Owen pushed the table in the board room back into its place. They were all on edge once seven thirty hit, waiting for the systems to come back online and allow them freedom. At 7:45 the entire team had piled into the lift and where on their way up to the main land. As soon as they were outside they all wordlessly agreed that they would rather walk to the Pub than pile into the SUV. That night Cali, Jack and Ianto sat out on the balcony of Ianto's flat and just stared out at the sky.
"You know so many of these stars don't exist in my time." Cali said snuggling back against Ianto who was leaning against Jack. "So many have burned out."
"I know what you mean." Jack said, letting his mind drift to the night sky he used to look at as a young boy.
"And here I was thinking how empty the sky looked here in the city." Ianto said, wondering how he fit in with these two time travelers from the future. Soon they decided that they should move inside, but left the doors to the patio open, allowing the breeze from the bay to blow through the bedroom as they slept.
Cali woke with her head cradled against Jack's chest with Ianto's face buried in her stomach, his arm thrown over her waist and Jack's arm across his back. How could she ever second think waking up like this every morning? She smiles running her fingers lightly through Ianto's tussled hair. He would be asleep for easily another two or three hours, while Jack should be waking up soon. She wasn't sure why, but it seemed like the more time she spent here the less she slept, unless she was hurt.
"You up already?" Jack asked stifling a yawn.
"Yeah, I swear it's like I need to sleep less and less." She whispered.
"I know what you mean." Jack ran his one hand absently along Ianto's spine, his other hand playing with her hair. "Truthfully until I started spending nights with Ianto I only slept maybe 3 hours a week. For some reason though it's like the more time I spend with you humans the more sleep I need." He gave a small chuckle. "You people wear an old man like me out."
"Old man my ass." She said tilting her head to smile up at him. "When did you leave the Boshaen?"
"I was 18 when I joined the Time agency. It would have been right around 5093. I spend a stint with an old partner, technically we were only together for two weeks. It was just my luck that the task was for us to break this time loop. The two of us had to relive these two weeks for what felt like five years… When we got out… well let's just say I'm missing two years' worth of memories. When I had found out they had done this I left, went rogue. Did that for about a year, that's when I met the Doctor and Rose. Then I travelled with them for about a year. I was about 27 when I died. When I woke up I was alone on Satellite Five. Thankfully I was able to tap into the last bits of energy to charge my Vortex Manipulator and after jumping around for a while I was finally able to make it to 1856 I spent some time here, some in the United States. I served in both world wars, but always came back here. About six months ago the Doctor showed up again and I needed answers. So I went with him."
"Did you get any answers?" She asked one hand still playing with Ianto's hair, the other one running a comforting trail up and down the upper arm that was running up and down Ianto's spine.
"Simple answer, nothing. More complex answer is that I have become a near fixed point in space and time, I'll age but very slowly, I can't die, and the Doctor has no idea what so ever." He laid a light kiss on her forehead. "What about you? Lieutenant?"
"I just followed in my mother's footsteps; it's all I wanted to be."
"God the two of us are so out of place," he said with a small chuckle.
"You think." She said rolling her eyes. "Did you ever think about going back?"
"No, there was nothing at home for me, and here I had Ianto and the rest of the team, and now there's you. Why would I want to go back?"
"What about family?" She felt him stiffen for a moment at the question.
"They're gone." He said. "Why didn't you want us to send you back? You obviously still have a family there, and no one can blame you for soldiers dying in combat."
"I won't lie and say I don't miss my family. My parents and sister must be worried, but even if no one there would blame me I would. I do blame myself for their deaths. I can't face my mother knowing that I lead 12 girls to their deaths."
"Their soldiers, it's what they are trained for." He said softly.
"Jack I didn't even kill the Cashiarn you guys did."
"Does it matter?" They laid like that in silence, both contemplating their pasts till the sun broke through over the horizon. They stayed still till they could both feel Ianto starting to stir. When he lifted his sleep filled eyes, he was staring into two sets of smiling eyes, one blue, one green.
After breakfast they decided to head over to Tosh's flat to gather Cali's belongings. On the way back Cali was stretched out across the seat when she noticed they were no longer heading toward the flat.
"Where are we going?" she asked sitting forward in her seat.
"Shopping." Ianto answered.
"For?" Now that she had brought his attention to it Jack also noticed that they were not going the right way.
"Furniture, I do not have enough drawers in the house for all of us, and truthfully a queen sized bed is not meant for three."
"Yan are you sure it's such a good idea to take Jack shopping?"
"What's that mean?" Jack said turning around to face her.
"I mean that you cause enough trouble in the supermarket let alone a furniture store." She said with a smile.
"Do not."
"You do Jack, however I figure we can all be mature about this." Ianto said sending both of them a very pointed look.
So much for maturity, Cali thought as they paid for the new furniture to be delivered that night. They had been in the store for well over two hours, since Jack had decided that if the three of them were going to get a bed, then it had to be sturdy. He then proceeded to shake, jump on, and in some cases hang from, every frame available. Finally they had settled on a large California King size Slay style bed, which was made with gorgeous rough iron script work on both the head and foot board. The next 45 minute task that Jack had demanded was that they find the perfect mattress. To him this meant doing a quick run and jump before landing flat on his back, according to him you could judge everything one needed to know about a mattress from this. Finally with a mattress picked out it was time for Ianto to be picky in picking out dressers for each of them. Luckily his closet was big enough for both him and Jack to hang their stuff up with just enough room for Cali to hang her jeans. They ended up getting two nearly black stained bedside tables, a large eight drawer dresser, an eight drawer negligée chest, a full size mirror, and a bench for the end of the bed, all of which matched.
"I am never going shopping with you two again." Cali said as she slid back into the car.
"Well we have one more stop; we need bedding for this new bed." Ianto said sensibly.
"Great, you two stay in the car this one's mine, Ianto head this address." When they got to the small store Cali ran in, she had been checking out the bedding store for just over a week, and had been planning on ordering a pair of sheets but figured now was as good a time as ever. Quickly she told the sales lady at the counter what she was looking for and was headed back to the car twenty minutes later with a large down comforter, six pillows, and four sets of bedding each of which included a duvet for the comforter, a flat sheet, a fitted sheet, and pillow cases.
"Jeeze, how many sets of sheets did you get?" Jack asked eyes the arm loads of bags Cali was loading into the car.
"Four sets and I also got a new comforter, and each of us two new pillows." She said before shutting the hatch and climbing back in. "I still took less time than the two of you."
"So why did we have to go here?" Ianto asked as he pulled the SUV back on the road and finally headed toward home.
"Because it's the only place in all of Wales that sell silk sheets." Cali said with a smile.
"Did you say silk?" Both men asked.
"Yup," Cali answered with a smile, "It's the one luxury I miss from home."
"Since when did the military provide silk sheets?" Jack asked.
"I didn't say my bunker I said home. We had silk sheets from the time we turned ten." She said remembering the days of her youth.
"You had silk sheets at ten?"
"Well, my mother might have been military but my father was definitely the bread winner, he had his own tech store, he was actually the one who invented the bracelets that I'm wearing here."
"Right so you were a rich military brat." Jack said rolling his eyes.
"Oh shut up, besides, silk can be fun." She said with a wink.