A/N: This chapter is dedicated to WickedWitchoftheSE, as despite having written most of this chapter, their review made me expand on it, just that little bit... And yes reviews do give me happy face... And inspiration for certain lines/scenarios in my story... So please do. Oh, and kudos to anyone who can work out where I've nicked a couple lines from (yes it is Torchwood based).

Chapter 11

Reservations and Revelations

Jack´s thoughts were swimming.

Now what was he supposed to do? Go after Ianto? Stay in the Hub?

Spinning around, he made to walk to his office to find out where the Welshman had gone when he spotted a rather tall, gangly figure situated near the entrance to the cells.

"Guess I walked in at the wrong time, didn´t I?" asked the Doctor timidly.

Jack had no time for this. Sympathy was not what he wanted right now. He needed to get upstairs and was full well intending to tell the Doctor where to shove it (in nicer words, of course) as he stormed by, when he suddenly realised something.

"What, Doctor; what did he say?" demanded Jack, grabbing the other man by the shoulders.

"What?"

"You speak Welsh-"

"Well no, actually I don-" began the Doctor in reply.

Jack cut him off, "but the Tardis translates it for you, though."

"Well-" tried to reason the Doctor, shrugging of Jack's hands.

"Don't try to tell me you don't know exactly what he said. I know what she does, I've travelled with her, remember?" Jack commanded.

The Time Lord's expression switched suddenly from false ignorance to stern.

"It's not my place to say," he stated, with no room to be swayed on the issue.

An animal sound issued from Jack's throat as he spun around in annoyance, back to the direction of his office. Hearing footsteps behind him, he chose to ignore the Doctor following him over to the monitor on his desk.

Before he assessed where the Welshman had made it to, inspiration hit him and Jack pulled up the CCTV from the few minutes before, running it to the point where Ianto had reverted to Welsh.

Accessing a further file, Jack opened the translation programme to run alongside the footage and hit play.

Ianto's voice travelled out in plain English, the only sign the speaker was Welsh was the natural accent Ianto always spoke with.

"Because despite the fact that you-"

The sound suddenly came to an abrupt stop, replaced only by a whirring behind Jack's left ear. The picture continuing on the screen as if someone had merely pressed mute.

Rotating sharply on his heels, Jack glared at the Doctor, once again standing with his Sonic Screwdriver in full view and pointed at the computer.

"What have you done?" he queried sharply.

Smiling compassionately, the Doctor replied, "Deadlocked the sound off... it's not the computer's place to say either, Jack."

Heaving a sigh of both irritation and acceptance, Jack switched the CCTV view over to real time and scanned the Plass for Ianto's form. Quickly finding him not far from the Tourist Information Office and perched next to the railing looking out at the bay, Jack made to follow the Welshman's previous direction out of the Hub.

However, a firm hand on his shoulder prevented him from completing his task once more.

"Now what?" Jack asked quietly, as if considering the prospect he wouldn't be allowed to do anything.

"Let me?" asked the Doctor gently.

Lifting his eyebrow in question, the Doctor just gave him a small smile in return.

"Just let me."

Shaking his head in slight confusion, Jack shrugged briefly and nodded his head as he went to sit back in his desk chair to watch the Time Lord's quickly retreating figure.

Slamming his fists down on the desk, his eye line followed the path of his hands and wandered towards the phone, next to the computer. Giving in, he picked up the receiver and punched in one of only a few memorized numbers.

Phone connecting, an apprehensive and well known, Welsh-lilted "Jack?" was heard through the receiver.

"Yeah it's me," he stated. "Straight to business Gwen, it's over. The 456 are no longer a threat, need you to get back to the Hub. It's paperwork time."

"And Ianto?" prompted Gwen in a manner that sounded as if she was speaking through gritted teeth in barely contained anger.

"He's-" Jack paused, unsure of quite how to go on. "He's fine," he eventually decided on.

"Why the bloody hell didn't you tell me Jack!" Yep. that was anger.

"Everything's been a bit hectic here Gwen – Look, can you girls just get back as soon as possible?"

"I hope you're not referring to my husband as a woman, Harkness. I'll have you know he's all man."

That was better.

Despite the return to normal form, Gwen had picked up on the pauses given by her Captain.

"You sure everything's alright?" she asked tentatively.

Sighing slightly, Jack mumbled, "Peachy," before signing off and hanging up, returning his attention to the monitor of the PC to gaze at the Doctor, fast approaching Ianto's leaning form.

***

"Penny for your thoughts." The Doctor's voice entered into the Welshman's mind, breaking him from his wave entranced state.

Flicking his eyes upwards, Ianto watched the other man walk straight up to him and align his slight body next to his. As he too leant on the rail beside him, he cast his gaze to the sea. Tapping the cigarette end, Ianto let the weighted ash fall into the water below, before taking another brief pull.

"Cheapskate," he said before the exhale. "Never heard of inflation?" Watching as the smoke exited his mouth and mixed with the water vapour cloud of his breath, he noticed the Doctor's lips quirk from the corner of his eye.

"Those things are bad for your health you know? Especially given your... condition." His eyes never met Ianto's, but instead continued to look out upon the horizon, to the sea where it was insistent upon meeting the sky in a darkening grey haze.

Ianto let a small smirk cross his lips that. "I'm fully aware, Doctor." He let the word linger and was grateful to see the other mans smile lift. "It's my first in a long time... You're probably right though," he grudgingly admitted, stumping it out on the rail before throwing it accurately into the cigarette bin near his right side. "Not the best of all circumstances to start it up again. You know, after dying and all."

That gained a kind smile. Ianto hadn't known quite what to expect from the other man, but it wasn't sympathy.

A comfortable silence fell as the two men looked out again towards sky, progressing to night.

"I wanted to talk to you about Jack actually," spoke the Time Lord finally.

Bringing his hand up, Ianto rubbed his palm over his face. He'd been afraid of this. "Look Doctor, I respect what you have to say, but I don't really want to talk about-"

"He hasn't let a lover get as close to him as you have in a long time," cut in the Doctor, completely undiscouraged. "He knows what it does when they fade.. or worse," he continued meeting the younger mans eyes, who was having a difficult job of returning his gaze.

"I once said to him the only person that could ever fully satisfy him was himself."

That certainly earned the scoff of disbelief that it earned from Ianto.

The Doctor gave a small smile in reply, and resumed his speech. "He's proved me wrong. You proved me wrong," pausing, he looked pointedly over at Ianto's disbelieving face.

"It's not that he's too dense to realise that you're hurting, Mr. Jones... he just doesn't really know how to..." the Time Lord trailed off. Talking about relationships was not his strong point. Especially not other peoples. But he started back up again never the less. "Jack isn't unaware of your emotions. He just hides his feelings too well or is afraid of being seen as too overprotective.

"Despite all of the Captain's flirting and innuendo, Jack Harkness doesn't do relationships by halves. You must have realised that." The Doctor's complexion turned mildly pinker as he thought about what he was next to say. "Casual sex is a different matter, but relationships? That's something dear old Harkness takes very seriously. You certainly, for him, fit into the serious category."

At Ianto's eyebrow quirk, the Time Lord cut himself off to ask, "I'm not very good at this, am I?"

The Welshman allowed himself a small smile, before reassuring, "Actually I think you've been a big help."

"Really?" the Doctor looked absolutely gleeful.

Ianto felt the smile grow more and nodded his head in agreement as he turned back to look out to sea once again, the Bay slowly becoming bathed in moonlight.

"Mr. Jones?" asked the Doctor as a form of getting the other man's attention.

"Hmm?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but... You've been given a second chance here, and, to be honest... Neither of you should be allowed to waste it," he stated and looked pointedly passed Ianto's shoulder.

Following his eye line, Ianto's gaze fell directly on the Tourist Information Office door.

***

Jack had given up on the vain attempt to make sense of what Ianto and the Doctor were saying over muted CCTV so had switched off the monitor in its distracting form and had taken to attempting (futilely, it might be added) to get some of the administrative side of things done. And that meant paperwork.

Jack hated paperwork.

Growling to himself, he grabbed the small stack of A4 sheets and forced them rather roughly into the second of his desk drawers before rather violently turning the key.

He could do them later.

Or they would remain in his drawer so long that he'd forget about them and would therefore they would no longer be necessary anyway.

A hesitant knock at his door had his head shooting up to see who the individual was.

Ianto.

Jack's heart raced slightly at seeing him. It always did.

"Ianto. Erm, hi," he said, beginning to manically organise his desk into something that resembled tidiness.

The Welshman seemed to be finding language difficult, which, had the situation been different, Jack would have found amusing given that he'd just demonstrated his use of at least two different ones.

His eyes seemed to be searching for the words to say, and when he found them, they were more uncertain sounding than the Captain had ever heard.

"Can I stay here tonight Jack?" he asked timidly. "With you," he reinforced.

Jack's eyebrows shot up into a sceptical look, disbelief written on his face at the words, unsure he had heard correctly.

Shock filled Ianto's eyes at realisation of what Jack must have thought he was asking.

"No! Not for anything... anything like that," he near exclaimed. "Just... I miss you," he stated, eyes falling to the floor as he let out a tired sigh. "Could you... Can you just hold me?"

A/N: Again, sorry for the slow updates due to my BROKEN LAPTOP! Feel my anger and pain. As I said before, hopefully posts will be more frequent (though probably not quite as fast as this one sadly), and will never again have the same time gap as happened between chapters 9 and 10. Anger and pain. ANGER AND PAIN!