A/N:Okay so this is the first of the brand spanking new chapters! Yay! I'm excited to post the new material, as I think I've said before. So please please PLEASE R&R and tell me what you think.

Thanks to xrainbowraex for the review.

There are some pretty big mood swings in this chapter, but you know how those boys can be.

On with the show...

Telling the Truth, Sort Of

Jack stood under the hot spray of the shower. It had been several days since the Doctor had said he'd take him to Cardiff to tell the team he was leaving. But they had been unable to keep their hands off each other for long enough to find anything that even resembled clothes. That morning (well what passed for morning in the TARDIS) however, Jack had sent the Doctor to the control room and locked himself in the bathroom. He was determined that today they would go to Cardiff and they would confront his team. He had to do this, and every day he put it off it became more and more likely that he'd put it off forever.

He stepped out of the shower, dressed quickly and headed down to the control room.

The Doctor was standing with his back to him, looking at the screen. He was wearing his brown suit with red Converse and his 'brainy specs' perched at the end of his nose. He was humming to himself something that sounded dangerously like 'When a Man Loves a Woman', but Jack didn't get a chance to find out because just then the Doctor called over his shoulder "We're ready to go. What time do you want to go at?"

"The morning after I left. Don't want them to be too worried."

"Are they worriers?" the Doctor asked while starting to enter the co-ordinates.

"They worried last time. Of course I was gone for a few months then." they had been worried and he had felt guilty. But mainly he had just been so happy to see them all again, alive and well. During the year of hell with the Master he had been so worried about them. He couldn't stand the thought of them being tortured or killed because of him.

"A few months?" the Doctor's question broke into his train of thought.

"Erm, yeah. When you left me back it had been a few months."

"Oh Jack, I'm sorry. I meant it to be a few hours. A day at the most. Oh I'm so sorry."

Jack just laughed in response to the Doctor's apologises. "Are you sure you know how to drive this thing, Doc?"

The Doctor turned round, a cheeky grin on his face. "Careful you. If you don't watch it I won't take you anywhere. We'll just stay in the TARDIS and find some other way to amuse ourselves."

Jack matched the Doctor's grin with his own. "You mean I won't be able to go and tell my friends I'm abandoning them? No, anything but that!"

Jack laughed but the Doctor adopted his serious face.

"You don't have to do this now. We can wait."

"No, I have to do it now. If I don't then I never will."

The Doctor just shrugged in response and went back to entering co-ordinates.

He had to tell the Doctor now. There wouldn't be time later and it wouldn't fair to him to find out that way. Ianto's wrath was going to be bad enough without the Doctor's to add to it.

"Doctor, erm, back in Cardiff I was kind of, erm, seeing someone."

The Doctor's movements stilled but he didn't turn to face Jack.

"Who?" his voice was cold, emotionless.

"A man called Ianto Jones. He worked for me. Makes the best damn coffee I've ever tasted. We got together after you left me back in Cardiff after that year, although we had a thing before that." he said it all in a rush, the words tumbling over each other.

"Do you love him?" again it was cold and emotionless. Almost clinical, as if this was all just a routine procedure.

After a long pause Jack said "Yes." Because he did. He couldn't help it. He loved the Doctor, but he loved Ianto as well.

"Is that why you want to go back? For him?" the clinical, emotionlessness was gone. In its place was anger.

"I want to say goodbye to him. I want to say goodbye to my whole team." Jack's own anger started to boil to the surface. "They're my friends! They deserve an explanation at the very least."

"Do you really think it's going to make any difference?"

The Doctor turned and fixed him with a steely glare.

"I've already abandoned them once for you! You want me to that again?!" did the Doctor expect him to give up his whole life? What was the Doctor giving up?

"Well if you love them so much then why are you with me?!" his voice was low and dangerous "Are you just screwing around with me Jack?" without waiting for an answer he turned and started towards the door that lead to the rest of the TARDIS.

"I love you." he whispered. It was the quietness that made the Doctor stop, turn and look Jack in the eye.

What he saw in those eyes made him run to Jack pull him into a tight embrace.

He whispered "I'm sorry." over and over until the words slurred together and became incoherent mumblings.

Why did he keep doing this? Why did his brain keep shutting off? Why did he keep flying into fits of irrational anger? Why did he keep hurting Jack?

Jack held the Doctor close, anger forgotten. The waves of grief radiating off the other man physically hurt. Was it grief for causing Jack pain or something deeper? Jack didn't know but it didn't matter. His Doctor was in pain so his own pain was forgotten. That's how it worked. That's how it's always worked.

When the Doctor seemed calmer Jack pulled away a little. He met Jack's steady gaze with watery eyes.

"Doctor, he's going to hate me." Jack sighed. "They're all going to hate me. I'm abandoning them."

"I don't want you to give up your life, Jack." his voice wavered but he meant it. He didn't want to force Jack to be with him. He wanted what was best for Jack, what would make him happy.

"This is my life. Travelling with you, in the TARDIS. I belong here." He kissed the tip of the Doctor's nose. "But I do care about them. And I know they're going to be angry and upset. I need to know you'll be there beside me. Otherwise I don't know if I'll be able to do it."

The Doctor just nodded, he couldn't think what to say.

"So are we ready to go?"

"Yeah." he moved away from Jack and entered the co-ordinates for Jack's time (well the time he had adopted as his).

In less then a minute they were there. The TARDIS had materialised right next to the water tower, slightly left of where it had landed all those years ago.

Jack beamed as he stepped out into the sunlight plaza. He checked his vortex manipulator just to make sure the Doctor had gotten the date right. Sure enough it was the morning after he had left. In total he had been gone about ten hours.

The Doctor followed him out and locked up the TARDIS with his usual manic energy. Inside he was feeling apprehensive but on the outside he portrayed child-like enthusiasm.

Jack reached out his hand to the Doctor and pulled him onto the paving slab beside him.

"So where's this big, impressive base of yours then?" the Doctor asked, looking around for a skyscraper like Torchwood Tower in London.

Jack grinned and pressed a button on his wrist strap. The paving slab beneath them shuck and started to descend.

The Doctor's eyes widened and Jack rapped and arm around his waist to stop him from falling. The look on his face was priceless. But before he could say anything about it there was a shout of "Jack!" and he looked to see Gwen running towards the lift. This is it, he thought.